


The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

by Cosmic_Fictions



Series: The Knights of Grimm [3]
Category: RWBY, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Action, Adventure, Black Sun, Crime, Epic, F/F, F/M, Firecracker - Freeform, Horror, Ice Berg, M/M, Renora, Romance, Rose Garden, Suspense, Tension, Thriller, arkos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-09-17 14:56:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 61
Words: 510,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16976715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmic_Fictions/pseuds/Cosmic_Fictions
Summary: 5 years have passed since Ruby was saved, and the Grimm have disappeared. Beacon and Mistral are still undergoing repairs but the schools have reopened. After the heroes are called to Vacuo on a mysterious assassination, Jaune becomes even more desperate to find and help Pyrrha to bring her home. Whilst a bigger threat emerges from the shadows where they thought they buried it...





	1. Prologue

Birds peacefully tweet in the trees of mistral twelve years ago. The sun shines bright above the bird as it hops around on the tree branch of which it has made its home. Colourful feathers cover the bird’s body and it looks around, gleefully tweeting as always as it wanders around. It hops off the tree and flutters down towards a little girl who sits beneath the tree and it looks at her. She gasps, her large eyes widen with green irises inside. She has a short red pony tail and adorable plump cheeks. She wears a little dress that is red, similar to her hair and she looks at the bird as it looks at her. Shy, she seems to not be with her friends as she floats a small piece of metal before her.

The girl is Pyrrha Nikos when she was a child.

The bird flutters away however, when there is a crashing sound in the woods and Pyrrha gasps after she hears it. She stands up, scared that it could be a Beowulf or other Creature of Grimm. Her hands are shaking and she watches the bushes of which she heard the crashing sound.

Suddenly something erupts from the trees, another young girl with brown hair, making a squeaking squeal as she leaps out at Pyrrha. Pyrrha screams with fright, staggering back as her friend made her jump. Her friend giggles immensely, her hand on her heart as she steps back, whereas the heart of Pyrrha is beating a million times a minute. “Don’t do that!” Pyrrha begs, breathing erratically to calm herself down, hand pressed against the tree she was sat by.

“Why aren’t you playing with us? Why are you just hanging out by this tree on your own?” Her friend asks Pyrrha with either concern or judgement. It is hard to tell with children, especially for Pyrrha since she has always had self-confidence issues in her life. She holds her pony tail shyly and looks at her sister with puppy eyes.

“I...I just wanted to be alone for a bit...” She timidly says to her friend and her friend looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. But then she shrugs it off and walks closer to her.

“Hey! Guess what we found out about, though?” Her friend asks her and Pyrrha raises her brow curiously.

“What is it?” Pyrrha asks.

“This guy – he lives out in the woods and he is offering to tell people their futures.” The girl explains and Pyrrha still looks a little less ready to be sociable in this sense. She takes a step back and she looks away.

“Um...” Pyrrha nervously says.

“Come on! Don’t you wanna know?” The girl asks her with an excited tone to her voice, bouncing on the spot.

“What – What if I don’t have a good future?” Pyrrha asks her with fear, scared of her own future, a point that no child should usually be afraid of. The girl gives Pyrrha a smile, at the time her friend looked prettier than Pyrrha but that is only due to the amount of makeup she is wearing, and the fact that Pyrrha is wearing none. And she still looks adorable, and she still wears her crest that she wore to this day as well.

“But maybe you could have a great one! Maybe you will marry a handsome young Knight and have his babies! You could be rich!” The girl elatedly says, clearly showing what she wants out of her own future, and it is ironic that the loving a Knight part came about, since she fell in love with Jaune Arc. Not exactly a Knight per say but he is close enough to one. “Or maybe you will have a boring future – you’ll never know until you speak to the guy.” The girl says with a shrug.

Pyrrha, still apprehensive to the idea looks away from her friend and looks up at the little bird that flew down and looked at her. The bird is a little robin and it tweets to her, like she has been given a choice. Meet the Clairvoyant or stay with the Birdie. And unfortunately for the Robin, she gives into Peer Pressure and meets with the man that can tell her what future awaits her. The Robin calls out to her, as if to beg her to stay and not to go. But Pyrrha walks with her friend to meet the Soothsayer.

They both approach a black tent that sits in the middle of the forest on its own. Quite a lonely little location and their other friends are sat outside of the tent with their legs crossed, and twiddling their thumbs. There are candles lit inside of the tent, and she cautiously approaches the tent with fearful eyes. She is scared to know what her future may hold, and she walks closer to the tent. Her friend opens the tent for her and she walks inside, and she gasps from the initial shock of what she sees.

There are skulls laid out everywhere, on tables and on chairs, stacked on top of each other with candles burning beside them. The wax melts down by them and she looks at the Ritual Looking room, and then she spots the Soothsayer sat there in the middle of the tent with his eyes closed. He has a shaven head and short stubble on his face. He wears what appear to be the clothes of a Merchant, yellowish brown hoodie that has a few small holes in it with blue stripes across the sleeves. The hood could be pulled up, but he has it down. He has many pouches of certain valuables tucked away tied and clipped to his belt and hoodie as well, he wears  a set of blue jeans as well, he looks very normal.

But normal is no mere definition of what this monster is.

Pyrrha may not know who he is yet, but she will.

His eyes open and they are dark brown irises, and he smiles when he sees her. “Why hello, my sweet girls...how may I help the two of you?” He asks them with that cunning smile on his face. Her friend pushes Pyrrha closer and she looks back at her with confused eyes. She then looks at him, her hands twiddling together as she looks at the man, and he raises an eyebrow.

“I...um...I would like to hear my future, please.” Pyrrha politely says to the Soothsayer, and he looks at her friend and he snaps his fingers at her, the crack is so loud it makes her jump.

“Leave us.” He orders her and she looks almost insulted, but leaves when he gives her a rather cold and sinister glare. She turns and leaves Pyrrha to be with the man, and he holds his hands out to the pillow that sits before her. “Take a seat, my dear.” The Soothsayer requests with a smile, and she approaches the little pillow and sits on it, crossing her legs and looking at him with shy eyes.

She can hear her friends snickering outside and she sniffles. “Why do you hang out with individuals that make snide comments behind your back?” The Soothsayer asks her with a raised eyebrow, and Pyrrha gasps.

“Huh?”She asks innocently, unaware of their comments.

“Listen to their words, sweetheart.” The Soothsayer whispers and he cups his ear with his hand to make a funnel to focus the sound entering. Pyrrha listens, and it is heartbreaking what she hears them whisper to each other.

“She’s such a freak.” The friend with the brown hair claims about her and a tear ripples from Pyrrha’s eye.

“I know! Why can’t she just hang out with the rest of us?” Her other friend says.

“Don’t let her hear this, imagine how rich we could get from her family.” The brunette whispers. Pyrrha feels completely betrayed, like her whole life is crashing down on her, and she looks at the Soothsayer and he smiles. To her it seems like a kind smile, but in truth it is anything but. With him – it is all about mind games.

“I think you should choose your friends more carefully.” The Soothsayer says to her.

“Will I? Find friends who care?” She asks him with scared eyes. He smiles and he looks at her future and a smirk appears, and yet she still fails to notice the sinister side to this Soothsayer.

“Yes...” He answers. “You will be very successful when you graduate Sanctum, the greatest fighter in your class. In the whole school.” He tells her. “They will even nickname you – the invincible girl.” He continues to inform her and then he moves onto the other information. “You graduate and move on with honours to Beacon Academy, where you will meet people who treat you as a person...and one...you will fall in love with.” He explains and her eyes widen at her happy future, but then he continues on.

“But he does not share the love at first – he is pretty blind to be honest.” He states and it makes her giggle. “There will come a time...” He now says that makes her listen carefully to everything that he says. “...that your beloved will come to you defeated, resigned...find a way to make him feel better.” He says to her and she does not realise at first what that means. However, she will learn in the future, that he is speaking of when she started training with him on the rooftop of their dorm. “There will come a time where you will be heartbroken, but the boy will heal you.” He continues and she wonders of what this boy must look like to mean so much to her. “There will a come a time...where you will make a choice that could change everything you are, think on the consequences but do not act without his opinion.” The Soothsayer continues and she keeps listening. “And finally, there will come a time when you can save your beloved and the rest of the world – do not fear failure.” The Soothsayer explains and she feels compelled to remember those messages for the rest of her life.

Pyrrha stands up and she smiles. “Thank you...” She says, turning and walking away from him. As she leaves, he smirks menacingly as she leaves, his plan having so many individuals and souls involved that he is becoming stronger every day.

 

“Do you believe in destiny?” Pyrrha asks, her voice older now.

“Yes...” Cinder answers coldly.

Twelve years later, Cinder stands above her with her Obsidian Bow drawn back and aimed straight at her sternum, pulled all the way back and ready to launch the arrow into her heart. Cinder glares menacingly, this version of her has been long gone since the events of the Knights of Grimm return.

Cinder releases the bowstring as soon as Ruby jumps up the side of the C.C.T Tower and lands there, her eyes widen with horror when she sees the golden embers leaking from Pyrrha’s heart and she gasps, stammering with pain with widened eyes. All of the messages that the Soothsayer had given her became true, everything he saw was true as well. However she never expected her story to end this way, she always thought she was destined for greater things.

Until it was taken from her.

Pyrrha’s whimpers become weaker and weaker and Cinder holds her cheek, incinerating her body. As soon as her body becomes ashes, her soul bursts from her physical form and shoots away, darting into the sky and vanishing.

Her burning gold soul travels through the realms, the space between spaces as she leaves the land of the living. It keeps on going until the never ending black transforms into a deep red and beneath her is something that has become very intimidating.

The Charred Forest.

That land has been completely destroyed and standing near is what remains of Beacon, the entire place completely destroyed and skeletons lay everywhere. The Moon has been completely decimated by something, just fragments floating away. Whatever this realm is, it is not the one that Pyrrha ever wanted to find herself in. Her soul falls and crashes straight into the ash covered ground with force, sending the soil flying into the sky from the impact and landing on the floor. The explosion of her impact echoes for miles, but there is nobody around to hear it. Just the howls of the damned screaming endlessly. Pyrrha lies in her crater in the foetal position, her armour has been extremely damaged from the impact as it was carried with her, chunks of it falling from her body. She sits up and her eyes widen with horror when she sees her surroundings.

She holds her body with her hands as if she were naked, but she is not, she is just extremely vulnerable and gasps when she feels the pain in her leg and sternum where Cinder’s arrows where lodged. She screams weakly in horror as she looks at the Charred Forest that surrounds her. “Where...Where am I?” She cries out with terror as she looks around the forest with horror, tears streaming from her eyes.

This is not what she imagined the afterlife to be like.

And then, she hears his voice. “Welcome to my realm.” The voice of a menacing man states, and she looks in the direction she heard the voice. A faint red light can be seen, along with a structure. She stands up and walks towards it, with no weapon in her hands either. She walks closer and begins to enter the structure to meet the being that was speaking to her. The building is made of something horrific, the bones of the dead, and inside the walls and supports are constructed entirely of Skulls. Just like the ones that were in his tent all those years ago. “I’ve been waiting for you, Miss Nikos...have you come to seek your destiny?” He asks her curiously and her eyes widen when she recognises him.

“You...are the Soothsayer I spoke to?” She asks with confusion and terror.

“I am Vir Nominis Umbra, or the Soothsayer if you will.” Vir Nominis Umbra says to her, his eyes opening with a faint red glow in his irises as he smirks, looking round with just his eyes as she gets closer. Pyrrha clenches her hand into a fist, becoming angry as she gets closer to Vir Nominis Umbra.

“What is this place?” She demands, shouting at him. He says nothing, the silence fills the room and she gets closer and closer to him. “Answer me!” She shrieks, going to strike him with her fist.

He does not even move, but from the air he forms black smoke that forms into an obsidian spear that shoots straight through her chest. She screams with agony and falls to her knees, she should have been dead, but here...she cannot die again. Only experience the pain of dying, then he turns to her as her chest forms back together as the embers repair the damage. She cries with pain, still feeling it course through her veins. “You dare to strike me?” He questions coldly as he stares down at her with fiery eyes and she whimpers with fear.

A huge Nevermore flies towards her from the red sky and the black smoke erupts from the feathers, shifting into the form of the Knight of Death, landing behind her with force, making the ground shake. “And to answer your question, you are dead and have found yourself – in _my_ domain.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells her and he smiles. “Welcome to the Charred Forest.” He says and she looks at him with horror.

“But...you said I was destined to save the world!” She cries out, and Death kicks her in the back with his metal foot and she cries out with pain. She looks back at him but he grabs her head and twists it round to face Umbra again.

Vir Nominis Umbra kneels down to look her in the eyes and he smiles. “No...I believe I said something along the lines of – _there will come a time when you can save your beloved and the rest of the world – do not fear failure_.” He recites from memory as he looks at the beautiful girl that she has grown up into. She stammers and looks at him with afraid eyes. “Now...I am going to offer you an opportunity you cannot refuse. You are already bound by a contract with me, and thus...you have to serve me...because if you don’t, I will make you wish you could die.” He snarls menacingly. Pyrrha sniffles with fear of the monster that looks at her.

She feels his hand caress her cheek and connect with her chin to lift her face up to face his as he stares at her. “A girl of such perfect kindness...I wonder what cruelty can live within you?” He says with inspiration in his voice as he smiles, and he passes energy into her soul and she cries out with pain. Her eyes flicker from Green to Orange for a moment and she looks at him with confusion. “When we have the Creation Stone...I will grant you life...but in return, you serve me. If you do not – I will kill Jaune Arc in the slowest and most horrific way you can possibly imagine.” He threatens and she is terrified of losing the man she loves with her entire heart.

He caresses her cheek and smirks, working his way down to her chin. “You had control over your life when you were alive – but here? You are mine to command.” He states and she looks down at the floor and starts to sob uncontrollably.

She never wanted this.

But Vir Nominis Umbra...

Has been waiting twelve years to control her.

He smirks menacingly at her, as this is a miniscule step of his master plan.


	2. R.W.B.Y

**Weiss**

A fancy mug sits on a plate with a spoon that is set down next to it with a clink. Her hand moves into the handle and she lifts the mug up to her lips where the warm coffee enters her mouth as she sips. She exhales and looks around, her hair has grown much longer than it was five years ago, and she is now a young woman instead of a teenager. Her large blue eyes scan the area, her white hair still in a tail off centre as usual. Weiss wears a new combat skirt, still white and bluish in colour in places, similar to her old one, but the design is combined with her dress she wore when she was at Atlas. She has an earpiece attached to her ear and she turns it on when she spots a truck pulling up nearby. “They’re here.” Weiss contacts them.

“I see them.” Blake’s voice replies, she is on the roof with her long black hair blowing in the wind. Their voices are still exactly the same as they were when they were younger, she holds Gambol Shroud in her hand, the sash blows in the wind where she stands. She wears the same set of clothes that she wore since the fall of Beacon, since she never grew out of them and they were always comfortable for her to where. Her large amber eyes watch the soldiers from above as they walk around. “Looks like Adam’s information was correct.” Blake says to them all over comms.

“You sound surprised.” Weiss chuckles as she watches the White Fang soldiers as they walk around. There are four of them walking around the truck at the moment with carbines ready in their hands, but no masks on their faces. They are hiding the fact that they are White Fang in order to prevent suspicions. But Blake knows White Fang when she sees them.

“No – just annoyed that the White Fang are this close to Beacon.” Blake explains to her as she watches them walk around. Over their radios they then hear Yang chiming in from where she is. She walks through the crowds with her head down, her blonde hair has been tied back into a ponytail and she wears her Post-Fall of Beacon clothes to blend in with the people around them.

“Anybody tell you that you’re a little paranoid, Blakey?” Yang asks her friend in an almost flirtatious manner.

“Not to my face – why, did you hear something?” Blake asks her, making Yang smile. Yang has collected a few scars from the fight against Tyrian after they saved Tyrian, a scar has split her eyebrow in two after where his blade sliced through her skin and she has a scar on her hand where the blades punctured her palm and the back of her hand. She has a couple others on her body in places that are covered with her clothes. She gets close and Ember Celica is not extended as of yet, just in their bracelet form. She crosses her arms and stands against a wall as she watches the White Fang militants as they walk around. But as they are joking around, they then hear their leader’s voice chiming in as well.

“Come on guys...let’s focus. If Adam asked us to help him stop these guys, then that means that the Lieutenant must be with them. If we can capture him then we can interrogate him.” Ruby explains as she stands inside of one of the buildings, looking down at the scene with her single eye. She has made herself a brand new set of clothing, one that is very different to what she wore originally. She still has her red hood and cape as she always did, however she has completely ditched the Combat Skirt and replaced it with woven pieces of armour that cover her waist and legs. Her clothes are still red and black as they always were, she wears gloves, ones that only cover her trigger finger and that is it. She also has a brand new eye patch that she has designed herself to make it be a part of her instead of a hindrance. She has printed her Rose Symbol onto the black eye patch that covers her eye; the scars that move across the side of her head where the arrow fragmented have faded slightly compared to when they were fresher. She has some burn scars on her neck and her left arm after their home was blown up during the fight against Tyrian.

Her hair has been grown out as well, much longer than it used to be. She has tied part of it up and let the tail sit on her shoulder, and she looks very beautiful with her hair like that. She also has a ring on her finger, not one of marriage or engagement, but it still suits her a lot. She also now wears a necklace around her neck that she holds very dear to her. “Don’t worry, Rubes, we’ve got this.” Yang promises as she looks up at the building that she is stood inside of. Ruby spots something that catches her attention; the Soldiers are doing something that is strange.

They are not moving, just stood by the truck and nothing is happening. Her eyebrows furrow and she narrows her eyes. “Blake...can you get a better angle on the truck, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Ruby asks her, and Blake nods.

On the rooftop, Blake walks back a couple steps and she sprints at full speed across the roof and jumps across the open gap of the street. Blake sails over the soldiers and they do not even notice her, she lands on the other rooftop silently, like a cat. She places her hand on the tiles as she looks down at the ground. She peers down and her eyes widen with shock.

There is nobody inside the truck.

“Ruby...it’s a decoy, Mazen isn’t here.” Blake tells her, and Ruby narrows her eye as she looks around to figure out where they could have gone. Weiss stands up, leaving her coffee where she was drinking it.

“Then where is he?” Weiss realises.

Blake turns as her ears flick up after hearing something in the distance. A distant crashing sound of something being smashed out of the way.

 

**Mazen**

Outside of a large bank, named the Brimstone Banking Union, there is a security officer sat down at his seat with his gun on the table. The Brimstone Banking Union was set up at Vale and Mistral, ordered by President Thaddeus Brimstone to provide as many funds to the cities as they can to help them rebuild. Alongside the valuables that were taken from the Volcanic Chain Isles before they went up in flames.

Sun and Neptune were some of the culprits, luckily their greediness helped the two cities rebuild.

The Officer sighs as he sits there, bored out of his mind. He has a plastic cup of coffee in his hand, taking a hefty swig of the hot coffee inside and he exhales with appreciation. The steam trailing from the luxurious drink in his hand, the warmth from the coffee pressing into the palm of his hand and into his pores. His eyes turn when hearing the distant rumbling growl of a truck getting closer and closer. Directly ahead, across the road from him, is a huge Garbage Truck, smashing other cars out of the way, not stopping as it storms towards the bank. Horns trumpeting as they smash through parked cars in the street towards it. The Officer gasps and he ducks down to take cover as the Garbage truck shatters the wooden bar that is designed to urge drivers from driving through. Triangular shards of wood fly and spin in the air, the wooden blocker falling onto the road and the truck continues on. Two others appear round the corner and they approach the three entrances of the triangular building.

The three Garbage Trucks slow down and then they reverse into the doors, breaking them down upon impact. The windows built into the exterior of the structure shatter into little pieces, bouncing and sliding across the floor. The Trucks back into the building and they keep the entrances blocked so then no police can get inside. The doors then open, and the White Fang Soldiers all exit the trucks.

Some of the soldiers are carrying Assault Rifles, switching the safety off and opening fire at the guards inside. The civilians trapped inside scream in terror, both Faunus and Human, their heads lowering down from the gunfire that darts from the muzzles of their guns, shattering the ceiling, dropping chunks of concrete from the ceiling, one of them points his rifle directly at the beautiful chandelier that hangs from the ceiling with a golden light glowing with luminous brightness from it. One of the soldiers fires a quick burst of four bullets from his fully automatic assault rifle into the chest of a security guard. The guard screams in pain, falling to the floor, blood pouring from the holes punctured through his body, bleeding over the marble floor. “Hands up! Heads down!” One of the White Fang Robbers clamour, aiming his rifle at the civilians to get them all on the floor.

A White Fang Robber approaches the bullet proof glass, staring at the woman behind it. “Open up or the kid gets it!” He shouts, pressing the barrel of his rifle against the side of the little boy’s head. The threat of the man shooting a child in the head gets to the person behind the glass, and she opens the door for him. “That’s good.” He says maniacally, pushing the kid forward.

The Garbage Truck doors open, and the drivers jump out from the truck and they make their way inside. The ones who have already gotten inside were holding onto the back, in an area where the impact would not harm them. The other soldiers make their way inside. And then one of the side doors opens up and he jumps out. Tattoos cover his left arm that holds the Chainsword that he has become famed for using. His face still hidden behind his mask, he climbs across the rubble of the wall that collapsed and he jumps inside of the bank, activating the Chainsword that roars to life. The hostages scream and holler with terror when they see the White Fang Lieutenant walking past them, the Chainsword’s Blade active constantly. A Guard aims his gun at Mazen, but he meets a grim fate. Mazen swings one across the Guard’s arm and cuts his arm clean off, a fountain of red blood sprays before him and he swings again to finish the guy off.

The Guard crumples to the floor, his head falling from his shoulders. The civilians scream in horror and Mazen walks towards the Vault Door that is hidden from them. They walk past the dead Guards and there is a soldier that has taken a familiar piece of equipment. Stolen from the Acolytes of Lien, a White Fang soldier puts on the Tremor Bracers, and he activates them. Blue Dust charges through the pistons and the soldier stands up, struggling to lift the Tremor Bracers and he stands before the Vault Door.

He slams the Bracer into the door; the piston shoots forward and slams into the thick metal, forging one almighty bang that makes the entire Bank shake. The hostages jump every time they hear the thump, over and over as they try to enter.

There are some soldiers inside of the main Bank Area with the civilians, guns trained on them.

They have no idea that Team R.W.B.Y is headed straight for them.

And they are in for an _Ass-Whooping._

 

**Blake**

The Feline Girl leaps and catches onto the side of the Bank’s wall, holding onto the brickwork that she can climb upon. She takes a quick pull on the brick to make sure that the brick does not come loose and send her plummeting down to the bottom of the street below her. She pushes her black hair from her eyes and she peers through one of the windows that she can see. She moves her leg out of the view of the White Fang Militants inside and she holds Gambol Shroud’s Handgun attachment in her hand, the cable blowing in the wind behind her. She turns on her radio, the rest of her team are nearby, waiting to strike. They have become far more methodical in their missions than they used to. “Five White Fang soldiers inside, all armed with rifles.” Blake reports to them.

“How many hostages?” Yang asks in a quiet voice. Yang stands behind a parked car, her head down and Ember Celica extended to fire at any time. Ruby walks mysteriously through the crowd with her hood pulled over her head, whilst Weiss has Myrtenaster at the ready as she stands behind the bank, waiting for the prime opportunity. Blake peers in, using her Grappling Hook to lower herself and to hang from. Blake counts the hostages that have been lined up by the White Fang, their hands are behind their heads. The Soldiers take zip ties and they restrain their arms and legs with them, and there are two children inside. Both young boys, perhaps twins, they both have short brown hair and appear to be Faunus, due to the dog ears that they have. Their father is there as well, a Dog Faunus just like them.

Blake finally comes to a calculation. “Ten Hostages, Human and Faunus. Two children are inside as well.” Blake tells them from what she can see, and Yang’s eyes widen with fear. She hates it whenever the robbers get kids involved, meaning they need to be extra careful to not spook them.

“Any way inside that is – discrete?” Weiss asks her, and Blake looks around to find a way in. Her eyes widen and she smiles with success when she finds the opening to the ventilation shaft that runs through the ceiling of the place. However there is no way in hell that all four of them will be able to go through the vents without arousing suspicion. She looks over at where she can see Yang as she speaks quietly.

“There is a Ventilation Pipe on the roof, I will go inside and open an entrance for you guys.” Blake whispers, on her belt are some weapons that the Architect managed to make for them. Similar to the explosives used on the Volcanic Chain Isles against the Knights of Grimm, very explosive, however these charges are smaller. She can use it to blow up one of the trucks and push it out of the way from the blast. That will make an opening for the rest of Team R.W.B.Y to get inside and free the rest of the hostages.

“You’ll be going alone?” Weiss questions her decision with concern.

“No, it’s a good plan. Blake’s the quietest of us all, she is a cat girl remember?” Ruby explains, she may have changed a lot from her time in the custody of Tyrian Callows, but luckily her sense of humour has not changed, just her innocence. Blake begins to climb up the side of the building, reaching up to different pieces of brickwork to pull her light body up. She jumps upwards and catches onto a pipe that runs across the side and she pulls herself up. The four of them have been able to work out much better than they could have done before with Beacon and Mistral in shambles, but now they have the time and the effort to make their bodies as fit as they can. Blake’s upper body strength has been improved immensely; she can climb up the buildings faster than ever before. Weiss can now fight for longer without falling to fatigue thanks to some of the training that she has been given by the more skilled Huntsmen and her sister. Yang has been working out much more, to make her body more muscular as she fights and is able to hold her own without the issue of her semblance being her only fallback. She learned that she needs to get stronger to fight her foes, after facing Tyrian and the Spectre; she was injured badly after they overpowered her with their own strength. She cannot rely on her cybernetic arm and her semblance all the time; otherwise they could beat and kill her. And Ruby has been building on her fitness, mainly now that she is no longer suffering from malnutrition after the lack of good food she had to experience in the custody of Salem and her people, she was far less strong than she used to. Along with taking part in all of her team’s fitness sessions, she wants to be as strong as she can. Doing so has made her grow taller as well in the process, Yang still makes her look tiny, but that is not the biggest issue.

Blake jumps up and she grabs onto the edge of the roof, hauling her body up there and she crawls atop the roof, rolling onto the gravel on the roof. She sighs with relief, now she is on some sort of solid ground instead of hanging onto the roof. She sits up and looks at the Air Conditioning Unit, the roar that thing is making all the time will drown out the sound of her movements as she gets inside of the vents. She searches and searches for the grey tube and then her feline eyes widen with joy when she spots it. “Bingo.” She quietly says, sliding inside of it and she slows to a halt, keeping her legs spread out so then her weight is not directed to the centre of her body. She crawls silently through the vents, making the slightest bumping sound as she moves.

Blake keeps moving onward and she approaches a grate beneath her, one that she can hear the conversations of the White Fang inside. She detaches the grate slowly and carefully as she moves it aside for her to drop down.  She looks down at the floor; there is a perfect drop area for her to take out a soldier silently. The sirens of the police are getting closer and closer. The alarms are constantly blaring, which also gives her the cover that she needs. There is a soldier stood on the other side of a counter with his rifle in his hands, he is not facing the side where she will drop down, but one of the soldiers is speaking to him. He will spot her, and her cover will be blown and they will kill the hostages faster than she can say _Professor Port!_ She listens to the conversation between the two soldiers carefully; they could say something that is important.

The soldier sighs, leaning against the wall and he starts to smoke a cigarette in there, unlike Mazen, the soldiers are still only wearing masks that cover half of their faces opposed to the whole face. “Remember the old days? When we used to work for that Human Guy?” The soldier asks him with a sigh, shrugging his shoulders as he stands there. The other soldier chuckles, his shoulders bounce as he laughs.

“Torchwick? Yeah...I remember that scumbag.” He remembers with a laugh. “He called us animals and he wanted our help...wasn’t the brightest bulb.” The soldier states as he stands there, a good thing that Ruby wasn’t there otherwise he would have heard that.

“Hey, Perry! The Boss needs those bags now!” A soldier from the room with the vault calls. Perry, the same White Fang soldier who wore the glasses _over_ his mask sighs and he crushes his cigarette on the floor.

“Coming!” Perry calls to the White Fang soldier, and he leaves that soldier on his own. That leaves only four soldiers inside of there for now, enough for each of them to take out, unless Blake incapacitates all of them before Team R.W.B.Y even get inside. Blake drops down behind the soldier, landing silently behind him. She grabs him, covering his mouth with her hand and pulls him over the counter and slams him down into the floor with force. The White Fang militant screams as he is pulled, but his wails are muffled by her hand and she holds him down behind the cover, slowly knocking him unconscious. She looks around to make sure that none of the other soldiers heard him, and she holds him there until he quits struggling.

Eventually the White Fang Soldier falls unconscious and he drops his rifle. She leaves his body behind the counter and she takes the explosive from her belt and holds it in her hand. She looks at the centre doorway that the Garbage Truck had crashed into. The police have arrived as well, sirens blaring constantly and the officers emerge from their cars, aiming their handguns at the doors as they prepare to enter. But then Yang and Weiss emerge with Ruby, holding their hands up to lower their guns. “Stand down, we’ve got this. Once our teammate opens the doors, we’re gonna secure the hostages and get the leader.” Ruby assures as she stands there.

She stands tall, her long hair blowing in the wind as she pulls her hood back and lets her new hairstyle blow. Her hair suits her perfectly, showing that she has grown up as well. Ruby reaches back to the back of her new outfit, since the old one was burned beyond repair after the battle against Tyrian. Weiss points Myrtenaster forward, waiting for their opening and Yang has Ember Celica at the ready, her blonde ponytail blows in the wind as she stands there.

Blake presses the activation button on her explosive and she throws it towards the Garbage Truck. One of the White Fang Militants inside turns his head when he hears the metallic tapping as it rolls towards the truck. He looks at the explosive, without realising what it is, far away from him and the hostages. He realises too late, and the explosive detonates and blows the Garbage Truck to little pieces. The truck is thrown up in the air and slams down, not completely out of the way, but enough for Team R.W.B.Y to rush in. Blake vaults over the counter and she kicks one of the other soldiers in the head, making him stagger back from the impact of her heels.

The White Fang stagger with shock; they were not ready for Huntsmen to be on them. They all load their rifles and they open fire at them. Weiss forms a protective barrier with her Glyphs that protects the team, and then a burst of Petals erupt out when the soldier holds off on the shooting. Ruby returns back to her human form and she slashes her brand new Crescent Rose across his chest. The soldier screams, falling onto his back. The new Crescent Rose is incredible, after the old one was broken in half; the new one is made of much stronger metals that can survive explosions such as that.

Yang kicks one of the White Fang soldiers in the leg and he stumbles. She then punches him up the jaw that sends him flying up into the air with a squeal. She looks at him as he falls and she kisses her hand and blows it to him. Her hand that blows to him turns into a fist and she punches him straight in the face, so hard that the marble he crashes into shatters like glass, leaving him in a crater that he has fallen into. Yang stands above him with a smile and she puts her hand on her hip, winking at him. “Sorry, boy-o, already got a boyfriend.” She says to him, and Weiss darts straight past her and slams Myrtenaster into the chest of the fourth of the soldiers inside, sending him flying back. He crashes against the wall, slowly peeling off like a cartoon and onto the ground.

Ruby turns and aims her sniper rifle as Perry returns. He whistles to himself, utterly unaware of what just happened and he stops like a deer in headlights. The whole of Team R.W.B.Y point their weapons at him and he just drops his rifle as he looks at them, frozen. He holds his hands above his head and he walks to the side, sitting down. Yang smirks. “Good move.” Yang says as she nods her head with a smile.

Ruby walks towards him and she crouches down, her long hair is on the same side of her eye patch and some of her black and red hair droops over the eye patch. She looks right at Perry and she raises her eyebrow at him. “Hello again...you were the one that punched me in the face back at Mountain Glenn, weren’t you?” Ruby remembers, when she fell in there all those years ago during Roman’s plan to lure the Grimm to Vale. She hears the spirit of Roman walk around her, giggling as he stands with her. She has had to put up with Roman’s spirit for five years.

Five...

...Years...

It is a surprise she has not gone insane from all his comments. “Oh yeah! It’s good ol’ Perry!” Roman laughs, crouching down beside Ruby, for only she knows that he is there right now. The others however do know of the fact that his soul has been bound with Ruby’s, she has just learned to get used to the crap that comes out of his mouth. Perry looks quite afraid as she says that to him and she does not look as sweet as she used to. She may look very beautiful, but she is not the lovely little girl she used to be. She has become quite cold after everything that happened with Tyrian five years ago, she will be lovely to the good and her friends...

...but to her foes...

...they will learn to fear what she has become. And Perry seems to fear her quite a lot right now. Roman leans over to her ear with a smirk on his face. “You should kill him for when he hit you, Ruby.” He whispers to her, trying to get her to do the worst things imaginable. He stands up and points Melodic Cudgel at Perry’s head and he shoots, obviously nothing happens but the imagery is enough.

However, Ruby is not a murderer. She might have changed after what happened with Tyrian, but she will never let Tyrian’s efforts be successful, because then he will live on in her. She sighs and she stands back up, looking down at Perry. “Where is Mazen?” She questions.

“Oh, Ruby! That was the perfect opportunity to make one of those pieces of art with paint! But the paint would be his blood!” He laughs maniacally as he walks around. Ruby looks at Torchwick, but suddenly the Tremor Bracer is thrust straight at her.

“Right here!” Mazen roars as he slams the Tremor Gauntlet right into her chest, the impact creates a shockwave that throws Ruby back and straight through the wall. The concrete wall ruptures into small chunks of rubble that crumble into smaller remains. Silt and mortar trail from Ruby’s body as she is thrown and lands on the marble floor. She rolls across the floor and groans, quickly checking the new Aura Bracelet Reader that has been made for Huntsmen and Huntresses. Hers has dropped a little bit from the Tremor Gauntlet and she sighs with annoyance.

“Damn you, Roman.” She sighs, since he hid her enemy from hitting her at the time.

“Ruby!” Yang yells as she sees her sister launched through a wall. She then looks at Mazen as he stands there, he has attached one of the Tremor Gauntlets to his free hand and he holds his Chainsword in the other hand. He laughs menacingly and swings his Chainsword straight at them. Blake jumps in front and she holds the blade back with Gambol Shroud, being pushed down to her knee.

Yang looks back at the Police that are getting the Civilians out of there. “Get them out of here!” Yang yells, spinning round and punching Mazen across the face with her cybernetic hand. The huge White Fang Man staggers back and he growls with rage, attacking fast and hard, grunting with every swing he gives, slashing straight at them. They hop back on their toes to avoid the Chainsword’s blades as it growls. He then slams his fist into the ground, creating a shockwave that cracks the marble ground.

Blake forms her Shadow Clone form, but she uses an Earth Dust canister to form her shadow in the shape and consistency of earth, his blade lodges into it and he yells with anger. Weiss bounces into the air, using her glyph to propel herself into the air. She forms another and shoots down towards him, slashing straight at him with Myrtenaster. He glares at her and puts his shoulder pauldron towards her blade, and she scrapes across it, sparks erupt out from it. Ruby erupts from the rubble into her Petal Dash Form, rushing towards him and she slashes him around ten times in a spinning attack with Crescent Rose. She cuts his aura down efficiently by doing that and he staggers backwards, staring at her. Ruby lands and she stares at him. “Stand down, Mazen. You’re coming with us.” Ruby states.

Mazen laughs stridently behind his mask as he stands there, and he stares at them. “Well – since you asked so nicely.” Mazen chuckles, slashing straight at her. Ruby rolls backwards and Black throws her Grappling Hook towards Mazen. The hook wraps round his leg and she pulls him towards her with all her might. Mazen grunts and Weiss creates a glyph for Yang to jump onto. She jumps on it and like a trampoline; she flies high into the air. With the light from the chandeliers above her, she looks like an angel that falls from the sky. Except the angel has the biggest grin on her face and her fist clenched as she falls towards Mazen.

Yang falls towards Mazen and with all her might she slams her fist into his face and smashes him into the marble so hard it all shatters, the windows erupt into shards as well. “Booyah!” Yang cheers with pride, her voice seems to echo endlessly after she took him down.

Mazen groans, his aura has been annihilated from that, amazing that it did not knock him unconscious. He tries to get up, but he is so dazed he can barely move. The two other Soldiers he brought with him run round the corner with the bags of lien, meeting the eyes of Team R.W.B.Y who stand by their near incapacitated leader. He looks at them with what could possibly be described as disbelief at how frozen they are. “What are you waiting for? Shoot them!” Mazen roars.

The soldiers drop their guns and hold their hands above their head and Team R.W.B.Y smile at their cooperation. He looks at them with bewilderment.  “What are you doing?” He questions with anger in his voice, one of the White Fang Soldiers looks at him.

“Dude, I’ve got kids!” One of the White Fang Militants says to Mazen.

“Yeah! I ain’t dying for this crap!” The other soldier agrees, nodding his head. Mazen sighs with annoyance, rolling onto his back.

“You promise them a good pay and they bail on you – typical.” Mazen sighs. The police enter and they yell at the White Fang.

“On your knees!” The Police Officers roar and the three remaining conscious soldiers do as their told, whereas the medics take the injured ones to the hospital to make sure that they don’t just die. One of them approaches Mazen but Yang holds her hand out.

“We’ll take Mazen, he’s the reason we came.” Yang tells the Police Officer and he raises an eyebrow.

“But they’re criminals; we’re supposed to take them in.” One of the Police Officers says to her.

“We have some questions for him at Beacon Academy, then you can have him.” Ruby tells him and the officers back down eventually. Blake looks down at Mazen who lays there, he is still conscious and she does not entirely feel comfortable with that. She swings her foot into the side of his head so hard that it finishes him off and knocks him out.

“Come on, let’s call a bullhead. I’m not carrying this guy all the way there.” Yang tells them as she looks at the body.

 

Some time passes as the Bullhead arrives to pick them up and return them all to Beacon with their prisoner. They have managed to drag Mazen’s sleeping body outside and Yang is sat on him whilst they wait, eating an apple as she sits there. Blake is the first to spot the Bullhead as it approaches them. The thrusters roar as it gets closer, turning and decelerating as it descends before them. The downdraft blows dust from the road and stood aboard the Bullhead is Penny. She smiles and waves to them, nearly bouncing on her toes. Ruby smiles and waves to her. Yang and Blake both pick the massive guy up as they carry him onto the Bullhead. “Gods...this guy needs to lose a few pounds!” Yang states as she and Blake carry him aboard. They set him down and they all clamber inside, and the vessel takes off.

“How did it go?” Penny asks them gleefully, and Weiss just points at the unconscious body of Mazen at their feet. She looks at him and then at her. “Went well I guess?” Penny presumes and Blake laughs a little as she sits down.

“Yeah, unfortunately a few Security Guards were killed, though.” Ruby sighs as she sits down. The cockpit opens a man approaches her, and her heart warms when she sees him. Still wearing his open white shirt, messy blonde hair and his blonde tail flicks up slightly when he looks at her. He has defined his body much more, and is happier to show it off again as well. He looks at his girlfriend with a smile.

“Come here.” Sun says and she immediately wraps her arms around him and gives him a kiss, he holds her by the waist as she kisses him. She buries her head into his chest as she holds onto him. Yang bumps her little sister’s shoulder and she looks at her.

“Hey.” Yang whispers to her, and Ruby raises an eyebrow. “You can’t save everyone, and they knew the risks when they signed up to be Security Guards.” Yang says to her, and Ruby sighs, nodding her head.

“When did you get back?” Blake asks Sun, since he, Oscar and Neptune went on a Contract Mission after they heard about a Grimm that was living somewhere in the mountains, stealing and eating livestock from the farms. Since Grimm have become so rare nowadays after everything that happened on the Volcanic Chain Isles, the Grimm have become monsters pinned by contracts for pay.

“Just now, actually. Neptune, Oscar and I returned from the mountains, went to help the teachers rebuild the Mess Hall.” Sun explains, pointing back with his thumb at where Beacon is. Ruby, for the first time in quite a while, shows excitement.

“Was there actually a Manticore Grimm up there?” She asks with amazement.

“Oh yeah, he was a pain to take down as well.” Sun explains. Weiss and Ruby look concerned for their partners as well, despite that he just said that they returned, they want to hear him say it, and he figures that out pretty fast. “Don’t worry, Oscar and Neptune are fine. I thought I’d accompany Penny in picking you guys up. Her memory is getting better, be even better if our Trader brought some decent stuff back with him.” Sun sighs as he says that, since a Trader that has been helping them rebuild at Beacon is somewhat...

...annoying.

Ruby sits there and she looks at her scroll and at something she made for commemoration, she does not play it but remembers what she recorded herself saying.

 

“It’s been five years since the death of Tyrian Callows, since everything that happened on the Volcanic Chain Isles...five long years. For a lot of it, I didn’t really know what to do with myself, I was injured and had no weapon. My clothes were destroyed, but my team helped my sister and I recover. They helped me make my new weapon and clothes, Weiss insisted that I should keep the skirt, but Yang and Blake thought it was a bad idea. So at the end of the day, she was outvoted.”

“The Grimm have vanished, in one moment they all vanished from the cities that they took over. The attacks on the villages outside of the Kingdoms ended as well, the Knights of Grimm have not been seen since. The Acolytes of Lien and the White Fang are the current threat, but I know better. The Grimm are still out there, they appear every now and then, attacking people on the road, so we are paid in contracts to kill them. Something is coming, I just know...”

“But with the Grimm gone, we have been rebuilding what we lost. Beacon is now operational again, Haven is nearly there. Haven suffered so much more damage than Beacon did, it might take a few more years before that school is back in operation. The White Fang are going through some troubled times at the moment, with Adam and Sienna Khan trying to bring it back to its former glory, the Albain Brothers are still holding many loyalists by their side.”

“I’m worried about the way things have been going at the moment...people are getting too comfortable. I’ve heard people in Atlas believing that the war is over and done with. That the Grimm are gone for good and we are at peace...I fear that the President is starting to think this way. Ever since he heard the reports of what the Knights of Grimm were capable of, he became terrified. But we know better...”

“...they are just plotting their next move.”


	3. Pursuing the Tracks

**Jaune**

The wind blows gently through the forest that they are inside of right now.

His blue irises watch his target with pure focus, holding Crocea Mors upwards, and his shield up as well. He keeps his front foot forward and grip tight on his sword. He waits, and then his target strikes. Lash Equinox clangs right against his blade with a metallic twang, and he deflects the sword, taking a step back. Kassius stands there and he laughs, sparring with him so then he can still train. Kassius runs and he jumps in the air, slashing with both blades at Jaune, and he holds his shield up to protect himself from the attack. Sparks erupt from the impact of Lash Equinox’s blades slashing across the white and golden markings on the shield. Jaune swings at Kassius and he holds his Cybernetic Forearm up to stop the blade from hitting him. Sparks erupt from the contact of his sword hitting the blade and Kassius smirks, Jaune smirks back. Jaune has learned a few things, and he rushes forward to Kassius and he pushes him back with his shield. Kassius pushes his feet into the ground as he is sent back from him.

The soil tears up from under his feet and he spins round with both swords and slashes straight at Jaune. Jaune deflects them with his sword, keeping his legs spread out and body low to the ground, just as Pyrrha taught him. Kassius goes to shoot him with Vulcan Nox, his Bracers that he based off Ember Celica, and he fires them at Jaune. Jaune lifts his shield up, the bullets bounce off the tough steel and Jaune lowers his shield as he looks at Kassius. His target spins his swords through his fingers and sprints at Jaune again, bringing his left sword down with force and then swinging straight up with the other afterwards. Jaune blocks the left sword with his shield and hits the right with Crocea Mors. He then spins round and swings towards Kassius’ neck, stopping before he could actually harm him.

They both stand motionlessly as they look at each other, then they both start laughing to each other. “Nicely done...” Kassius compliments with a smile. “But...” Jaune then realises that even though he did manage to beat Kassius, he would have still been taken down. Jaune looks down at his belly and sees he is pointing Lash Equinox at his belly. “Still haven’t learned to stay aware of your enemy’s moves.” Kassius points out and Jaune sighs.

“Damn it...” Jaune sighs, lowering Crocea Mors from Kassius’ neck and he sheathes the sword into his sheath as the shield collapses. Kassius flicks his wrists downwards and the blades of Lash Equinox fold back away into the hilt, he attaches them back to his magnetic strips of metal on his legs. He walks up to Jaune and he pats his shoulder with a smile.

“You have improved immensely, pal. Just wait till we find Pyrrha, show her what you’ve learned.” Kassius says to him as he walks with Jaune, back to where Ren and Nora are at currently. Jaune smiles and he nods his head, but he also sighs as well.

“That is if we ever find her.” He sadly says, looking down at the floor.

“We will.” Kassius promises.

Team J.N.R and Kassius have been searching for Pyrrha for around five years at this point, they have been out here for a month at most without seeing anyone at Beacon. The team are nearby the area, however, in the forests of Vale after hearing a tip that somebody saw Pyrrha in this sector. Why? They have no idea exactly or what she was even doing all the way out here. They have not seen her since she left the Volcanic Chain Isles. They have set their little camp up for the night in an Ancient Arkhoni Structure, seems to be what was once used as an arena. Most of it has collapsed over the years, the Amphitheatre is much smaller than it once used to be, the towers collapsed and the vegetation has consumed it. Areas of the structure are still visible, including a small building, one that they have set their camp up inside of. The sun is rising back up over the horizon, Kassius and Jaune were sparring all night, whereas Nora and Ren have been asleep. Nora is snuggled up to Ren, still asleep, holding his hand gently. Ren has cut his hair down and returned it back to the length and style it used to be when they all first met him at Beacon, tied up into a tail. Nora’s orange hair is still the same style and length, funnily enough she has not changed one bit.

Kassius walks inside and he approaches the campfire. He stamps on the flames to put it out, smoke rising into the sky and he kicks dirt onto the charred logs that they burned. Nora slowly opens her eyes and she looks at Kassius as he stands there, Jaune walking into the room as well. She yawns loudly, so loud that it actually wakes up Ren. He sighs, sitting up with her still grappled onto him. “Sleep well?” Jaune asks them, crouching down in the corner, setting Crocea Mors down on the wall beside him, pressing his hand against the floor. Nora smiles.

“Oh yeah...” Nora says with a smile, looking up at Ren and he raises an eyebrow.

“What did you dream about me this time?” Ren asks fearfully.

“Oh nothing.” She lies, making him even more afraid.

“I’d rather not know.” Kassius chuckles, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

“Suit yourself.” Nora says, winking at Ren, and he just sighs and rolls his eyes, looking away from his beloved.

Jaune’s eyes peer over to the bag that they have brought with them and he opens it up. They did find something, something that is an interesting clue to her being nearby. A photograph of Pyrrha walking around this area of woodland by a Hunter who was out looking for food for his village. He picks up the picture, and he gazes at her where she walks. She is not wearing the same outfit he last saw her in, she must be blending in. This is simply because she is wearing a black hoodie, one with the Pumpkin Pete’s Bunny Rabbit face in the centre of the jumper. Her hair is still long and red as always, but she must have been on the road for a long time due to the state she is. She looks so much thinner, and she was always quite slim. She has dirt on her skin as well and a couple of cuts and bruises. She wears a black beanie hat on her head as well, along with a pair of torn jeans and some trainers. It is strange for Jaune to see her wearing clothes such as these; she never wore stuff like that. She was always so regal or just always wore her armour wherever she went.

Jaune sighs, setting the picture down on the floor and he just looks at her. Ren looks at Jaune, seeing the pain in him; he just wants to hold her again. To see her true face, not the one that the Onyx Phantom took control of. Or the forms that Loss and Fear keep on showing him when they fought them. “We’re gonna find her, Jaune. That’s the best lead we’ve had since Mistral.” Ren tells him, because they once had a very strong lead that nearby Mistral someone saw her looking around her hometown, seeing what had become of it. She is clearly trying to come to grips of everything that has happened to her, everything she has missed. She clearly has memory troubles right now.

A shattered memory.

Jaune picks up the photograph, and he walks away from them, though. They all look and Nora goes to follow him, but Kassius places his hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Let him think...” Kassius advises and she looks up at him and she sighs, nodding her head. Kassius has always made sure that he would never be added to their team since Pyrrha will always be the P in their team. Nobody else could replace her at any moment; he has always made sure that he was never going to be replacing her.

Ever since Kassius lost his team...

He never wanted to be a part of a team, just to be friends with other teams. Nora returns to Ren’s side and they start to get ready, to find what they can on this lead. It is the best that they have. Kassius looks back at Jaune as he wanders off into the woods.

Jaune walks almost aimlessly, gazing at her face in the picture. Five years have passed after his realisation that she is still alive, and he still cannot believe it. From the way that Ruby told him how she passed; by being incinerated by Cinder after being shot in the sternum by an Obsidian Bow and Arrow...he thought his life was over. Nothing but self-hatred passed over him because he did not show his love for her until it was too late...

He looks at her face, stopping by a tree and caressing the edge of the photograph. He looks around, hoping that he will finally see her again. But she is never there; never ever in his life does he see her there. He tightens his grip on the photograph with anger, looking down at the floor. “Why could I not see?” He whispers to himself as he stands there, leaning against the tree. “If you just...told her how you felt five years ago...maybe we wouldn’t be here.” He says with anger, holding the photograph close to his heart. Tears drip from his eyes, horrified of whatever torment that she must have gone through to become the Onyx Phantom.

He sets the photograph down on the soil and then he reaches for his new Scroll that he got. He flicks it open, the holographic screen flashes online and he looks at the many messages he has gotten from Beacon. Now that the Cross Continental Transmit System is up and running, the others back home at Beacon can contact him. He opens up a message to check on how things are going. He has received a message from Sun a couple weeks ago that he never actually checked.

It is a video message.

As always with Sun, can’t ever bother to send just a simple text message.

He presses the play button to see what he has to say to him.

The message begins and Sun is holding his scroll up in the air so then he can record himself. He smiles to the camera as he speaks, walking down the courtyard of Beacon, still under construction at the moment as well. “Hey, Jaune! Hope you get this message, thought I’d give you an update on how things are going right now back at Beacon!” He says to Jaune with a smile. Jaune chuckles through his closed mouth as Sun speaks and he points the camera to the courtyard. The school is still plagued with scaffolding due to the amount of damage it suffered, but it does not look so bleak anymore. It actually looks like a home again, somewhere of which they can actually train and feel at home. Raven’s Headquarters was great and all, but it was pretty cramped, the Silver Eyed Warrior Fortress is great as well, but it is also pretty old and could collapse at any moment.

And besides, they need as many hands to help repair the school as they can.

Sun walks over to the statue at the centre of the main avenue and he shows that Neptune is helping with the repairs, since the statue did suffer some injuries. Luckily nothing he can’t fix. “As you can see, we are still fixing up the damage...Glynda is good at repairing stuff and all, but she still needs help in areas.” Sun explains. He then stands there and he keeps on speaking.

“I hope you find her soon, Jaune. We could really use her help with lifting some of rebar, that polarity would _really_ come in handy.” Sun comments jokingly and Jaune shakes his head. “Hope you get back soon! See you then!” Sun cheers, ending the recording and Jaune lowers the Scroll down. He sighs and then looks at one of the videos that he has managed to burn into his skull, the training video she made for him. However she made that with _his_ scroll and not her own, whilst he was asleep.

He also has many pictures with her, which only makes him want her back with him even more. A photograph of the two of them sat on the same bed one night as they played a game together. Jaune already figured out that she had never played a video game before, and he was worried that she might not enjoy it. But she was laughing and giggling and smiling the whole night with him when they played the game, at the time he thought it was the game. But only now that he understands the feelings that she had for him, now that he shares them for her as well – she was happy because she was with him. They took many pictures together, and he never realised at the time that he loved her as well. He clicks on one which is her smiling with her head on his shoulder, and all he can do is hate himself for not seeing the love that she had for him.

The confession she made to him on the balcony during their dance...

And then there was the kiss she gave him before she died. Their first and last kiss, but now perhaps it might be something more than that, since she is alive. They just need to find one another again.

He closes his scroll; he cannot bare looking at anymore pictures of her and him together, not until he finds her. The only way to repair the damage to his heart that has been done to him is to find her and hold her again. He stands up and rubs a tear from his eye with his wrist, picking the picture back up and he looks around, trying to figure out where the picture was taken. They were informed that it was near this ancient Amphitheatre, so it must be in this area that it was taken.

Then he spots something familiar.

So familiar that he narrows his eyes. There is a tree stump that has markings on it in the photograph, and he holds up the picture, and compares it to a similar mark that he can see.

They are identical.

His eyes widen and he gasps, he can see her walking there in his imagination, confirming that this must be the place that the picture was taken. He turns to where the others are in their direction, and he calls out to them. “Guys!” He calls. Ren looks up when he hears Jaune in the distance and he stands up sharply, Nora and Kassius look at him quizzically.

“Jaune.” Ren tells them and he picks up Stormflower, walking out from the building first and scooping his rucksack up and swinging it onto his back. He makes off first, and Nora picks up Magnhild. Kassius sighs, standing back up and walking after them, putting his stetson back on his head.

“Wait up!” Kassius calls to the pair that search for Jaune. Kassius runs after Nora and Ren, who sprint in the direction that they can hear Jaune calling for them. They fear the worst, expecting there to be either the Knights of Grimm or for the Lord of the Wood to have found them. That Leshen is still bound to Nora, and unless they can find a way to lift the curse without her dying then it will never die until it gets her.

But they have not seen either of those since the Volcanic Chain Isles were destroyed.

But they all know better than to believe they are gone, they are preparing.

Ren and Nora pass a tree and they see Jaune stood there as he compares the picture to the tree stump in front of him. They slow down and they look at him. “What is it?” Ren asks him, out of breath and Jaune points at the stump.

“Look.” He says, walking over to the stump and crouching down beside it. He looks at the markings and he raises an eyebrow at it as he looks at it. Nora shrugs her shoulders when she looks at the stump.

“So...it’s a tree stump that some kids drew on with a knife?” Nora asks, confused of its importance. Jaune picks the picture up and he gives it to her, and she looks at where Pyrrha is and where that stump is. “Oh...” She realises, her eyes widen and she lowers the picture down to her side. Kassius approaches Jaune’s side and he crouches down beside him, looking at the markings on the tree.

“So what are you thinking?” Kassius asks him, raising an eyebrow. Jaune observes the many carvings in the bark and he cannot believe what they mean. He takes out his shield and he opens it, looking at the Arc Symbol engraved on the shield in gold plated metal. He then compares it to the markings. There are two marks engraved on the bark, the Arc Symbol and the Nikos Symbol – her crest – both together on the bark. He gasps with amazement, as it has given him even more hope.

“It was her...” He realises with faith.

“She did this?” Kassius asks him with confusion.

“Look.” He says, pointing at the markings and then at his shield that contains both of the marks. Kassius chuckles when he recognises them and he figured out what he is talking about. “She remembers...” He realises. “She wants us to find her, I think.”

“Then why doesn’t she just wait here for us?” Nora asks. Ren spots something and he crouches down to the soil and he moves some of the leaves out of the way some then he can see the footprints. His eyes widen when he looks at what are there, her footprints are there, but they are not alone.

“Jaune?” Ren begins.

“Hmm?” Jaune responds, looking at him.

“Was there a second person in the photograph?” Ren asks with concern in his eyes, and Jaune looks at the picture. He looks around at the photograph but he cannot see anything, he can only see Pyrrha and the stump. Nothing more, but the prints are definitely those of a human being. Jaune walks over to Ren, followed by Kassius and Nora, and they both look at the trail of prints. They are both around the same age of each other. “I think she is being followed, so she cannot stop moving.” Ren explains as he examines the tracks and Kassius crouches down next to him as he looks at the tracks.

“It’s no Grimm, or any of the Knights for that matter.” Kassius observes and Ren nods.

“Agreed...the shoes match that of a...civilian or bird watcher.” He explains, then the birds around them begin to tweet all at the same time. However they all tweet to a tune that is unfamiliar to any bird watcher, one that is quite ominous. Jaune stands up and he looks at the birds as they all tweet this strange tune, Nora gently punches his shoulder to get them moving.

“Come on, let’s follow her tracks.” Nora says to him, and Jaune’s eyes focus on a Green Hummingbird that is staring straight at him from the branches. It does not move and it has brown eyes, and it does not make a sound unlike the rest of the birds in this forest. Ren follows the tracks, but Nora stops and looks back at Jaune as he looks at the birds that are tweeting like this. “Jaune?” Nora calls to him and he looks at her, shaking the thought from his mind as he follows her.

“Sorry.” He apologises, following after her. They pursue the tracks to figure out where Pyrrha had gone, using the picture as an idea. The Hummingbird watches Jaune as he walks on, following the tracks and them it flies around, following him as he walks. Jaune can sense that the Hummingbird is pursuing him, and when he turns around, it hides behind a tree, still hovering. He sighs, following Ren.

Ren looks at the distance between her tracks and they start to get further apart, meaning only one thing. “She started running here.” Ren tells them, and Kassius raises an eyebrow at that comment.

“Any clues of why?” Kassius asks him and Ren shakes his head, all he has to figure out what she was doing were the tracks.

“If only we had Oscar with us right now...” Nora sighs, and they all agree. His semblance could have helped make this so much easier for them. He may be able to assist in any way to figure out where she could have gone instead of following fading tracks. Kassius looks at the tracks of the person who followed her, and unlike her tracks, this individual is still only walking as they followed her.

“Looks like her pursuer was in no real hurry.” Kassius points out. Ren follows the tracks and his eyes widen when something changes. The ground has been flattened in one area and there are many marks, both handprints and footprints. Like she fell over and was getting back up, along with some blood stains on the floor as well. Ren crouches down and he touches the blood, it has dried up in the sunlight but it must have been at least a couple of days ago. When this happened.

“Her pursuer must have had a firearm; she fell over and must have gotten shot. Some blood on the floor, not much, and she seems to have gotten back up as well.” Ren explains from what he can deduce from the scene. Kassius looks around for a shell casing; even Dust Weapons eject empty dust shells when fired. But...nothing, nothing at all remains on the floor.

“He could have caught the capsule.” Kassius suggests, since some individuals are able to do that, which also must mean the pursuer knows of their presence in trying to find her.

“This is the first time we have seen something like this on her trail, somebody is hunting Pyrrha...” Ren states, and Jaune scratches his head out of fear for her safety. He paces around and then his eyes catch something that makes him stop. On one of the trees is a bloody handprint, and he has been on this search for her so much that he has remembered her features almost perfectly. The handprint is exactly the same size as her hand was when he last met her, and he looks at it. Dry as well, due to the time between when it happened and where they are now.

“Ren...Blood on the tree.” Jaune nervously says. Ren looks at him and he walks over to the handprint and looks at it.

“Must have pressed her hand on the wound, stumbled slightly and used the tree to stop herself from falling.” Ren deduces, and then he looks at the trail again, moving further across the area. “Then she kept on moving up this ditch.” He states, following it up there. He looks at the picture and he looks very worried about her. He looks intently at the photograph to figure out where her attacker could be in the photograph.

_Could it be the Photographer?_

The Hunter who gave them the picture claimed he took the picture but he demanded lien for it, he could have easily found the picture and claimed it to be his...

So many questions with so little answers.

Ren keeps on following the trail and then it arrives at the exit of the forest and onto a road. The tracks end there, since she cannot be seen there, other than some faded blood stains on the floor where it probably dripped. However, they can see what looks like tyre skid marks on the tarmac. “She could have hitched a ride.” Jaune suggests and they all seem to agree on this matter.

“Where does that road go?” Kassius asks, and Nora pulls out her scroll and she looks at where they are on the map. She follows this road and she scoffs when she realises, looking at Kassius, holding it up.

“Vale.” Nora answers and Jaune looks at the map.

“She could be at Vale?” Jaune asks and Nora shrugs.

“It’s possible, if she was leaving those markings for you to find her...where better to go than Vale?” Ren asks him and Jaune sighs, having to agree.

“So back to Beacon? Tell the others and restock on food and dust?” Nora asks them and they all nod.

“And some rest?” Kassius asks as he stretches his arms out.

Even Jaune has to agree, they need some time to rest as well as finding her. There are lots of eyes in Vale as well, somebody would recognise her there.

“Back to Beacon.”

 

**Blake**

The Bullhead hovers down to the Main Avenue of Beacon, descending down and the door slides open. Just as it lands, Yang pushes Mazen out of it and jumps out behind him, landing beside the huge man with her arms stretched above her head. She looks forward at Beacon with a smile, even five years later they cannot believe what they are seeing. Repairs have gone a long way, Beacon Tower still has a lot of scaffolding around it, but it is operational again. Most of the school is for that matter, the main job now is just fixing everything up again. Weiss hops out from the Bullhead with Ruby and Blake, and Penny and Sun follow. Sun walks out and he gives the Bullhead Pilot a thumbs up, the aircraft takes off and flies away to refill on fuel.

Sun looks down at Mazen and he crosses his arms as he looks at him. “We gotta carry this big guy all the way to the prison?” He asks.

“Don’t worry.” They hear Yatsuhashi saying to them and they both turn with wide eyes.

“Yatsuhashi? I thought you guys had a contract all the way in Mistral?” Yang asks with amazement.

“We do, but we still have a few days before we have to leave to go there. See you finally got Mazen.” Yatsuhashi says, crossing his arms as he looks down at the brutish White Fang Lieutenant on the ground.

“Yep, asshole tried to rob the Brimstone Banking Union in Vale.” Yang answers whilst Yatsuhashi picks the brutish man up and sits him on his shoulder.

“Well, let’s hope we can get something out of him. I’ll take him to the cell.” He says.

“I’ll go with you.” Blake assures him and Sun walks with her, the rest of Team R.W.B.Y stay with Penny before they decide to head off to the Dining Hall which could use some of their assistance in repairing right now.

Blake holds Sun’s hand constantly as they walk and they both look at Yatsuhashi as he holds him there. “What are you expecting with this contract, know what it is?” Blake asks him curiously, her feline ears moving with her question. Sun looks at him as well, and Yatsuhashi looks at her.

“Well, the locals said that they found some of their farmers torn limb from limb by something in the woods. So we’ve been hired to find out what happened and then take care of the creature.” Yatsuhashi explains, a pretty horrific situation, but that is to be expected when it comes down to the attacks of Grimm these days. They seem to be more like pests than actual threats, which is what makes the whole situation even more chilling. But with no other leads on the Knights of Grimm, on Salem or even on the Acolytes of Lien, all they can do is help repair the School or accept some contracts. Or stop crimes which are in progress, it is all pathetic work in comparison to the Volcanic Chain Isles.

“What do you think it could be?” Sun asks him, and Yatsuhashi chuckles.

“Coco and I have been having bets.” Yatsuhashi says to them with a chuckle and Sun smiles. “I think it could be a Leshen of some kind, not the first time we have had to handle things like that. They also leave people in the same remains.” He explains, since Leshens are still creatures of Grimm, there are other Leshens out there other than just the Lord of the Wood. He is just a very Ancient Leshen, one that has become so powerful it can actually control the Grimm around it to fight from its commanding howl.

“What does Coco think?” Blake asks with a smile.

“She thinks it could be a pack of Beowulves that are killing people. We bet ten Lien on it.” Yatsuhashi explains and the pair chuckle at that. They approach the stairs towards the building of which they have made a prison for him to be put inside of. Sun opens the door and Yatsuhashi carries him inside, and there are four very large cells built. They have Atlas-Grade Dust Shielding around them, glass thick enough to stop a tank shell and reinforced titanium steel around them. Yatsuhashi opens the door and slams him down on the ground, closing it when he leaves the cell. The crashing down was enough to wake Mazen up and he looks around. Yatsuhashi crosses his arms and Blake stands there.

Mazen chuckles and he stands up, looking around in the cell and then he sits down on the bed that is available for him. “Fancy cell.” Mazen compliments when he looks around and Blake chuckles as she looks at him. “But it’s – not meant for me, is it?” Mazen asks and Blake shake her head.

“Built for something far stronger than you.” Blake tells him. These four cells have been constructed to capture the Knights of Grimm if they ever did manage to capture any of them. The shielding can – in theory – keep them from teleporting out, and it is too small for them to transform into their beast forms. Constantly glowing with light so then Death’s shroud of shadows does not protect him inside. It also has many water sprays to keep Fury from igniting his body into rage, and yet the shields will keep him inside, even if he does rip it apart. Mazen looks around at it and he looks at the Belladonna Girl that escaped him years ago.

“You really think this will contain me?” He asks her with a laugh.

“Oh, I think it will.” Sun chuckles.

“Do enlighten me.” Mazen requests, glaring at him as he walks towards a terminal in the corner.

“Alright then, we have cameras on you at all times. Not only that, but we also have top grade security systems. So you even punch the glass, this is what will happen.” Sun warns, and the inside of the cage has many panels that open with lots of vents, ones that will unleash knockout gas upon the prisoner inside. Unclear if that would work against the Knights, almost certainly not, but they are still able to be used as cells for people as well. “We pump gas in there and you’ll be having sweet dreams.” He tells him as he stands there. Mazen chuckles sinisterly as he looks at them, the mask that he wears really adds to his menacing personality when they cannot see the face that he pulls.

“Impressive, really is.” Mazen compliments as he looks around. “But this really does show how paranoid you’ve become.” He says.

“The Knights of Grimm are still out there, we need to be ready for when they do. Doesn’t matter if it is in another decade or if it is tomorrow. We’ll never know, so we should be ready, thought you would have known how dangerous they were when they wiped out half of the White Fang.” Blake explains, even scoffing at the Lieutenant when he stands there. He leans forward and glares at Blake.

“You’ll see...soon enough...” Mazen quietly says and Blake raises an eyebrow.

“See what?” Blake questions.

“Sleeping with enemy.” He states, a phrase used to describe traitors and she stares at him with anger. “The humans will betray you every chance you have, trust me.” He states and Blake stares at him with narrowed eyes, walking towards his cell, looking right at the mask’s eyes.

“Let me be very clear with you, Mazen. I trust them more than my own kind right now because at least I know what they are truly thinking.” She states.

“You say that now, but when the chips are down and they have to choose. They will choose their own kind and leave ours in the dirt.” He snarls with anger. Blake pulls out a chair and she takes a seat, looking at him, Sun stands beside her. She looks at the broad man and he just glares at her through that mask. She has seen his face only partially as his mask was fractured at one point, he has clearly gotten it repaired.

“Did you not hear about the Volcanic Chain Isles? White Fang and Atlesian Forces worked together to stop what was happening there, Mazen. The time for unity is now.” Blake explains, her hands held together, but Mazen does not seem to be easily convinced. He chuckles once again.

“Just wait, Blake. You hold onto that belief of yours, but at the end of the day? They were simply using those men and women as cannon fodder against the Acolytes and the Knights, now they will drop us back in the dirt.” He promises, and Sun snorts.

“What, are you some sort of soothsayer?” He questions, and he looks at Sun now.

“No...Simply a man who has seen enough evidence of what Humanity thinks of us. Travel to Atlas, and then you will see what they really think of you.” He promises, coldly as well. They can already tell he has some sort of painful past behind his hatred for Humans, perhaps one that is much worse than what happened to Adam. Adam lost his parents and his eyes from humans, and even he is trying to forgive the humans by joining forces with them. And yet Mazen is firmly sat on the idea that they are the enemy.

Blake knows the difference between evil men and those that are extremely misguided. Either through suffering or from manipulation. She sighs, looking down at the floor, then pushing her hands against her legs as she stands up and walks over to Sun with a kind smile. He smiles back and they both turn and walk away from him. “Get comfortable, Mazen. You won’t be leaving that cell for a while. And Adam will be dropping by to speak to you.” She assures, he sits there and he watches her leave.

He chuckles menacingly. “I look forward to it...”

 

**Ruby**

The young woman sits on her own with Crescent Rose in her hands, cleaning the scythe with a cloth to make sure that the blade has not taken any damage in places. She wipes the dust from the blade and crosses one leg over the other as she tends to her weapon. She has become much more protective and caring about Crescent Rose after it was destroyed in the destruction of their childhood home. She looks up when she hears the unmistakable sound of Weiss being happy, seeing her running into Neptune’s arms. He still looks exactly the same and he holds her up as she wraps her arms around his neck, kissing him lovingly on the lips. He pushes his hand through her hair when he kisses her and then sets her back down on the ground.

Weiss caresses his cheek and holds onto him, she has always been very worried about him whenever he has to go pretty far on Contract Missions like that. “I’ve missed you so much, Neptune!” She squeaks with happiness and he smiles, kissing her again. Ruby looks at her love, and she is looking for her own one. Ever since the time she was rescued by them and escaped the islands, she and Oscar have gotten together into a serious relationship, just like the rest of her team. She looks around to figure out where he is, she has been helping him make his own weapon, which is a collapsible sword that can also turn into a pair of revolvers, or daggers. Depending on which version he switches it to. She looks back to her weapon, but then her eye widens with confusion when Crescent Rose is gone.

Her shock however transforms into happiness, she stands up from the statue’s edge she was sat on and immediately wraps her arms around Oscar who stands behind her. He laughs, holding her tight, and she looks at him. She wraps her arm around him and their lips meet, kissing one another longingly in each other’s embrace. He set Crescent Rose down against the statue beside his weapon – Traveller’s Atrocity – which sits there. They finally break their kiss after a couple seconds and she refuses to let him go, touching her head to his affectionately. “I missed you, Oscar...” She whispers to him lovingly and he holds her long hair in his hand passionately.

Oscar has been the only person she has truly been able to connect with on a deep level, most likely due to the torment they both shared when captured by Salem and in the custody of Tyrian Callows. All history now, but the memories will never fade, or the feelings for each other that were developed. Oscar, unlike with Kassius and Yang, is still the same height as Ruby, and he holds her so close that he wants to kiss her over and over again.

“I missed you too.” He says to her, kissing her again and she kisses him as well. They end their kisses however and she holds his hand, they both sit down on the bench where she was and she rests her head on his shoulder. He is wearing a piece of armour that the two of them have been working on together. The Time Armour, he called it. The Armour itself is a piece of clothing that helps him focus his abilities. He has taken inspiration from the mysterious being he encountered – Time – by crafting a clock in his gauntlet that he can use to manipulate time however he sees fit. He is still learning what he is capable of, similar to how Weiss does with her glyphs. He must simply figure out how to test the boundaries of what he believes to be possible, of course that can come with some serious risks.

Both at Twenty One years old, they have grown to look very different than they once were. Ruby has matured into a stunning young woman, with a heart shaped head like Pyrrha, fair skin, striking eyes and incredible hair. Oscar has lost the freckles on his face he once had and has kept his hairstyle the exact same, however he has been working out with the rest of them as well to build up his strength. With helping out Sun and Neptune, all they need is a fourth member to build a new team. However with Kassius being unwilling to become the fourth member in a team ever again, they will have to wait for that fourth member.

Ruby then looks at her beloved boyfriend and she smiles, he has always been able to make her smile even in her darkest times. Since they have been together for five years, as well, they are no longer painfully awkward with each other. Perhaps Vir Nominis Umbra’s advice was right, to just show your feelings to the girl. “How was the mission?” Ruby asks him gently and he chuckles when he remembers the Contract on the Manticore Grimm, nobody has seen one of them in generations.

“Was a pain to find it, believe or not.” Oscar tells her and she giggles.

“Really? Would have thought a Dragon, Lion Scorpion thingy would be pretty hard to miss.” She presumes, resting her head on her hand as she looks at him.

“Well that was our logic, but it turns out the thing liked to live at the very peak of the mountain. So we followed it up there, since it just recently stole a couple of sheep to eat them, we got up there and fought the thing. Sun took a hit to the arm by its claw but he was fine, patched him up pretty fast. What’s one more scar in his case?” Oscar chuckles, and he manages to make her smile and be happy with every word. And for the suffering she endured with Tyrian, that means the world to Yang and the others. And obviously to her as well, she is completely devoted to him. “But the Manticore wasn’t the hardest part.” Oscar tells her and she raises her brow.

“What was?” Ruby asks with her smile still on her face.

“Trying to get the sheep down the mountain.” Oscar tells her and she bursts into laughter, giggling up a storm so much that tears began to stream from her eye. “I’m serious! Stupid fluffy things wouldn’t go the direction we wanted them to! Sun even had to use his semblance to stop them from falling off a cliff at one point.” He sighs, but every word just makes her laugh even harder and harder at the story. She falls into his arms and he holds her, kissing the top of her head affectionately.

Yang stands there and smiles when she looks at Ruby giggling over there. She is so happy to see her be able to smile and laugh like that again. After everything that she went through, she was terrified that Ruby would never move on. At least she as Oscar to get her through the tough times. Her eyes widen when she hears something come in behind her and a smile of pure joy forms on her face. A Bullhead flies towards them and turns round, the doors open and Nora is the first one to jump out. “Yippee!” Nora squeals as she lands there, and accidentally fires off Magnhild into the air, blowing up the ground in a certain area and she pulls a worried face. “Was wondering when that was gonna blow up.” Nora says with a giggle.

Yang smiles when she walks towards her as Ren, Kassius and Jaune jump out of the Bullhead where it lands. Penny catches up to Yang as she walks up to them. Penny’s damage to her body has also been repaired, thanks to an expert technician they have hired to work there from the Silver Eyed Warrior Fortress. His name is Kraye Lavender, not related in any way to Lisa Lavender, but everyone makes fun of him for it. He is also a Blacksmith, the one who assisted in repairing and making weapons for them all. Penny still lacks her Memory Drive that she needs to not keep forgetting things really quickly like that. She looks at Yang and smiles at her. She then looks to Team J.N.R and Kassius as they walk over to them. “Sal-U-Tations!” Penny cheers gleefully, and Yang wraps her arms around Kassius, kissing him endlessly. She holds him tight as they embrace their love, and they also notice Glynda walking over to them as well.

She sighs and repairs the damage that Nora did to the ground. “Please do not damage the campus.” Glynda requests, pushing her glasses closer to the bridge of her nose when she looks at her.

“It’s not a campus – it’s a road!” Nora defends with a shrug as she deactivates her Grenade Launcher and puts it onto the magnetic strip metal on her outfit. Glynda sighs, preventing herself from exploding into a lecture on them, instead she smiles.

“It’s good to see you all back home safe and sound.” Glynda says to them with a smile, and Jaune smiles when he walks over to her.

“Hello, Professor. How’s everything been since we’ve been gone?” Jaune asks her curiously, since the message that Sun sent him was a couple weeks ago. Things might have moved on since then.

“We’ve finished up on the Library and the School Area is fully working again, so are the Dorms. Still working on the rest though. What about you? Any leads?” She asks him curiously, still very faithful to the idea that they can find Pyrrha, just like they all are. Ren smiles and he nods.

“Best one we’ve had in a while, only a couple days old and she was heading into Vale.” Ren answers. Glynda’s eyes widen with amazement to this news, realising that Pyrrha could be extremely close to them after all this time.

“That’s incredible. Well, you should definitely fill us all in later on. But to begin with, Professor Port is serving some Bacon Sandwiches today for everyone on their hard work. You would not want to miss out on some of those.” Glynda states with a smile and Nora’s eyes widen when Glynda points at her. “And he has Pancake Mix ready as well, now that Ren is here he can do them better that Port could.” Glynda laughs, hinting at the fact that Port’s pancakes must be moist sloppy messes.

Nora nearly explodes with excitement, prancing around Ren. “Pancakes! Pancakes!” Nora squeaks over and over again and he sighs, looking at Glynda with a straight expression. Glynda holds her hands out with a smile that almost looks apologetic.

“Sorry?” Glynda asks him and he just nods as Nora keeps on dancing around her boyfriend like that. Yang holds Kassius’ hand, her head rested on his shoulder as they walk around, but their attention is caught when they see a car driving up to them. One that has a huge amount of supplies available for the taking strapped to the back of the truck. It is rusted and reeks of all kinds of stenches as it approaches. Smoke trails from the exhaust and it looks just as unhealthy as the man who drives it. He has a bushy beard, a hat on and countless necklaces and other appendages. Such as bracelets and other things on his clothes. Yang looks at Kassius and then she looks at Glynda.

“I thought he wasn’t allowed to come back here anymore?” Yang asks her and Glynda sighs, rubbing the side of her head when she sees him driving over.

“We need some more supplies, and he is a trader.” Glynda tells her, sounding guilty about it as well.

“The stuff he sells is crap. I asked for a new shell belt for Ember Celica and it jammed and nearly blew me up.” Yang explains to her and Glynda nods with agreement and she sighs.

“I know, but he does sometimes find some good things we could use. He brought the stuff we needed to fix up Penny, didn’t he?” Glynda asks her and Penny smiles as she looks at Yang and the blonde has to agree. The driver slows down and the door begins to open up.

“Oh great, here comes the most irritating, annoying and disgusting Trader on Remnant.” Kassius sighs when he looks at the Trader as he approaches. Nora gasps, pointing Magnhild in Grenade Launcher form at him.

“Can I blow him up?” She asks gleefully.

Kassius looks at Ren and they both nod. “Yes, definitely blow him up.” Ren answers.

“I heard that, Kassius.” The Trader says, and Nora fires three grenades at him that explode around him. He flinches, and staggers back from the explosions, leaving holes in the ground. Poor Glynda groans and buries her head in her palm, more craters for her to fix. The Trader is quite a fat man with grime on his face and flies follow him wherever he goes. He also carries around a large bag of gifts as well that he is willing to sell as well. “Oh! You always resort to violence! Right off the bat!” The Trader shouts to them, looking annoyed as he stands there. Yang walks towards him with her hands spread out.

“Hey Grif! What are doing here?” She calls to him, and he brushes some of the dust from his shoulder when he approaches the people here. He walks over to them, a disgusting cough and the smell of a thousand dinners in his beard as he approaches.

“You find anything useful yet? I don’t like sitting around here waiting to catch a bullet.” Kassius states as he crosses his arms, looking at the Grif the Trader as he approaches.

“Future alcohol problems, schizophrenia and anger-issues are gonna kill you long before a bullet might, my amputee friend.” Grif says as he pats Kassius’ shoulder. Grif has a very enthusiastic, high raspy voice who can already be seen as a very chatty individual. Kassius grits his teeth with frustration and he draws Lash Equinox and the blade folds outwards and he points it right at Grif’s face.

“Back off! Piss me off again, I dare you! You wanna throw down with Hyde?” He shouts with anger, his eyes flicker with red light as he stares at him when he stumbles back.

“Jeeze Louise! Calm down! Why don’t you try carrying all this stuff!” Grif responds, things falling from his bag on his back. Many items land on the floor, including a damaged Atlesian Knight’s head from the Fall of Beacon, a bunch of screws and bolts, and a piece of scrap metal that was from the first Paladin that they faced, the one that Roman Torchwick was trapped inside of.

Ruby, Oscar, Weiss, Neptune, Blake and Sun see the commotion and they begin to approach the Trader as he stands there, nearly getting killed by Kassius in the process. “Oh no...He’s back.” Ruby groans and Sun shakes his head when he sees him.

“I thought we told him to stay away.” Sun says.

“Guess he couldn’t resist another visit.” Neptune sighs.

A small creature falls from his bag and a bunch of wings emerge from it, taking off into the air with a constant droning buzzing sound as it flies around. It makes distasteful agitated sounds as it flies around them and Grif looks at the bug as it flies there. “Oh, so that’s where that’s been.” Grif chuckles when he spots it. Penny’s eyes follow it like a puppy’s eyes that follow a moth. She then slams her hands together on the bug and kills it, shaking her hand to get the black Grimm blood off her hands.

“Ew!” Penny exclaims with disgust.

Grif reaches into his bag and he pulls something out and he holds it there. A black hat that is badly burned, in terrible condition but the feather is still attached to it in a place that is familiar to them all. “Check out what I found all the way in Vacuo! Roman Torchwick’s hat, ladies and gentlemen.” Grif tells them as he puts it on Yang’s head. She grabs the hat and throws it on the floor with disgust, Ruby looks at it and the spirit of Roman gasps with disbelief when he sees the hat on the ground.

 “My hat! The state of it...” Roman gasps with a ghastly tone. Glynda sighs, rubbing her tired eyes from all the work she has put into this place and she looks at him.

“Grif...have you got anything useful for us?” Glynda asks.

“Of course my dear, anything for you.” He says, attempting to woo her but she takes a step back and just glares at him, a glare that would make any man back down. “Ooh...she ain’t happy.” Grif chuckles when he looks at Ren who stands there.

“Yeah, you’re here.” Ren states and Grif gasps, pressing his hand to his belly.

“Words hurt, Ren.” Grif states, as if it would make him take it back. He clearly has given them shoddy products for ridiculous prices in the past.

Penny stands there and then Grif looks at her. He smiles when he looks at Penny and he pulls his bag off his back, it makes an almighty thud. “My sweet girl, you look fantastic. You see? Not all my products are bad!” He says.

“Yeah...” She says, looking at her hand as it twitches due to poorly looked after equipment, but she hides it. “It’s great.” She agrees, hiccupping after her attempt to lie to the man. Ruby smiles to her friend, she always found it adorable that she would hiccup whenever she lied to someone.

“However, I might have something you may like.” He says as he reaches into the huge bag and he pulls out a piece of hardware that he throws to Yang. Yang catches it and she looks at the device, it looks very similar to the gap in the back of her head that lacks her memory drive.

“You sure this is a Memory Drive?” Yang asks him.

“Of course it is.” Grif states.

“How?” Kassius questions.

“Why the distrust?” Grif asks him, hand on his hip when he looks at him. Kassius raises his cybernetic arm and points to the elbow joint.

“I bought that damn Joint Lubricant crap you sold me and it rusted it near to the point of turning to dust! Wanna know how long that took me to repair?” Kassius interrogates Grif, and the Trader steps back cowardly.

“How long?” Grif asks.

“Six Weeks!” Kassius erupts with rage. “Good thing Yang didn’t need it otherwise you would be on the receiving end of two punches!” He shouts, swinging at him but Grif manages to get out of his way before Kassius could punch him.

“Okay! He’s not happy!” He says as he walks away from him and back to Yang.

“Are you certain that this is a Memory Drive?” Yang asks him, again to make sure this won’t hurt her.

“Of course it is, I found it on the body of an Atlesian Knight.” Grif answers, and Yang narrows her eyes when she looks at him.

“Are you sure there is nothing harmful on her? Because that Black Queen Virus did get programmed into all of those things.” Yang states, remembering when they all turned on them during the Battle of Beacon. Just to make their lives harder than it already was. Grif laughs.

“Come on, Yang. I always bring the good stuff.” Grif says and Yang still seems suspicious.

“Yeah...” Yang says, she then turns to Penny and she holds up the drive. “Well, Penny...if this thing works, you’ll have your memory back!” Yang calls to her.

“Yay!” Penny cheers, dancing on the spot as she stands there. Glynda takes off her glasses and grabs the bridge of her nose. Weiss stands next to her and crosses his arms.

“Are you regretting asking him for stuff?” Weiss asks curiously.

“Yes.” Glynda immediately answers, she did not even try to defend him. Weiss scoffs, shaking her head when she looks at the grimy man. Grif looks at them and he cracks his fingers and lets out a fart, one that Nora nearly faints from when she steps away.

Glynda puts her glasses back on and looks at Grif. “Grif...can I just see the supplies you brought for the construction?” She asks, like she has just run out of energy to argue. He snaps his fingers and walks towards his truck. She follows him and Weiss walks with her to the vehicle. Jaune and Ren walk with her as well when they approach. Grif opens the back of the truck where that huge load is and he pulls a large bag out from it.

“Four more bags of cement, nails, wood...everything you asked.” He says, scratching his beard.

“How much?” Glynda asks.

“I’m thinking...four thousand liens.” He calculates, her eyes bulge from their sockets.

“Four Thousand?” She repeats in a louder voice.

“One thousand max.” Ren haggles, pointing at him.

“Two thousand.” Grif replies, haggling as well, walking towards him.

“One thousand two fifty.” Ren returns.

“One thousand seven fifty.” Grif challenges.

They both look at each other for a second and then. “One thousand five hundred.” They both say at the same time, and they both look at Glynda. Glynda nods.

“I can afford that.” She sighs, not happy to but it is better than four thousand.

“Masterful haggling.” Grif claps with his hands. He reaches into the truck and he pulls out the rest of the bags that slam down with a thud. Ren groans and he looks away from him. Grif stands there and he looks at the markings on Jaune’s shield. Specifically the one that has Pyrrha’s crest on it, and he points at it. He chuckles when he looks at it. “Ha! Where’d you find that old piece of Junk? A Nikos Branded Shield? Must be a fake!” He laughs when he looks at it and Jaune looks at his shield and then at Grif.

Jaune looks a little mad from his comment as well. “Is it fake? Nah, can’t be. Hand it over, I’ll take it off you. Even pay for it.” He says. Jaune suddenly draws Crocea Mors and points it right at him and Grif holds his hands over his head. “Whoa!” He exclaims as he steps back from Jaune, who does not lower his blade.

“Take that back, nothing that is hers is junk.” Jaune growls with rage as he points the blade at him.

“Kiddo, calm the hell down. All I thought was that it could have been one of the shields of the Ancient Nikos Warriors...what are they called? The Myrmidons! That’s it!” He laughs when he remembers them.

“Yeah, they were the Silver Eyed Warriors as well, they had many names.” Jaune states when he glares at him.

“Well son...I feel you should know this, those shields have not been seen in centuries. Same with your sword I bet.” He states and Jaune looks at Crocea Mors and he lowers it from Grif and sheathes it back in the shield as it collapses back into scabbard form. He attaches it back to his belt and glares at Grif.

“Even if I was gonna sell it, why would I sell it to a grease monkey like you?” He questions.

He taps his chest. “That cuts deep, Jaune.” Grif says. “I’ve read my books and I’ve seen more weapons than you can care to count. But I’ve only seen those in books, that would sell for a lot of lien, you know?” He chuckles when he looks at it.

“Yeah, my family line goes back. So what? Doesn’t mean they were Silver Eyed Warriors, they could have picked it up at any time.” Jaune says.

“Maybe, doesn’t deny the worth, though.” Grif adds.

“And also, the crest was added by Jaune.” He says.

“Oh I know, that is why I thought it was fake at first. But the way it collapsed? Hmm...Seems like it to me.” He says. Jaune looks at it and then turns and walks away from Grif. He already has a lot on his mind. Now he needs to worry about that as well.

Grif grabs the waist of his trousers and he pulls them up. “Well, I best be off! Gonna go slather myself in some oils! Turn away, Ren, if it defends you sensibility.” Grif chuckles and Ren points Stormflower at him as he returns to his truck.

“No...That is something you can’t unsee.” Ren says, looking away from him. Grif gets in his truck and he activates the engine, turning and driving away from Beacon. He drives off and they all stand there. They watch him leave and they sigh.

“God...I need a bath.” Sun sighs after seeing that guy.

“I hope that’ll be the last we see of him.” Oscar says with a sigh.

“Doubt it, dirt bag always returns where there’s money.” Kassius says, walking with them to help repair what the others are working on. He picks up one of the heavy bags, whereas Jaune looks at his Shield that still holds Crocea Mors. He strokes his thumb across Pyrrha’s symbol and presses his head against it.

Crocea Mors has managed to destroy Loss’ forms twice now...

Why?


	4. Quest for Spring

**Qrow**

Ten years ago

Logs are stacked inside of a guest room somewhere in veil, burning to warm the cold autumn air inside of the building. A tub sits nearby with steam rising up from the warm water inside. A pair of male legs rest against the edge of the bathtub, and Qrow sighs with pure relaxation in his voice. Water drips from his toes and he scratches the base of his heel with his other foot’s big toe. He leans his head back as he relaxes in the bath. However he does not notice the lobster that climbs up the side of the bath and looks at his body as he lays there. The lobster silently enters the water and swims towards him...between his legs while he lays there. A couple seconds pass before he flinches and clenches his hands into fists, his eyes widen with shock when he feels something pinching his private spot. He sighs with annoyance, turning and looking at the woman laid in the bed and looking at him. “You know I don’t find that very funny.” Qrow tells her with a sigh, he reaches into the water and pulls the lobster out. The Crustacean snaps its pincers slowly as he holds it by its red chitin armoured body. He then throws it onto the floor and it slides towards the woman, before silver energy erupts from the chitin and it fades away into thin air.

The woman’s silver eyes fade and they look at him. She smiles; the bed sheets cover her unclothed body as she looks at her beloved. She smiles when she looks at him, black and red hair like Ruby’s and large eyes. She has a heart shaped head where it comes to a point at her chin. She has no scars on her face and her white cloak is on the floor, along with the rest of her clothes and Qrow’s. “I know, I was trying to get you to hurry. It’s nearly midday already!” Summer tells him and Qrow groans like a child as he leans his head backwards. “You promised Ruby and Yang that you would train with them, they would be getting bored of Tai’s readings by now.” Summer explains to him and he sits there still. Qrow gives in, standing up and she looks at some of scars that he has collected from many forms of Grimm or Human Foes that he has encountered. The water runs down his back and he walks over to his clothes on the floor. He puts on his underwear and then his trousers. He looks at her and then he smiles as he looks at her.

“So...later then?” Qrow asks her and she smiles as she looks up at him from where she lays.

“Mm, see you later.” She agrees. Qrow turns and goes to leave but then he feels Summer’s hand grab his wrist and pull him closer. “Hold on.” She demands, laying a kiss on him and he kisses her in return. She then pushes him aside with her hand on his cheek, smirking at him flirtatiously. “Now you can go.” Summer allows and he chuckles, walking away from her as he approaches his clothes on the ground. His sword rests against the wall not far, beside her Scythe. Qrow puts on his grey dress shirt with his red cape attached to it. At this point in his life, he had not grown a stubble on his jaw line yet. He is clean shaven and looks much younger, no grey hairs in the black hair of his. He picks up his sword, then looks back at Summer as she gets out of the bed and towards her clothes. She puts on her combat suit which is very similar to what Ruby is wearing right now. A corset that connects to a pair of tactical trousers with belts of ammunition for their Rifle in the Scythe. She picks up her white cloak and swings it round and ties it round her neck gently. She keeps the hood down and looks back at Qrow with a loving smile.

Qrow was literally just about to leave the room, but then he stops and walks back to his beloved. He wraps his arms around her and she closes her eyes, sighing hopelessly. “Qrow...” She sighs as he kisses her cheek.

“See...I thought the kids could sit a while longer.” He whispers to her and she giggles, turning to him and straightening his collar.

“It’s uninstructive – not to mention unreasonable.” Summer tells him, still smiling at him as she looks into his red eyes. He caresses her firm cheek with a smile.

“I don’t wanna be reasonable.” Qrow tells her with a smile and she sighs.

“Ah...so that’s the way the wind blows?” She asks him as she caresses his cheek as well. She then looks right into his eyes, more like she is about to give an order as well. “Go help them train, then come back.” She suggests and he sighs, he finally nods and steps away from her for a moment.

“I’ll be right back.” He promises, walking away from her. She smiles as she watches him leave, and he opens the door. He starts to walk down the steps with his sword attached to the rear end of his belt. He walks down and sees Taiyang sat in a chair with a collection of open books at his feet. But no Ruby or Yang there to be reading them, and his head is rested on his hand. The sound of his snores can be heard from the stairs. Qrow chuckles as he gets closer to Taiyang, opening the door. “Bless him, poor old Tai is fast asleep.” Qrow chuckles when he looks at him. Qrow focuses on the books on the ground and he crouches down, looking at the books and he turns one of them to see the title.

_The Grimm Bestiary – By Professor Peter Port_

Qrow chuckles as he looks at it and he stands up. “He’s had them reading through that old brick? No wonder they both took off.” He chuckles, he walks towards the balcony and sets his hands down on the warm stone that it is made out of. The building is at a different section of Signal Academy. The rest of the students are off since it is the holidays, but Taiyang and Summer insisted that they should be able to have some fun learning this way. Since they are so determined to become Huntresses, they should be offered time to train. They did not argue, being able to train with their weapons is all they ever want to do. Qrow can hear the grunts of the two sisters – or cousins in truth – however their family ties make them still siblings to this day, even after the truth was unveiled. Little Ruby and Little Yang train on some holographic Grimm that they can challenge against. Ruby fights with Crescent Rose and Yang with Ember Celica, as they do to this day as well. Qrow smiles as he sees his daughter in action, using the same skills that he taught her with his own Scythe, the same with her mother. “Eager little thing.” Qrow says as he observes her fighting skills.

Taiyang’s snoring cuts for a second and he shudders, nearly hitting his head on the arm of the chair when he slips off his hand. “Huh? What?” Taiyang blurts as he looks around and tries to find the two girls he was teaching. Qrow laughs, turning and crossing his arms as he looks at Taiyang where he sits.

“Wakey, wakey Tai.” Qrow says to him with a smile. “That brick of a book bore you to sleep again?” Qrow asks him, and Taiyang sighs, pressing his hand to his head with frustration.

“Damn it, I was getting them to look at the weaknesses in fighting Boarbatusks and Beowulves. Must have nodded off for a second.” He says as he stands up and walks over to Qrow where he stands. He can already guess what the pair are doing right now as well. “Let me guess, challenging the Holograms again, right?” Taiyang guesses before he looks at what they are doing. He sees Ruby slash across the waist of a holographic Beowulf and he shakes his head. “How many times must we have to tell them? Never train without professionals there to assist. You only build on your mistakes.” Taiyang recites from memory, so clearly they have had that conversation quite a few times. “Bring them both down to the courtyard, they want to practice? They’ll get to practice.” Taiyang says to him, bringing his inner teacher out at this moment. Qrow chuckles with his arms crossed, looking at Taiyang.

“Don’t get mad at them, they’re kids.” Qrow says to him.

“That doesn’t matter, if they refuse to do as they’re told then they must be disciplined.” Taiyang states, since he is a father as well as Qrow.

“You like that about both of them.” Qrow says with a smirk and Taiyang smiles and nods with agreement.

“Alright, you got me there. But this has to stop.” Taiyang says to him and he sighs, nodding. Qrow transforms into his Crow form and he flies towards the two girls as they fight the holographic creatures of Grimm. A Beowulf roars at Yang and she punches it in the head, she has her hair long now. Grown out of her pigtail hairstyle, now to the one she has been well known for. This is happening a year prior to the first time Yang ever met Kassius, after Taiyang saved him from Vytal when it was destroyed in the Grimm attack. When Kassius was found cut to ribbons and barely alive by that Grimm Terror Bird. Ruby leaps and slashes round in her spin attack she does, eviscerating a Grimm Beowulf and killing it instantly.

The crow lands on the ground and then he shifts back into his human form. He crosses his arms as he looks at the two girls training together. They rarely ever fought, they have always been very close sisters. Unlike other siblings that have rivalries throughout their entire lifetime. Like Weiss and Whitley for example, for those two are still at each other’s throats to this day. Ruby and Yang stop in their tracks like they have just been caught doing something very bad. They both walk over to him with their heads held low and eyes looking up at him. “You’re fighting skills are good, but you are both still slow.” Qrow tells them both and Yang giggles.

“Slow for a kid!” She retorts and Qrow scoffs.

“Think a Creep is gonna think twice because you’re a kid? Just easier prey to them.” Qrow explains. “That is why you need to understand the theory behind being a Huntress.” Qrow explains, looking down at the two adorable girls.

“I know...but...that book was terribly boring.” Ruby moans as she looks at her father.

“I know as well.” Qrow agrees, crouching down to meet his daughter’s large silver eyes. “And you know that that is no excuse.” Qrow tells her and she sighs, shrugging her shoulders and then she looks at him.

“I’m sorry – it won’t happen again.” Ruby moans, and Taiyang smiles as he looks down at the two girls being told by him. He then turns and walks back down towards the stairs to get to the Courtyard.

“Better not.” Qrow tells them. “Otherwise your Uncle Tai is gonna make you eat Cold Beans for lunch.” Qrow warns with a smile, and they both writhe with disgust.

“Ew!” They both exclaim and he laughs, rubbing both their heads as he stands up.

“Come on, best not keep your uncle waiting, Ruby. You too Yang, you’re dad has a few words for you as well.” Qrow says to them both and they both waltz with him towards the courtyard. Both looking very guilty. He walks towards the area of which their family is waiting for them. Summer and Raven sit on some of the seats nearby where Taiyang is pacing around. Raven looks at the two of them, sharpening her blade with a whetstone. Sparks burst from the whetstone as it scrapes across the glowing red Odachi Blade.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Raven pronounces as she shakes her head at the two girls, and they walk closer. Summer looks at her daughter and she smiles, not as cold as Yang’s mother is, she is far warmer hearted. Taiyang stands there with his hands planted on his hips as he looks at them as they approach.

“Anything to say for yourselves?” Taiyang asks them both and the two young girls look at each other.

“Sorry, Uncle Tai.” Ruby says.

“Sorry, Daddy.” Yang says, they both make their apologies at the same time, looking as guilty as each other. Qrow looks at them both with his arms crossed as Taiyang begins to speak to them.

“I admire your need to seek action. But if you do not understand the weaknesses of different types of Grimm or if you struggle to identify one when it attacks you, what hope will you have at becoming a decent Huntress? You would just end up getting gobbled up by a Griffin.” He explains to the two of them, he has always been one to tell them how things really are to spare them from living sheltered lives. They know what happens to children that live those lives, especially if the Grimm come crashing down on their homes.

But then...Ruby surprises Taiyang. “To effectively kill a Boarbatusk, you must let trick it into charging into a wall, it will fall on its back, then target the soft underbelly for maximum damage to its body.” Ruby recites, remembering every single word that Professor Port wrote in that book he published. Her astounding memory and the fact that she actually read all of that when he was asleep leaves him speechless for a couple seconds. Summer giggles quietly as she sees her daughter being so bright.

“Hm...So you – did – read it?” Taiyang says with amazement. “Still, that does not excuse the fact that you trained alone. You should have asked...” Before he can finish, however, Yang interrupts him as well.

“But you were asleep, father.” Yang says with a smile on her face and leaving him speechless once again. Qrow looks at the two of them.

“So you did read it...why act all guilty?” Qrow asks them both.

“Wait for the right opportunity to use the trump card, that is how you win a fight. Uncle Tai’s words.” Ruby says, looking at Taiyang and he chuckles when he looks at them. He has always struggled to stay angry at them both because of their genius intellect. Qrow looks at Summer and he smiles at her, amazed at their little girl’s clever tone.

“You’re a fast learner...aren’t you?” He chuckles. Ruby smiles and Yang smiles as well. “Alright, enough sitting around. Summer, you’re with Raven, Qrow with me, and Yang with Ruby.”  Taiyang coordinates for the sparring that they will be doing. They take out their weapons and begin to train.

They train for some time, Qrow swings his sword at Taiyang but he catches the blade and uses his aura to protect his hand from the blade. Yang swings at Ruby and she deflects with Crescent Rose. She looks at her father and smiles. “Hah!” She squeaks, and the two fathers look at their daughters. Something comes over Ruby and she drops Crescent Rose with force and she storms off. Yang looks at her she storms away from them and starts to run through the gates and round the corner.

“Silly thing. When she comes back, we talk to her.” He says and he walks back to the others. Qrow looks at his niece and she walks with her father to her mother as well. Qrow looks back to the gateway that she ran through.

“Come on, Ruby! Come back!” He calls, he can hear her sniffling and crying behind the gates and then he walks round to find her behind the gate. Her sniffling gets louder and the fatherly instinct forms over him, instead of his tutor form. Perhaps they were a little hard on her even though she did everything they asked. He turns the corner, and confusion sets over him.

There is nobody there.

“Ruby?” He calls out, walking back inside the courtyard and he looks around. “Come on...Where’d you go?” He asks with a fearful voice. He then hears the sniffling from a training Dummy that they were using to fight with at times. He hears the sniffles coming from in there, and he slowly walks towards the Dummy and looks at it. Part of it has been torn and he can see the forehead of a girl’s head inside. “Huh?” He mutters, looking back at the others and they are all conversing behind him. He then looks back at the Dummy and it is still there. His eyes narrow with suspicion and he reaches slowly to the linen that is flapping in the wind. He grabs it and yanks it down, tearing it open and he gasps with terror.

Ruby’s head is trapped inside with her eye gouged open from where something flew into her eye. He steps back with horror when he sees her there, and then he hears endless wails of the damned coming from behind him. “Tai!” He calls, and he turns around, his eyes widen in horror from what he sees.

All of the trees are ablaze, turning charred. The moon has completely shattered in the sky, fragments of the moon float away from the planet and he sees Ruby frozen in time. She is unable to move with terror in her young eyes. Emerging from the dark sky, four beings appear before him. The rotten body of the Knight of Fear appears, his eyes glow immense gold as he stares at him, holding his Scythe known as Formido Falcem in one hand, his crossbow in the other as his robes of decayed skin blow in the wind. Loss lands from the sky with her Bow – Arcus Autem Trisitia – in her hand with an arrow ready to be shot as she aims it at Raven who is also frozen. She looks at Qrow with glowing blue eyes behind the dark veil that hides the features of her face faintly. Fury forms from the burning trees, his eyes glowing bright with rage, the smoke and flames trail from his form as he holds his Berserker Axes tight, known as Insanus Tristis Erinys, his Burning Wyvern Wings stretch out and he approaches Taiyang who is also frozen. Summer is there and these horrifying Knights approach her, not like the main four. They are comprised of jet black armour plating ad skeletal bodies underneath.

Finally the leader of the three knights forms. The giant Nevermore flies towards the Courtyard and he transforms into his Knight form. Sharp pieces of metal interlinked together with a cloak of shadows that surrounds him, glowing red eyes focusing on Qrow’s dear Ruby Rose. He walks towards her, his black cape blows in the wind and he draws his sword of shadows, Ferrum Arctus. He looks down at her and then he speaks, his demonic voice hidden behind a mask.

“The Time of End is coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, Corvus.” Death states, his voice passes straight through Qrow and he shudders with fear when Death turns and stares him in the eyes.

He holds Ferrum Arctus in one hand and tightens his grip.

Deaths wings the blade towards Ruby’s head to behead her. “No!” Qrow screams with terror.

The blade meets her neck...

And everything goes black.

 

Suddenly Qrow wakes up, gasping with shock when he sits upright and a flock of black crows fly away from where he was laying. He breathes erratically with shock from the nightmare that he just had to go through and he looks around the area. He and Taiyang have been resting underneath a tree, the fire still burning but faintly at their campsite. Qrow sits up and he buries his head in his hands, rubbing his face to shake it off. But he then stands up and walks away from where he laid and to a log that they were sitting on for their dinner last night. Taiyang opens his eyes and looks at Qrow as he sits down on the log, picking up a chunk of dry wood and throwing it into the flames. He looks at the flames, sitting forward.

Taiyang focuses on his teammate and he sighs. “You alright?” Taiyang asks him. He and Qrow look much older than they had in that nightmare of Qrow’s, they both now have beards. Qrow has grown a full black one, not bushy but not a stubble. He looks much older now than he ever has, whereas Taiyang has still got the same sort of facial hair, just some wrinkles have formed in places. Qrow responds to Taiyang eventually.

“Mhm...Had a nightmare.” Qrow answers, his voice is still pretty shaky, he has clearly been shook up by what he saw in that nightmare.

“About?” Taiyang asks curiously and Qrow sits there, still trying to process everything that he saw.

“Take forever to explain.” Qrow tells him, Taiyang looks off at the horizon and the faint glow of the sun rising up is enough to tell him how much time they have before daybreak.

“Dawn’s some ways off – we’ve got time.” Taiyang tells him and Qrow decides he might as well let him know what it was that he saw in that nightmare.

“It was a...confused memory. Ten years ago...I was in the guest room at Signal Academy, when the rest of the students were off on holiday, and next to me was...” Qrow begins, but he pauses when he is about to say her name. Grief still pulsates across him as he thinks about her, after what happened with Death and his curse. Taiyang raises an eyebrow and he guesses.

“Winter?” He predicts, remembering the short relationship that the two of them had once.

“Summer, strange isn’t it? She was already gone by that point, she never got to see her grow. And Raven had already left with the Tribe at that point as well.” Qrow explains, lots of pain in his voice as he speaks of her. But Taiyang shares that pain, he still lived with her and shared the burden of being her _father_ for all her childhood, when it was never him. He admittedly started to fall in love with Summer, but he knew that she was loyal to Qrow and could never love anyone else. But Taiyang knows to not bring up that subject, that always would end in arguments between the two of them.

“Was she nagging you about something?” Taiyang asks him, since he still knew her very well too.

“Yep.” Qrow answers. Taiyang laughs.

“Very true to life, indeed.” Taiyang says, but then he looks at one of the autumn leaves that has landed before him. Fall is on its way, and soon Winter will come as well. “What else happened?” He asks.

“It was when you were having Ruby and Yang read Port’s Grimm Bestiary, and you fell asleep.” Qrow reminds him, looking back at his old friend, and Taiyang starts to laugh when he remembers that.

“Oh yeah...the two little ones went off and started challenging the holograms, didn’t they?” He asks as he chuckles.

“That’s the one.” Qrow agrees. “I fondly remember how annoyed you were.”

“Those were the days...when things were so simple. Just Grimm, kill that Grimm, save that person. To think I wished it would get more interesting. Never thought that when it did it would be like this.” He sighs, thinking about the Knights of Grimm. Even they on their journeys across Remnant in search for the Spring Maiden have not seen a single Knight, this is the closest thing to seeing them they have had in a long time.

And it was a nightmare.

Taiyang then looks at Qrow, realising that something went wrong in this dream if it was a _nightmare_. “Didn’t end well, did it? Your dream?” He asks him and Qrow shakes his head and sighs.

“The Knights of Grimm appeared when Ruby ran off that one time when we were too hard on her. She was actually there in reality, but when I turned the corner to comfort her, she wasn’t there. Instead...” He stammers and Taiyang looks at him.

“Instead, what?” Taiyang asks.

“I heard her crying when I came back in, and she was inside of one of the Training Dummies, her eye was missing and she was still alive...” He stammers, seeing the horrific image in his mind. “The Knights appeared, and Death told me that – _The Time of End is coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, Corvus._ ” Qrow sighs, remembering the words that Death told him when those glowing red eyes met his ones.

Taiyang sighs and he looks at him. “It was just a dream.” Taiyang tells him, hoping that it will console him. But they both know that seeing the Knights of Grimm in your dreams cannot ever be good. For anyone, and it is yet another circumstance of which somebody has seen the Charred Forest.

Every single time that place appears.

Except Qrow saw it all on fire, Ruby and Yang, Oscar, Jaune...everyone who has seen that in their dreams...it is never on fire. It is the aftermath of the fire.

It means something.

“No...Usually in my dreams it would just be Ruby in danger or something. That I am used to...but this time...the Knights...the forest.” He says as he remember and Taiyang catches him mention the forest.

“The Charred Forest?” He asks with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, but the trees were still burning...the moon was destroyed...exactly the same as what Ruby and Oscar told me...the thing that they saw.” Qrow explains.

“We’ve taught her to defend herself against anything, and she has learned how to fight those things better than any of us. She was captured by them, remember?” Taiyang explains. “Trust me, she can handle herself.”

“I know...just...” He says, unable to put his thoughts into words, but it is something that Taiyang understands.

“Fatherly instincts. You want the best for your baby girl, I know. I have the same thing with my little girl.” Taiyang explains. Qrow looks up when he notices the sky flushing with red as the morning sun rises up and he stand sup.

“Dawn’s breaking. Time to move, we need to catch up to Raven as fast as we can.” Qrow says to him, picking up his sword next to him in the bushes. Taiyang stands up and walks with him as they begin their journey. Qrow pulls out the map, whilst Taiyang checks his scroll on the message that they received from Raven. Raven went on ahead when her men said that they spotted something that would be of interest to her. Since Taiyang and Qrow had a lead as well, they decided to split up. Qrow and Taiyang found nothing on their end, and they received this message.

_Tai,_

_You need to come see what it is I’ve found. Meet me at the Inn at the Blushing Traveller Inn_

_I cannot say anymore till I see you._

_Love you,_

_Raven._

Qrow has pinpointed on the map where the Blushing Traveller Inn is at, it at a Crossroads in the middle of Nowhere in Vale. Luckily they are in Vale, and are not very far from the Crossroads that she has told them to meet her at.

Qrow looks at Taiyang and he nods.

Taiyang nods back.

Hopefully she has some good news.

 

**Sun**

Sun lies in a bathtub and he sighs as he lays there. He closes his eyes and remains there, his shirt and jeans on the floor where he got out of them. He has grime on his body from his contact that he took with Neptune and Oscar. He also has a bandage on his shoulder where the Manticore nicked him in the battle. He takes off the bandage and he looks at the stitching that Neptune did, and it is...not great.

Sun turns his head when he hears the door to the bathroom opening and he sees Blake smiling as she walks inside and closes the door behind him. “Hey.” He says to her and she walks up to him and crouches down beside him. He takes his hand from the water and she holds his hand, kissing it gently, rubbing her thumb across it.

“I missed you, Sun.” She gently tells him with a kind smile. Sun smiles back and he looks at her beautiful eyes. But she spots the wound that he suffered at the hands of the Manticore. Or the claws of it and she gasps when she sees it. “What happened?” She asks him fearfully as she looks at it, and he looks at it.

“Oh, that? That was nothing.” He assures her and she looks right at him and her eyes narrow. She is not one to fall for a lie as easily as that. Her ears bend down and she pinches his chest and he gasps. “Ow!” He shrieks. “Alright, fine!” He gives in and he sits up in the bath to tell her what happened. “So the Manticore was being a bit of a pain, so I thought I’d hold it down with my semblance. It worked because Oscar was able to break its wings, but my aura depleted because of it, and the Manticore got me in the arm with its claw.” He explains to his dear girlfriend and she stands up and starts searching through the cupboards. “What are you looking for?” He asks her.

“First aid.” Blake answers. His eyes widen and he shakes his hands.

“No, no, no. Honestly, babe it’s fine!” Sun begs, hoping she will stop fussing. As always with Sun Wukong, he does not like it when people he cares for get in trouble but he would happily get in trouble if it helps them. Same thing when it comes down to her fussing to find something for him. But Blake is also – well, Blake Belladonna – she does not tend to listen to him all the time.

“No, have you seen that stitching? Looks like it was done by a five year old.” Blake says to him

“Well...it was Neptune.” Sun says to her with a chuckle.

“Exactly my point.” Blake says as she walks back to him after finding the green bag with all the stuff she needs to handle his shoulder. She sits there and she starts to clean the wound, luckily the string he used to stitch the wound is dissolvable, so she does not need to worry about it. She dabs the wound with a piece of cotton and then she takes out the rubbing alcohol to rub onto it so then his wound is disinfected. “Okay, I know you hate this part, but just work with me.” She asks him, clearly meaning that she has done this before with him. He looks at it and his eyes widen.

“Oh great.” Sun groans, closing his eyes so then he does not have to deal with looking at it. She pours a tiny amount of it onto him and rubs it in with a cloth. He groans with pain as it feels like it burns, but the pain is gone pretty fast. She sighs and then takes out the needle and the string.

“And...the boring part.” She sighs, threading the needle and then beginning to sew up the cut he suffered. “So...how much did you say they offered the three of you?” She asks him curiously. Sun has gotten so used to her stitching up his wounds that he just thinks about it whilst she punctures the skin, and he does not even flinch.

“I think...it was something like five hundred lien per person.” Sun calculates in his head, and Blake giggles slightly at the amount.

“One thousand five hundred for a Manticore?” She questions with disbelief at that.

“Yep, we were robbed of a good price, but the guy was insistent of staying below two thousand.” Sun sighs as he holds her hand gently, rubbing the top of her hand with his thumb. Her skin is firm and she smells of lavenders with the perfume she has on. She still has her purple eye shadow on as always.

“Should have brought Ren with you, guy’s a master at haggling.” Blake giggles, remembering how Ren haggled with Grif with his ridiculous prices for the products he was selling to Goodwitch.

“Yeah, not surprised. Ren’s one of those guys who I have never seen mad and I never want to get him mad.” He chuckles as he thinks of a Kuroyurian’s rage.

“So how’d you find it? Why’d it take longer than you expected?” Blake asks him, looking at him with her stunning amber eyes. Sun exhales with exhaustion just from remembering how long it took to find and kill the beast.

“Well...the thing wasn’t very easy to track. It had been avoiding Huntsman for a long time, that was clear, because the only tracks were of it taking the sheep and flying away with them. Hard to track that, really.” Sun explains and Blake nods, agreeing with him as well.

“I can see that.” She agrees.

“But, it turns out that the Shepherd had a plan. He was gonna send some of his unhealthy sheep out there to try and lure it out for us. We knew it was living in the mountains but it would be hours before we would find it, and it’d probably fly off by the time we found its nest. So, we followed his plan and remained in hiding for the Manticore to show up.” He explains, remembering their plan.

She looks at Sun longingly, to think that once she was always pushing him away because of the feelings she was developing for him. And now she cannot sit in a room without him for too long. “Took a day and a half for the thing to catch the scent, but it turned up eventually. When it showed up, Neptune shot its wing a couple times to weaken it. So we followed the black blood up the mountain and then we found the nest. Thing was not very happy to see us.” He says and it makes Blake giggle with a smile.

“I’m not surprised.” She says while she smiles at him.

“Neither was I, honestly. So we fought it for a while, we managed to down it, got hit by it afterwards. It was Oscar who managed to kill it, took his sword and stabbed the thing through the head when he used his semblance. Killed it pretty quick.” Sun explains with a chuckle as he remembers how the monster was killed that day. “Wasn’t an easy fight, though.” He sighs as he thinks back.

“What of the Sheep?” She asks.

“They survived, the really hard part was guiding them back down the mountain if I’m gonna be honest with you.” Sun explains, shaking his head with wide eyes at this. The same problem that Oscar told Ruby when he got back to her, and Blake raises an eyebrow with a smile on her face.

“What?” She asks with a laugh in her soft voice.

“Well...I didn’t realise that Sheep would run in the opposite direction of where you are. If you walk on its right, it turns left. Walk on its left, it turns right. I’ve never herded sheep before so I didn’t know that, Oscar did but even he was having some trouble guiding them. They nearly fell off the mountain about six times.” He says with annoyance.

Blake giggles with joy as he tells her that. “Honestly, they are utter pain in the asses. You’d think they were trying to kill themselves.” He says, shaking his head. Blake laughs and then she finishes up on the wound with her needle.

“So the hardest part of the whole Contract...was the sheep? Not even the Manticore?” She asks him with a laugh.

“Yeah, Manticore was easy in comparison.” He says to her and that makes her laugh again. She smiles and rests her head beside him on the bathtub as she holds his hand. He looks at her and he easily gets lost in the beauty of her face and her eyes. She takes the bag of medicine and stuff and goes to put it away, until she feels Sun’s tail gently moving across her waist and she sits there, a smile appears on her face as she feels him holding her gently. Sun smiles as he holds her and she looks at him with only her eyes, they narrow slightly.

“What are you doing?” She asks him suspiciously.

“Nothing...” He lies.

Her eyes widen, remembering that he is in the bath. “Don’t you dare!” She squeaks as she tries to flee from him. He rises up and grabs her, she laughs and kicks her feet as he pulls her into the bath with her and she giggles in his arms. The water splashes across her clothes and into her hair. Sun holds her close as she laughs adorably, her body soaked with water now, and she cannot even be mad at him. The old Blake would have been, but the new Blake loves him too much to be mad. She lies on his bare chest and she caresses his cheek as he looks at her and she smiles. “This is gonna take forever to dry.” Blake tells him, her hand on his chest gently and he smiles.

“Ah, we’ve got a dryer.” He says with a smile and she giggles.

“You’re gonna pay for this later.” She promises.

“Oh yeah? I’m looking forward to it.” He says as they both share a long kiss, her arms around him as he holds her. She sits up and pulls him up with her as they kiss. He pushes his hand through her long black hair. She presses her forehead to his and is about to take things a step further.

Until...

“Hey Sun!” Neptune calls from outside of the bathroom. They both sigh with disappointment, about to have some fun...then he interrupts them. She hugs him and pushes her head into his shoulder as he holds her.

“Yeah?” He responds.

“I thought I’d set up some Blackjack! Wanna come?” He asks him.

“Yeah, sure. In a bit.” He says as he looks at his girlfriend.

“See you then.” Neptune says back and Blake looks at him with her head pressed to his as she holds him.

“As much as I’d love to keep going, Sun...They are expecting me.” She sighs sadly.

“Later then?” He asks her.

She smiles and kisses him again. When their kiss is broken she answers. “Later.” She answers.

 

**Ruby**

She walks around the courtyard with Oscar, holding his hand as they walk around. She rests her head on his shoulder as they walk through the courtyard and then she stops, closing her eye as she stands there. Oscar stops and he turns, looking at his girlfriend, and he walks up to her. “Hey? What’s up?” Oscar asks her, holding her hands and she sighs, opening her eye and looking at him with a smile.

“Sorry...I just...Worried about my dad, you know?” She says to him, now that she knows that Qrow is indeed her father. The discussions had were very confusing to her, about how after all this time the person she believed to be her cool uncle was in fact her cool dad. But she still sees Taiyang as her father as well, because at the end of the day he was the one that raised her, not Qrow.  Oscar understands instantly as well, one of the sole reasons that she fell in love with him in the first place. Because he understood what was going on in her head, and with everything going on. It is no surprise that she is suffering like this.

She also will have to go and see Kragen again for more lessons on how to truly use her power as a Silver Eyed Warrior. He let her have a few months to practice on her own and she is trying so hard, but it is harder than it looks. For him it is just like a button, but for her she has to search her soul and find a way to activate it herself. Oscar holds her hands and he looks at her with a kind smile. “Hey? He’ll be fine, he’s a Professional Huntsman, if he struggled against a Beowulf then he wouldn’t be here right now, would he?” Oscar explains and she giggles, looking at her feet.

“Yeah...it’s just that...the Knights – we did not free their souls. They are still out there, and we haven’t seen them in five years.” Ruby says.

“Trust me, Rubes, I know.” Oscar assures. “And I don’t like it either, none of us do. The people who were at the Volcanic Chain Isles know it, the Knights are smart. Even the Grimm have stopped their attacks, they nearly vanished for a few years. And Jacques Schnee disappeared, so did Ortega and the Acolytes of Lien. All of our enemies have been disappearing without a trace, apart from the White Fang.” Oscar explains.

“Yeah, Blake told me the stuff that Mazen said to her. He still thinks Humans hate the Faunus and Humanity must be destroyed.” Ruby says, walking with Oscar.

“Well, If I learned anything when with you at Salem’s Sanctum, it’s that something drives all of our foes. Jacques is driven by power, Ortega...I don’t know about him...and the Knights seem to be driven by duty.” Oscar explains.

“Yeah...what about that...Vir Nominis Umbrella guy?” Ruby asks, and her version of his name is much funnier than his actual name.

“Umbra.” He corrects and she giggles.

“Oh, yeah. That’s it.” She says.

“I don’t know about him...I haven’t seen him since when I was thrown into Arkhonex and he gave me that...choice.” He explains, and Ruby smiles as she caresses his cheek.

“Thank you for choosing me...” She says with a sense of true gratitude and he holds her hand and kisses her.

“I’d never betray you...although I have to admit...he made it very clear that there would be big consequences for both choices...I just don’t know...” He explains, sounding afraid of his choice to choose the Blue Potion and putting it in Cynthia’s drink was the right thing to do.

“What do you mean?” Ruby asks him curiously.

“He said the consequences would be dire for both outcomes...the red would be I’d betray you, or I trick Cynthia.” Oscar explains, five years have passed and that decision is still on his mind. “What – what if she found out I lied to her? Robbed her of what she wanted? Could she be the reason all this happened? Out of anger?” He asks.

“Well, that was thousands of years ago. I don’t think you have to worry about her coming back for vengeance.” She giggles and he sighs, having to agree with her logic.

But the thought is not going away.

Yes Cynthia is no threat, but could she have created something against him?

Or maybe Cynthia never found out the truth and lived happily with that thought in her mind, but she must have had another partner for Pyrrha to even exist. Ruby looks at Oscar and the name still rattles around in her mind...

Vir Nominis Umbra.

“Didn’t my Qrow – I mean my dad – say he spoke to him? When you were planning to get me?” Ruby asks him, they both stop by the colonnades.

“Yeah. The guy is definitely not human, or is a Time Traveller like me...I don’t know, though. He helped us find you, though. He gave us the information that was important, so...well I don’t know if he is on anyone’s side.” Oscar sighs when he thinks about him, then something appears in her mind when she sees Roman stood there. His usual annoying self is no very quiet and sad.

Then she remembers...

The Soothsayer that poisoned Neo and made her lose her voice...Everyone has said that Vir Nominis Umbra regards himself as both a Soothsayer and a Humble Merchant. “I think Roman met him once.” Ruby tells him and Oscar looks at her.

“Torchwick?” He asks with confusion.

“Yeah, you know because he’s in my head? One time he told me something pretty deep to him, about how his girlfriend – Neo – lost her voice. He said that a Soothsayer poisoned her and left. He described him in a similar way.” Ruby explains, remembering the heartbreaking story of Neo’s problem that she suffers from. It is not a thing she was born with, her voice was taken from her. In a horrific way as well.

“The guy’s dangerous, no doubt about that.” He sighs as they keep on walking.

They turn a corner, then Ruby feels a jolt of terror pass through her body. She screams with horror, falling onto the floor from what she just saw.

Tyrian.

He was stood right there, staring right at her.

Ruby has started to shake erratically from fear, her hands rattling constantly and she is hyperventilating with fear. But the image of Tyrian is gone, he was never there to begin with. All that talk of a man that is dangerous created the image in her mind, scaring her to her core. Oscar crouches down in front of her and Ruby crawls backwards and she begins to cry with terror. Oscar wraps his arms around her and holds her close. He kisses her cheek as he hugs her, she cries into his shoulder.

Oscar looks at her and he wipes the tears from her eyes. “Ruby! Calm down...breathe with me okay?” He asks her calmly, breathing in and out and Ruby watches him. She mirrors what he does, breathing in and out slowly to calm her heart rate down and then she sniffles. She wipes the tears from her eyes from her terrifying fright. He sits there and lets Ruby lie on him as he holds her close, she holds onto him tight.

This is not the first time she has suffered from events like that. But it has never happened that suddenly before, henceforth that is why her reaction was so sudden.

Her condition has been very serious, for in the first year of being away from the Sanctum and being free. She suffered with sleep, emotions and seeing Tyrian and other terrifying things everywhere. She still struggles with sleep, having nightmares and even lashing out occasionally. The lashing out part has not happened in a while, but it could happen at any time.

Ever since she has been sharing the same bed as Oscar, however, she has had a better time sleeping. He also suffered similar issues, but not as serious as hers was. He was not subjected to the same level of torture as her, he has more anxiety of her safety than his own.

Ruby still breathes fearfully, holding his hand tight and he caresses her long black and red hair.

Tyrian has left his mark.

He has given Ruby a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.


	5. Fallen Leader

**Qrow**

The Branwen Brother walks with his friend Taiyang across the roads of dirt towards the crossroads that lies in wait for them. Horses have travelled past this area a couple of times, travellers that move round the countryside, far away from the troubles of the city. Qrow stops as he looks at the Inn, and then he looks at Taiyang. The blonde haired man nods to Qrow and he nods back. They both walk towards the Inn, Qrow pushes the door open and he looks around as he enters. There are many people inside of this place, all kinds of low-life’s that come here all the time. Qrow looks at the Innkeeper; she is a fair young woman with long brown hair that has been tied up into a ponytail. She wears a dress with a short skirt and large brown eyes, freckles under her eyes on her cheekbones. She is a very pretty young girl and she eyes up Qrow with a smile. He winks and grins at her as he approaches some of them men inside of the tavern.

Taiyang bumps Qrow’s shoulder. “See if any of them have seen her.” Taiyang whispers to him, but Qrow is already one step ahead of him. He walks over to a table which has three men sat there. They all look like bandits or mercenaries, not from the Acolytes of Lien or Raven’s Tribe, just scumbags that live out there in the wilds. They have beards, grime on their faces and chipped nails. One of them looks at Qrow when he approaches.

“Hey-o, who’s this pretty boy?” One of the brutish men questions, a gravelly voice and clearly a very pleasant persona from his harsh tone.

“A guy who’s looking for a woman.” Qrow tells him, obviously a poor choice of words as well.

“Ah, like everyone.” One of the other men scoffs as he drinks his mead in his wooden mug.

“Not like everyone, she has raven black hair, red eyes and carries a rare sword on her hip.” Qrow describes and one of the men sighs.

“Bugger off! We’re enjoying our drink, we were polite at first, but now you are just being annoying. Now leave us be before we have to make this violent.” The man says, but Qrow slams his fist onto their table to get their attention.

“You really wanna start a fight with a Huntsman?” Qrow snarls as he stares at them, pointing at his sword on his back. The men sit there and they scoff, looking back to their mugs.

“We haven’t seen a lass like that, ask others.” They state, intimidated by Qrow’s threat he made them. One of the men spots a fly landing in the soup he has before him, essentially ruining it and he moans like a child. Qrow’s Bad Luck Charm coming into action right there, and he sighs, walking away from their table and they continue to look around. Taiyang approaches a man who sits there, he appears to be a merchant and he sits down on the other side of his table.

“Hi there.” Taiyang greets.

“Greetings, sir.” The Merchant politely replies, luckily this merchant is not Vir Nominis Umbra in any way.

“I’m looking for someone, a woman with raven black hair, red eyes, she carries a sword on her hip. Seen her?” Taiyang asks and the Merchant ponders on the thought for a couple of seconds.

“I think I did see her here a few moments ago.” He admits and he leans forward.

“Where was she?” Taiyang asks, listening carefully to the words of this merchant. He turns and then points, but he jolts with disbelief when he sees who is sat there. It is in fact Raven. “But...she wasn’t...” He stammers with confusion, and Taiyang smiles at her when he sees the black feather on the floor. She used her Raven form to get in and out without anybody noticing otherwise. He stands up and turns to Qrow.

“Qrow!” He calls; he turns and looks at Taiyang. “Found her.” He says with a smile as he looks at his beloved again. He then looks at the Merchant. “Thanks for the help.” He says to him, walking away from the Merchant who assisted them without even intending to.

“You’re...welcome.” He slowly says, still confused of how she managed to just appear there like that.

The two of them approach her and she looks at them, her intricate helmet rests on the table and she moves it aside for them as they both sit down on the opposite side of the table. “Long time no see.” Qrow greets his sister as he looks at her and she smiles, but she looks at Taiyang immediately after. Their relationship is rebuilding over time, something about what happened on those Islands brought Team S.T.R.Q back together, even if Summer is not around to fill it up again. She sits forward to present the information that she has collected whilst she went on her own path.

“So...did you find anything?” Qrow asks her with a raised eyebrow.

“Something important and something not as important. Which do you wanna hear first?” She asks them with her hands held out to them.

“Least important first, might as well build up the suspense.” Taiyang chuckles, making Raven smile and giggle slightly. She then begins the tale of what she found out.

“First of all, when I was following the trail my operative caught onto, I went to a tavern for some rest. And I saw someone of interest to us there.” Raven begins and they both begin to guess on who it could possibly be.

“Salem.” Qrow immediately guesses, so ridiculous of a guess though it actually makes Raven laugh at the suggestion.

“I wouldn’t go that crazy.” She says with a laugh.

“Yeah, I doubt Salem would hang out in a Human Tavern after her failure.” Taiyang chuckles and Qrow shrugs his shoulders. Taiyang then presents his guess. “Jacques Schnee?” He asks her and she gives him a look, like he was close to catching the bait but not close enough.

“Ooh, so close.” She says and they both sigh with sadness at their immense failures. “It was Darren Ortega.” She tells them and they look pretty surprised at that a well.

“Hanging out in an Inn?” Qrow questions.

“Yep.” Raven answers with a firm head nod.

“Sounds like the Acolytes of Lien are not fairing too well right now.” Taiyang chuckles at the circumstances.

“They did lose a lot of soldiers five years ago, many of them probably left whilst they still could.” Qrow says to him, remembering mainly the Battle of the Roses, when hundreds of Mercenaries were killed in the battle.

“That’s true; I guess trying to wage a war with mercenaries as your army does not end well.” He chuckles.

“Appears so, and it did not look like he had any intention of leaving. He was just drinking his life away in that bar. So hopefully that will be the last we see of him. Now onto the important bit.” Raven explains, she reaches down into the V Neck of her dress and pulls out what appears to be a photograph. They both lean forward to look at the picture she sets down on the table. Hiding it in that exact part of her body would prove to be a challenge of any looters managing to pickpocket her and taking the picture. Guys do not have the same sort of advantage on that part.

Qrow examines the features of the photograph and admittedly, his curiosity has been piqued by what he sees. It is some sort of structure, Arkhoni Aged without a doubt. Similar to the Arkhoni Amphitheatre that Team J.N.R and Kassius camped out in on their search for Pyrrha. They look at it and it is much, much bigger than that one is. And in much better condition as well, trees and other flora growing across the stonework, impressive architecture. They then look at Raven for some answers of why this picture is so important for some reason. “What’s so important about it? I’m missing the point here.” Qrow asks, confused of what the significance of the photograph is.

Raven sighs, rolling her large red eyes as she points at a certain point on the picture. They trace her nail down to something on the structure and then they realise. There is a marking on a collapsed brick of stone in the soil. At first it would look like cracks, but when looked at carefully, it is something else entirely. It is a wreath of flowers that have been woven together, the same wreath that Yenna wore when she first met Kragen Nox and he turned her into the Spring Maiden. But when they stayed together for many years, they fell in love and wished to never part from one another. Until the war came crashing down on their home and they both had to flee from their home. Thousands of years have passed since that war happened, many more have happened afterwards, including the Great War, and they still have not seen each other since.

But he seems to be very certain that she is still the Spring Maiden.

Qrow leans back and then he looks at Raven, for she did harbour the Spring Maiden for some time. “Are we certain that this Yenna woman is still the same Spring Maiden that Kragen knew?” Qrow asks her.

“From what Kragen described her as, with the black hair, the violet eyes and so forth...it must have been her. And he did say that she would not age, none of the original maidens would age, but once it leaves and goes to a new host then it is only bound to them in their youthful years.” Raven explains, remembering the words that Kragen said to her when they spoke to him some time ago.

“Did she mention anything when you harboured her?” Taiyang asks her.

“I did harbour her for some time when she was fleeing from Salem and her minions. But she vanished when the Knights of Grimm came into the picture, she always told me about a place she wanted to go visit, it sounded a lot like this place. The informant I met at the tavern where I saw Ortega at gave me the picture. This is the same place, and maybe she left that marking there as clue for us to find her.” Raven explains, and then Qrow figures something out that must have crossed their minds.

“Which means she is still being hunted.” Qrow realises.

“But by who? Salem and her minions have been broken, she is probably still out there, but Hazel and Cinder are searching for the Summer Maiden. Who else would be going after her?” Taiyang asks, trying to list the names and then Raven looks at them.

“The girl that I fought...the one that was gonna kill Yang on the train...Fear showed me it and warned me to save her in that fight.” Raven says, trying to remember her name.

“Neo?” Qrow asks.

“Yeah...could it be her? She’s a young woman; she could easily take the power from her.” Raven asks them, wondering if the mute girl could be trying to become more powerful. By the looks on Qrow’s face on the other hand, he does not seem to agree with the theory, he shakes his head.

“She’s a criminal, she has never been interested in _power_ just _chaos_.” Qrow states from memory of what the young pink and brown haired girl was capable of.

“What did Torchwick want? From what Ruby said those two were bound to each other like glue.” Taiyang asks him.

“Torchwick wanted to survive, she wanted him and he wanted her. Simple as that, they had the same needs.” Qrow explains, as if he can see her face in his memory of the things that she is capable of.

“So who could it be?” Taiyang wonders.

“You don’t think...Cinder would?” Raven asks, suggesting a possible theory but Qrow shakes his head again.

“With Kassius being alive? That realisation alone made her join our side; I really hope that she wouldn’t go back to Salem’s side. Salem wouldn’t let her come back either, she would kill her where she stood after her part in ending her plan on those islands.” Qrow explains and Raven leans forward.

“You’re not just saying that because she saved your daughter, are you?” Raven asks him, concerned for his state of mind.

“No – I’m just saying that I hope she is not that stupid.” Qrow explains to the two of them and she nods, dropping the subject and she looks at the picture again to figure out what is happening at the moment in the world of remnant.

“So what next? Keep following the trail?” Taiyang asks.

“Yeah...and this is our best bet.” Raven says to them, pointing down at the picture with her finger.

“Alright, so where is this place?” Qrow asks her.

“Not far, come on. I’ll show you the way.”

 

**Weiss**

She sighs with frustration at Neptune when she sits down at the table, the cards are set down in the middle of it and she crosses one leg over the other as she looks at it. They are sat in the old Team R.W.B.Y Dorm Room, and strangely enough it is untouched. They had to do some cleaning up as some Grimm did happen to explore the place a little bit, but the Bunk Beds are still the same, just everything was on the floor. The Grimm were searching for the Relic, since Salem did not know that Qrow had the Cane. She looks at Neptune as he sets the stuff down and she raises her brow at him. He catches the look on her face and he pauses, with fear in his eyes as well. “What?” Neptune asks her with his hands held out.

“I thought when you said we were gonna be doing something fun, it would be a nice restaurant in Vale, or something.” She complains.

“You complain now, but you’re gonna love this.” Neptune promises and she sighs again, sitting there. The doors open and Sun walks into the dormitory with Nora and Ren.

“How’s everybody doing?” Sun asks them all as they walk in, and by everybody, he means the two other people in the room.

“Doing pretty well, setting up some Blackjack!” Neptune tells him with a smile on her face and she remains sat there with her arms crossed. Nora gasps with wide eyes, clearly beaming with excitement.

“Oh yes! I’m gonna thrash you all!” Nora challenges with the most excited voice anyone has ever heard in their entire lives. Neptune chuckles when he hears her say that, glad to see somebody is excited to play. Ren sits down next to Nora and he looks at them all with his legs crossed.

“This is nice.” Ren says as he sits there, Sun sits on the chair and literally crosses his legs on the chair like he is sat on the floor. His tail wraps around the chair and sits on his shoulder; he looks at them all as they sit there. Weiss looks at Neptune as he sits down. But then he notices that they are missing someone.

“Where’s our sixth player?” He asks.

“Well, Jaune is sitting this one out. He is focused on everything with Pyrrha.” Ren says.

“And he got destroyed last time; I still don’t think he has recovered his Lien.” Nora giggles, whispering to them, and somehow another side of Weiss is revealed. She raises her brow and leans forward.

“Lien? We’re playing for Lien?” She asks.

“Oh yeah, High Stakes.” Sun chuckles.

She smirks and then seems to be more interested in the game now. “Oh, I’m hooked now.” Weiss says with a grin, and Neptune looks at his girlfriend with a truly bewildered look on his face. She never ceases to surprise him at times with the stuff that he comes out with.

“I never took you for a gambler.” Neptune chuckles when he looks at the Schnee Woman by his side and she looks far more proper now, flicking her hair back with her hand with a smile on her face.

“If there is one good thing about my father that I can admit is that he taught me to be a risk taker. I’ll happily take part now.” She says with pride and Neptune chuckles.

The door suddenly bursts open with Kassius stood there, his arms splayed out theatrically. However it is clearly not him from the colour of his eyes as they glow red. Hyde seems to want to introduce themselves instead of Kassius, which never ends particularly well. Considering his choice of words in the past, he is not the best soul to bring to occasions; Kassius on the other hand is lovely. Hyde uses Kassius’ body to plant his hands on his hips as he enters, with the phrase erupting from his vocal chords. “What’s up, bitches!” Hyde cheers as he stands there, then the amber coloured eyes return, and Kassius sighs as he stands there.

“Thanks, Hyde.” He says as he shakes his head.

Sun sees him and points at Kassius. “Hey, he’s armless!” Sun cracks and Kassius laughs.

“Ha! Never heard that one before.” Kassius bluntly says with an expressionless face, eyelids covering most of his eyes as he walks towards them. And since he said – _before_ ­– means that Sun has said that joke multiple times. The scars on his face have faded magnificently, not as bad as the scars on his back and chest that he suffered from the Terror Bird all those years ago.

“Hyde really does have a way with words doesn’t he?” Ren chuckles when he sees Kassius walking over to the table, he pulls out a chair and he sits down.

“That’s putting it lightly.” Kassius scoffs.

“I got plenty more, Renny-Boy.” Hyde says in Kassius’ head, but the host keeps that at bay.

“I don’t think they need a demonstration, Hyde.” Kassius replies in his head as well, he has learned how to communicate with Hyde in his head instead of just saying it aloud. But he sometimes just says it aloud whenever it is best suited. Like for his arrival to the Dorm. Neptune acts as the Card Dealer but he is taking part as well, they all have put lien on the table for this game as they play.

He sets two cards down on the table for them, the rule of the game? The one who gets to twenty one or is the closest below that in the game wins, if anyone goes over, they are out, and the losers give the winner a lien. They keep playing the game for a maximum of ten rounds; the one who wins the most wins the game. A difficult game, however, since the game all relies on luck.

Weiss picks up her cards and she looks at them, calculating the amount she has already got. She has a five and a six, meaning that she overall has eleven as her score. She holds them close with a smile on her face. She seems very willing to play this game now, all because there is real money on the line. Ren picks up his and he already has a ten and a five, meaning he is beating Weiss by four. Neptune sets his two cards down before him and then puts the stack in the middle of the table. Neptune checks his cards; he has gotten an Ace and a nine. He could either chose to make the Ace be an Eleven or a One, depending on the amount he has.

Sun picks his cards up with his tail, his blue eyes examine the cards and he figures out what he has at the moment. A four and a two, he has the lowest at the moment in comparison, but they don’t know it yet. Nora picks up hers and the biggest grin appears on her face, the most cunning grin as well. She has a five and a ten, meaning she can still take the risk. Kassius is the last to lift his ones up and he looks at them. A Two and a Three, now he is the actually the lowest instead of Sun. “Well...plenty of times to get more.” Hyde suggests in Kassius’ head, and they begin.

“So, who shall go first?” Neptune asks, and Nora’s hand shoots up.

“Hit me.” She demands.

Neptune draws a card and gives it to her, she gets a five and she lands on twenty. She squeaks extremely loudly with excitement. She bounces in her seat and then she thinks of her next plan. “I’ll stick with this for now.” She says, setting her cards down on the table. Ren looks at them and he sighs, knowing that he has to try and either match her or try and hope that he will get a six. This was also Jaune’s poor tactic when he last played; he got a ten when he had twenty.

Jaune ran out of the building with shame.

Ren makes his decision. “Hit me.” He calmly requests, and Neptune draws a card and hands it to him, he flips the card and he sighs.

Seven.

Nora throws her arms up in the air and she cheers.

“Yay!” She cheers, then kissing Ren on the cheek. She can never act like that without some compassion to her beloved boyfriend. He sets his cards onto the table and pushes them to the middle, next to the stack that sits there. Neptune then turns to Weiss and she smiles, looking at the eleven that she has at the moment.

“What’ll it be, Ice Queen?” Sun asks her with a cunning smile. He has always been a very competitive player, both in cards and in video games. Anything he can be competitive at, in fact, he will be competitive. And so is Weiss, for once she gets into it, and one would never expect her to be the regal Weiss Schnee.

She then looks at her boyfriend with a smirk. “Hit me, if you actually hit me, I’ll slap you into next week.” She threatens, pointing at him and his heart pounds with fear of her. She will slap him anyway if he gives her a bad card. Weiss is clearly the dominant on in their relationship, without a doubt. His hand rattles erratically as he picks up the card and gives it to her. He takes it gently and slowly turns it round, his teeth chatter from his fear. She gazes upon the number of which that adds onto the eleven she already has.

Nine.

She now has twenty, and she looks at Nora with a smile. She could either take the risk and go for an ace that could be hiding in that pile somewhere, or stick and tie with Nora.

Weiss has made her decision.

“I’ll stick with this one.” Weiss says, leaning back in her chair and leaving her cards behind on the table. Neptune exhales with relief.

“Sun, it’s your turn.” Neptune tells him and Sun looks at his cards that his tail holds. He rubs his chin with his thumb as he wonders what he should do.

“Yep, hit me.” Sun says.

“Six.” Neptune translates as he gives him the card.

“Hit me.” Sun repeats, trying his luck as well with the twelve he has just gotten. Neptune picks up another card and sets it down.

“Seven.” Neptune states, giving him the card. Sun’s heart beats hard, he does not want to lose, but if he does not do anything then he loses anyway. He needs to get either twenty or twenty one to beat Weiss and Nora.

“Screw it, hit me.” Sun decides, waiting to see what it is.

“Nine.” Neptune says, and Sun throws his cards down from his table and onto his spot.

“Damn it!” Sun exclaims with defeat, his head slams down on the table and he groans. Nora and Weiss giggle as they wait. Now it is Neptune’s turn. He cracks his fingers; he is the one with the ace right now. If he decides on eleven he could get to twenty and tie with the others. He goes with that.

“I’m already tied!” Neptune cheers, holding up his

Weiss gasps with either pride for seeing him make it to her level with Nora, or frustration because now she has to challenge him again in the next round. They all now look at Kassius, the last one to go with the lowest number of all of them. “What’ll it be, Kas?” Neptune asks him and he looks at the five that he has. He cracks his neck, confident that he will make it or beat them.

“Hit me.” He says.

Neptune sets down a card. “Two.”

“Hit me.” Kassius repeats.

Neptune sets another card down. “Three.”

He is now at ten.

“Hit me.” Kassius keeps on repeating, Neptune draws yet another card for him.

“Five.” Now he is at fifteen. Weiss looks more and more worried, she did not come this far to be beaten. Nora however is on the edge of her seat, she doesn’t care if she loses or not. It’s all still fun in her mind.

“Hit me.” Kassius repeats, getting dangerously close to going over right now.

“Five.” Neptune says, now at Twenty. He sits there, thinking to himself on his odds now. He could either join the tie or try and break it and win. Nobody has gotten an Ace yet, and that must mean that the next one is the one that he needs. His tactics have always been good in the past.

“Do it.” Hyde encourages, at the end of the day it’s not his lien. He’s just here to enjoy the show.

“Hit me.” Kassius says. Neptune sets down the card in front of him.

“Ten.” Neptune says.

“No!” Kassius wails, his head hits the table and he lies there, moaning with defeat as he lays there. Weiss, Nora and Neptune laugh at his defeat.

“Wow, Kassius. I don’t think I could have messed up _that_ bad.” Sun chuckles.

“No, Jaune beat him once.” Ren points out.

“How?” Sun asks, thinking it must be mathematically impossible to lose by more than thirty like Kassius just did.

“He accidentally said eleven when he had twenty after getting an ace. Neptune of course counted that as what it was.” Ren explains and Sun bursts into laughter, kicking his legs back and forth in his chair. He laughs so hard that he falls back in the chair, and they all laugh, even Kassius laughs a little with his face still planted into the table.

“Hey, it was worth it in the end.” Hyde says, the enabler that he is.

“Yay...” He groans.

They all push their cards back into the middle, and since it is Weiss versus Nora versus Neptune, Ren decides to do the shuffling of the cards. He shuffles them like a ninja, doing it swiftly and methodically. He then sets the cards down in the middle and hands two cards to the three players left in the game. The winner of this match gets a lien from each loser.

Weiss picks her cards up and her large blue eyes gaze upon the numbers she has just received. A ten and a nine...she has nineteen already. She has the best luck of the table somehow and sets her cards onto the table. Since it is no secret in this game, the other players are allowed to see the numbers of the others. Neptune looks at his cards on the table; he has a five and an eight, meaning he has thirteen. Nora finally looks at the ones she has in her hands and she smirks cunningly at her two opponents when she sets her ones down on the table.

A ten and a ten.

She is already in the lead, having fantastic luck just like Weiss does. Ren stands there with his hands behind his back by the stack. “Right, who would care to go first?” Ren asks the three.

“Me!” Nora squeaks, always eager to go first in anything. Ren smiles and he looks at her, and then at her cards...she is thinking carefully of what she should do and she then looks at Kassius.

“Hey, don’t look at me for assistance.” He chuckles at his poor luck at this game.

“Actually...I’m gonna stick with this.” She says, taking the risk that could end well for her. There is always the risk that Weiss could get two and win, but there is also the risk she could get a three or higher. Weiss thinks to herself as she prepares herself, but Neptune is the one who is going next. He looks at his cards, the thirteen that he has.

“Hit me.” Neptune says, then Nora lightly punches his shoulder, and even that still hurts a bit. “Ow!” Neptune squeals, holding his arm and Nora giggles.

Ren draws a card and hands it to him.

“Six.” Ren says and that gives Neptune nineteen, same as Weiss. He sucks through his teeth as he thinks, but he also knows that he must take the risk if he is going to beat Nora. He exhales and makes his decision.

“Hit me.” Neptune says, swiftly glancing at Nora who is just smirking. Ren draws the card and the gives it to him and he looks at it.

“Three.” Ren says, he missed it by one!

“Aw!” Neptune groans, but he cannot even be overly mad at that, since he was so close. But he still sinks down in his chair and then he looks at his girlfriend. Weiss sits there and then she looks at them all and then at Neptune. He might have lost, but she could still beat Nora. Nora leans forward with a grin.

Then Weiss decides. “Hit me.” She demands.

Ren draws the card and gives it to her. It is still flipped over, she cannot see the number as of yet as she slowly lifts it up, her eyes watching Nora. She then flips it over.

Two.

“Two!” She cheers and Nora’s eyes widen with disbelief at her luck at drawing that. Weiss got exactly twenty one, and thus wins the round! She wraps her arms around Neptune and kisses him.

“So I still kinda won!” He laughs as she breaks the kiss with him. She leans back a little and raises an eyebrow as she rubs her thumb across his cheek.

“Oh yeah? How’d you figure that?” She asks him with a smile.

“Well, you know the old saying, what’s mine is yours, vice versa?” He suggests, smiling away, she then gets closer to him.

“Oh...I thought that was when a couple get married...are you suggesting something?” She asks him with a smile.

“I dunno...am I?” He asks her and she giggles, kissing him again.

“Aw!” Nora exclaims at their adorable love. They break they kiss and Weiss blushes sweetly at them all as she takes her seat again beside her loved one.

“Right! Round two?” Sun asks as he leans forward, ready to play again.

“Oh yes, I love this game!” Weiss cheers, a total flip of how she thought of the game initially. They all get their cards and Kassius looks at his. He then begins.

“Hit me!” Kassius says, Nora is now dealing the cards and gives him one.

“Ten!” She says.

“Hit me!” He repeats.

“Two!” She says again.

“Hit me!” He repeats.

“Ten!” Nora cheers.

“Fu-!”

 

**Blake**

Blake stands outside of the Cells where Mazen is still locked up. He sits on the bed with his hands clasped together, looking down at the floor, probably with his eyes closed. He refuses to remove the White Fang Mask even now. She watches him through the two-way mirrored glass, she can see him but he cannot see her. They have his Chainsword in the evidence lockup room, it is very different to the Chainsaw that he used when he fought them on the train. How he survived the crash is a miracle, or where he went to get back to the rest of the White Fang.

She jumps when she hears a voice behind her, and the smell of a freshly made hot tea for her. “Tea?” Glynda asks her with a smile and she smiles, taking the tea politely.

“Oh, thank you.” Blake says with a smile on her face and they both look at the prisoner in his cell, he has said nothing either. But he also does not look like he is waiting to be rescued, he is just...thinking. There is a lot of mystery to Mazen than meets the eye, he is not just some average White Fang Lieutenant, he is more.

“Still pretty jumpy, aren’t you?” Glynda asks her and Blake laughs a little, shrugging her shoulders.

“Well, I guess old habits don’t go away.” Blake says to her and Glynda smiles and laughs through her closed lips.

“That is very true.” Glynda agrees, nodding her head as she sips her coffee. Glynda looks at Blake, not only that she has grown into  a beautiful young woman but she is also looks better without that bow hiding her ears.

“It suits you.” Glynda says, her ears flick up and she turns.

“Huh?” She asks, after she sips some of her tea, blowing on it slightly to cool it down instead of burning her mouth.

“Not wearing the bow, it looks good.” Glynda says, clearly never has brought it up before, and thus it must have surprised Blake a little bit. She smiles at Glynda after she says that, she has always felt like she could trust Glynda more at the school. Not so much with Ozpin, he might have been nicer on more occasions to them all than Glynda, but that was why she struggled to trust him. Although, they could really use him right now, it is clear that Glynda is struggling to run Beacon without him.

“Thank you, Professor.” Blake kindly says to her, smiling at the Vice Headteacher of the School.

“Adam Taurus responded to our call, he said he will be here with Sienna Khan by tomorrow morning to speak with Mazen.” Glynda explains. “It’s like school detentions all over again.” She sighs, and Blake laughs a little bit. They both look at him as he sits there, there is always something very methodical about Mazen, but also very sad. It is clear that Humanity has done something to him that is unforgivable to make him despise them all so much. She sighs when she looks at him and then she looks at Glynda.

“Do you believe there are different kinds of evil in the world, Professor?” Blake asks her curiously and Glynda raises an eyebrow.

“How do you mean?” Glynda asks her.

“I mean...ever since the Knights of Grimm showed up...I have seen so many enemies of ours...” Blake begins to explain and then she starts to touch her long fluffy black hair. “Like – there are people like Jacque Schnee, he is hungry for power. But then there are the people like Tyrian who are insane. And then there are the Knights – it’s clear that they do not choose to do what they do, they are meant to because it is their duty.” Blake explains to her and Glynda listens to her every word. “I guess...what I’m asking is...do you think that some of our enemies are evil or just misguided?” She asks.

Glynda smiles when she looks at her. “Look at Cinder, Adam and Hazel. They turned against Salem, even Mercury and Emerald did. We don’t know where Emerald is...but Mercury died for that. But there are some people out there who will never change, my dear. I don’t know about Mazen, he seems like he has suffered some tragedy...” Glynda explains as she looks at him. “I see evil in two ways, Blake. And it has helped me differentiate them perfectly. When I was only a T.A, I once saw a young child building a tower out of glue sticks on the table. He was happy with what he did, but then another boy came by and knocked that same one down.” Glynda explains to Blake.

Glynda turns and looks at her. “There are two kinds of people in the world, Blake. The ones who build towers, and the ones who knock them down.” Glynda says, turning and walking away from Blake with her powerful words.

The phrase echoes in her memory.

_The ones who build towers, and the ones who knock them down._

Bad people can be forged from suffering...what if Mazen and many of their foes are simply the poor people who have been suffering from the wrath of those that keep knocking their creations down? Knocking them down to the ground over and over again.

Blake looks at the door and she sighs, walking towards it and she opens the door and walks inside. Mazen does not even react to the door opening, he remains still and silent when Blake walks into the room with the four cells. She looks at him and then approaches the cell. She turns and sees a chair in the corner. She walks over to the chair and picks it up, setting it down in front of his cell and she takes a seat in front of him. That is when Mazen looks at her, his face hidden behind the mask that he wears. “More inspirational words for me, Blake?” He asks her with a chuckle and she just shakes her head at him.

“No...I want to talk. Not about the White Fang’s plans or anything like that...I just want to talk.” Blake says to him honestly.

He scoffs and looks away from her and looks at the floor. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your face, Mazen.” She says to him, looking at the mask. “Other than when Sun broke a bit of it and I saw your eye.” She recites from the short rebellion on Menagerie, before the Knight of Fury showed up and ended it before it could begin.

He still says nothing.

“Is Mazen your real name?” She asks...still nothing. “Gods...this must be what Ruby was feeling when she first met me...” She realises with widened eyes.

She thinks back to when she was younger, thinking about some of the memorable moments of being a part of the White Fang. She smiles and starts to giggle when a certain memory comes to mind, and it grasps his attention when he hears her laugh. “Do you remember when you and Sienna took me to that ice skating ring at Menagerie when I was little?” Blake asks him and he looks at her, he says nothing he just looks at her. “Sienna promised my father that he would take me skating but he was always so busy at the time with managing the White Fang. And Adam was still recovering from being blinded that he couldn’t go with me either.” Blake explains as she remembers and Mazen looks down at the floor again.

Still saying nothing.

She laughs when she thinks about it again. “Watching Sienna trying to figure out the roller skates, I thought she was going to fall over at a couple moments.” She remembers with a laugh in her voice. She looks at Mazen, and he still remains quiet, and she sighs. She stands up and goes to walk away, until she hears a faint but friendly laugh emerging from Mazen as he sits there.

“You were the most demanding little girl I had ever met.” He remembers with a laugh in his voice. Blake stops and she slowly walks back to the chair, she has managed to get him to speak again. “You would not take no for an answer when I said I didn’t want to.” He chuckles when he remembers little Blake forcing him to put on the skates to play with her and Sienna. Back when the White Fang was something more, something other than a terrorist organisation. When it was still honourable and wanting to get the Faunus to be accepted as equal citizens to humans as well.

“But you were good at it.” Blake remembers, smiling beautifully at him, at her old friend.

“Fell over about six times, though.” He remembers.

“So did Sienna.” Blake says with a laugh.

“That’s right, she was going too fast, if I’m remembering correctly.” Mazen says, looking at the young woman who looks at him and she nods.

“You were going too slowly and she was going too fast.” Blake says as she nods her head.

“The orders you were giving us – it was like you were teaching us to fight. Right foot forward, no not your left, pirouette! Stop dancing!” He remembers her saying in his head, a tiny little kitten of a girl at the time with chubby cheeks and huge cat-like eyes.

“It worked, though.” Blake says, remembering that fact as she points at him and he shakes his head as he chuckles.

“Those were the days...” He enshrines to himself, looking up at the ceiling as he thinks of it. “The Winters at Menagerie, it would be scorching hot in the summers and then the coldest winters you could imagine. Freeze entire lakes solid.” He says, remembering them.

“Those days can still come back.” Blake tells him with kindness in her voice. Mazen sighs and he looks at the floor again. Mazen shakes his head as an answer.

“No, Blake...not after everything that has happened.” Mazen states.

“But Adam and Ilia did.” Blake points out, and he sighs.

“I’m not them...I can’t ever forgive the humans for what they did to me. To...” He tries to say by he does not finish what he was saying. There is definitely something behind his words, something personal behind what has happened between him and the humans. Blake looks down at the floor, but then she hears him say something. “Go, Blake. Get some sleep, it’s probably dark out.” He says to her, but instead of sounding like he wants to be alone. It was more like he was asking her to do that for his own sake.

She sighs and she stands up, turning and walking away from him. Before she leaves the room, she looks back at him in the doorway. “Goodnight, Mazen.” She says to him, walking away from him.

Mazen remains there, and then he reaches into his chest plate and pulls something out. A small photograph.

Of a small baby.

And a pretty young woman with the most beautiful smile on her face, long brown hair and freckles under her eyes. She has bunny ears and brown eyes.

He holds it close...and behind the mask...

...he sheds a tear.

 

**Yang**

“Is she okay?” Yang asks Oscar with concern filling her voice, eyes wide after learning of her panic attack she had from that moment of P.T.S.D that she suffered. Oscar nods and he stands by the door where Ruby is asleep in their bedroom, snuggled up in the bed sheets.

“She’s okay, we were just talking and she thought she saw him stood there.” Oscar explains and Yang figures out who the mysterious _he_ is.

“Tyrian?” She asks with a fearful voice, his insane laugh echoes through her memory and she shudders at the thought of it. Even she had some Post Traumatic Stress over him after the battle, but she has been able to recover from it. What she has not been able to recover from is her fear for her baby sister’s safety.

“Yeah.” Oscar answers with a nod and he sighs, rubbing his tired eyes with his hand. “I stayed with her for about an hour for her to feel better, then I took her back her so she could rest.” He explains and Yang sighs with sadness for her little sister.

“I thought we were getting somewhere with her problems.” She sighs, sitting down and pressing her palm to the side of her head.

“So did I...but you heard what Kragen warned us about. These things can take years, even decades for people to recover from. Some people don’t even recover without help, and we’ve been helping her out as best as we can.” Oscar explains and Yang pushes her hair back round her shoulder again, still only thinking of her little sister. She then wipes a tear from her eye with sadness.

“I just want her to be happy, you know?” She asks.

“Trust me...so do I.” Oscar assures.

Yang shakes her upset emotions off and she pushes the tears away from her face. “Okay...” She sighs with relief as her emotions return to her. She stands up and hugs Oscar. “Look after her, okay?” She asks of him and he smiles, nodding to his girlfriend’s big sister.

“Don’t you worry.” He promises.

She walks away from Oscar and approaches her own bedroom, turning some of the abandoned dorms into Bedrooms now, since they have nowhere left to go. She walks into her room and she sits down, exhausted from the work on the construction she helped with and the mission that they completed in capturing Mazen. She sighs as she sits there.

Suddenly the door bursts open and she yelps from how loud it is, then confusion appears on her face. Kassius is stood there with an annoyed look on his face.

He also has lost his cybernetic arm.

“What happened?” She asks with confusion.

“Ran out of lien and I bet on my arm, Nora wanted it.” Kassius sighs and he falls onto the bed.

“You lost all of the lien you brought with you, again?” She asks him. His arm and legs kick out.

“Again!” He exclaims, voice muffled by the pillow he has smushed his face into.

“You lost again?” She asks him with a tender and yet condescending voice.

“I lost again...fifty lien!” He yells at the pillow with disbelief. She giggles and walks over to him on the bed and she lays down next to him and wraps her arms around him as she snuggles up to him.

“Sorry, Kas.” She says to him. “Want me to help you get it back?” She asks him.

“Yes please.” He responds through the pillow.

 

**Ortega**

A glass that was once filled with whiskey slams down onto the bar table with force. The man sits on the barstool, black hair and beard with grey hairs forming amongst the black. He wears a hoodie and shirt with some torn jeans and some shoes. He is not the same Darren Ortega that they once knew when he had his military. “Reload.” He demands.

“Hell no, man. You’ve had enough.” He tells him, but Ortega draws his Revolver and points the barrel straight at the Bartender. He holds his hands above his head with widened eyes and the drunken Admiral glares at him.

“I said...reload.” He demands, a slurred voice as well. The Bartender scowls at him and he does so, Ortega sits the revolver down on the bar and he sits there. He is practically the only person left in this bar, only a couple other drunkards remain. Then the door opens, the bell dings as the person walks inside.

The man approaches Ortega and sits on the barstool next to him. “Whiskey.” The proud voice asks for, and Ortega looks at the man and he cannot believe his eyes.

Jacques Schnee.

He has grown a faint white beard and he looks older than he was, but he does not look as weathered as poor old Ortega does. Jacques looks at his former partner in crime and he crosses his arms. “Oh Ortega, look at the state of you.” Jacques scoffs with a chuckle in his voice when he looks at the Admiral.

“Screw you, old man.” Ortega slurs, and the Bartender returns with a fresh bottle of Whiskey. Ortega reaches and grabs the Whiskey and fills his glass up himself and swigs the whole thing. Jacques Schnee chuckles when he looks at the state that the man is in.

“Well, seems you’ve not been doing very well after everything.” He states the obvious and Ortega ignores him, trying to fill up another glass. Jacques rolls his eyes and grabs the bottle, yanking it from Ortega’s hand and slamming it down.

“Hey! Careful with that!” The Bartender demands, but Jacques Schnee ignores him. Ortega glares at Jacques with anger in his eyes.

“How many mercenaries are left?” Jacques questions. Ortega shakes his head and scoffs, turning back to his glass.

“Give up, Jacques. It all ended at the Volcanic Chain Isles.” Ortega states, still drunk from all the Whiskey he has been drinking lately.

“Oh no, that was merely the beginning.” Jacques promises with a smile. “You see our employer is not dead, and she is planning her next move with the Knights. We need the Acolytes of Lien to return whilst they continue to build up their own army.” He explains.

“It doesn’t matter, I lost hundreds of soldiers during those battles with those damned kids. And a bunch of them left the Organisation.” Ortega explains, and Jacques shrugs his shoulders.

“That can be dealt with. And do not worry, I have a plan to increase our numbers, I just need you to get those still loyal to the cause to keep fighting until my plan is fulfilled.” Jacques explains and Ortega scoffs, looking at him.

“Oh yeah? And why the hell should I help you? Last I heard the Knights of Grimm are dead! The world is at peace!” He argues and Jacques Schnee shakes his head.

“The world thinks this, but it is not over. It is only just beginning.” He assures the Admiral.

Ortega looks back at the glass again, but Jacques reaches into his white coat and pulls something out and holds it in his hand. A picture.

“And besides, I know you did not approve of the project at first. But now we have a common enemy.” Jacques says as he sets the picture down on the bar and pushes it towards Ortega. Ortega looks at it, but then the slurred expression vanishes and transforms into pure hatred when he sees who is on that picture.

The same photograph that Jaune has of Pyrrha.

And he glares at her with fury in his eyes.

He tightens his grip on the glass, so hard that it shatters. He does not even feel the glass break the skin and he bleeds onto the wooden bar as the glass is jammed into his hand. His eye twitches with anger as he glares at Pyrrha Nikos in the photograph.

Jacques reaches into his coat and takes out a cigarette case and he chews on the end and lights the other, smoking inside. “So...” He says, and the Bartender coughs.

“Hey! You can’t smoke in here!” The Bartender shouts.

Suddenly a loud gunshot silences the Bartender and he collapses to the ground with a heavy thud. The glasses shatter and he lands on the ground.

Ortega points the Revolver at him, smoke trailing from the end of the barrel with a stern look in his eyes.

Jacques Schnee smiles menacingly as he takes the cigarette from his mouth and exhales smoke.

“So, Admiral Darren Ortega...” He begins, and Ortega stands up, blood dripping from his finger tips as he stands tall.

“...how many soldiers do you have?” Jacques asks him, and Ortega looks at him.

“A couple hundred, and the Drift of Wandering Star.” Ortega answers, the Acolytes of Lien Flagship that is still under his command.

Wherever in the world he is hidden it.

Jacques chuckles and he smiles.

“Oh that is more than enough. My employer will handle the ones who bailed, if there are those that wish to remain then they shall be fine.” He explains, and he glares at the picture of Pyrrha.

“One Condition.” He growls and Jacques breaths out a circle of smoke.

“And that is?” He asks.

Ortega stares at Jacques.

“I kill her.” He snarls. Jacques smiles.

“Of course.” Jacques answers.

“Then it looks like we’re back in business.” Ortega answers with a smirk, holstering his Chrome Revolver.

Pyrrha is in trouble...

And she must have done something to him in the past to deserve this hatred...

The question...

Is what?


	6. Loose Ends

**Salem**

The Dune’s of Vacuo’s desert rise high, like mountain ranges of sand that are blown by the warm air that bakes the ground. The wind howls, dead flora barely sticking out from the sandy landscape that the sun bakes furiously. Mirages ripple endlessly, stretching out as far as the eye can see. Lone Beowulves, Ursas and Creeps wander through the Desert, looking for some kind of purpose in this world where they have become somewhat an Endangered Species after they all vanished in a single moment worldwide.

A lone wandering walks with a stick in their hand across the sand dune, a tanned poncho and hood wrapped around their thin body. The poncho is torn in places, revealing the feminine pale skin and body underneath in places. She walks up the dune and looks down at the Grimm that look up at her. Some of them growl as they stare at her, and she stands beside a dead Tree. At its base, there is the skull of a buck on the ground, sand sitting inside of the cracked skull, an antler snapped off and a scar across the cheekbone.

He wanderer is Salem, her hair no longer morphed into the shape of a spider and just let loose, her red eyes narrow when she glares at the Grimm that stare at her like she is now prey. Suddenly the Tree next to her moves in a way that should be impossible, the wood creaks and crashes as it twists round. The braches form into long arms and three sharp claws form on each hand. It stands tall as a pair of powerful legs form as well with dead roots connecting it together. The bark weaves together onto the chest, creating an armoured torso similar to that of a Samurai as the plates of bark slide over one another. The being picks up the skull and fits it onto its shoulders, the roots connect to the skull and the sockets are filled with burning hot fiery eyes.

The Leshen known as the Lord of the Wood is guarding Salem, since the Grimm do not seem to be honouring her call anymore. But they fear the Leshen, as simply a faint snarl makes the Grimm bow down, lowering their heads to her as they remember their place. Salem clenches her hand into a fist when she stares at the Grimm that fearfully bow to her. “All bow before your Queen.” She demands faintly, a Crow caws as it flies onto her shoulder and looks around.

The pair walk towards a small home that she has built to remain in hiding. The Lord of the Wood walks with her, the wooden features creak with every movement. She sighs as she approaches her home, wiping some of the sweat from her brow. Not all the Grimm are forgetting their loyalty to her, as there are some Grimm here as well. A Beowulf sits there and looks at her as she approaches and the Leshen crouches down in the corner, waiting again. Unlike other beings, it does not get bored; it just waits until it is required for duty.

Salem sits down onto a tree stump and she picks the grains of sand from her hair and he grits her teeth as she feels the burns on her skin. She has become far weaker than she ever was before, and also she is alone. All she has to keep her company at the moment is a wordless Leshen, whereas her other contacts only return with mission information. A Debriefing she is currently waiting on from Fear and her Assassins she has hired as well. She turns when she notices some baby Nevermores screeching in their nest, begging for food from their mother. She sighs and picks up some of the worms as she holds them above their beaks. “Don’t be greedy, my precious children.” She weakly says to them, her voice even sounds frail as well when she speaks to the Grimm.

The Lord of the Wood remains still where it is crouched down at the moment.

A shadow envelops her when something approaches. She merely turns her eye slightly and spots the Giant Rotten Bat that flies towards her. The eyes glow bright gold as the Knight of Fear approaches. She rolls her eyes with annoyance, she may have been expecting a report from him, but she still hates him because of his tone with her. The wings of the bat wrap round the torso and the bones and flesh shift and crack in places. The Bat transforms into his Knight Form and he rolls across the sand and lands on both feet before her. His body still looks exactly the same, rotten skin wrapped around his body like a poncho and his hood pulled over his head.

Since they are in hiding again, he has made his back look damaged in order to bring back his crooked spine appearance to look more frightening. Pieces of vertebrae stick out from the pale skin and parts of his skull can be seen amongst the torn skin, such as the jawbone and part of his socket. He approaches her with a grovelling pose as he holds his hands together. “Oh, my poor Queen! How it pains me to see you, so lonely, so weak!” Fear says to her with a cunning smirk on his face, doing this just to annoy her. Her eye twitches with anger and she pulls her hood back and reveals her face in the sunlight. She has scars on her face, a couple on her cheek from the Grimm that have challenged her and other scars from the heat of the Vacuo Sun.

“Silence, Fear! Do I look like I am in the mood for your jests?” Salem questions with anger, her red eyes glow fiercely as she shouts at him. Fear steps back and theatrically acts like he is terrified, despite that it is clear that he is just being his sarcastic self.

“Oh, I’m just quivering with fear!” He claims as he shakes his hand around, then laughs at her. Salem narrows her eyes at him and she sits back down after she shouted at him. She looks down at the sand and says only one word to him as he stands there.

“Report.” She orders, sounding broken when she says it as well. Her defeat at the Volcanic Chain Isles has truly taken her confidence away from her.

That and the threat of Vir Nominis Umbra...

“Report on what?” Fear asks her and she clenches her hand into a fist.

“You know what...tell me what Qrow is up to.” She demands. Fear smirks and he walks around and he holds his hand out to one of the Lord of the Wood’s Crows that sits there. The Crow bounces onto his hand and caws to him, and then he looks at Salem where she sits. He finally gives her the answer.

“He, Taiyang and Raven Branwen are currently on the search for the Spring Maiden. My spies have informed me that they have a new clue and are searching for the girl at this very moment.” Fear explains to her, for he must have been the Crows that gave Qrow that nightmare that he suffered from. He is the Knight of Fear after all, and it has become very clear that Qrow’s fears are losing his daughter the same way he lost the love of his life. Because of his semblance.

Salem sits there, thinking about everything. It is what she does now; she thinks about the things that she could have done differently. Her impatience is what brought about her downfall on those islands; she should have waited for the opportune moment instead of trying to activate them right then and there. “What of the other Knights?” Salem inquires to him and he chuckles.

“Well, Loss and Death are currently investigating some of their own personal leads. And Fury is searching for the Spring Maiden with his Elemental Followers. Haven’t seen him in a while, though. Ever since he lost his Treasure Trove, he has become distant.” Fear explains. Salem sighs and she shakes her head, feeling defeat in her heart as she sits there, but when he tells her this, she hears the sound of a Bullhead approaching from the east. She turns her head and Fear turns as well, seeing the Bullhead flying towards her small home in the desert through the mirage.

The Bullhead decelerates and turns hard, the side door opens and Neo stands there. Her long pink and brown hair blows in the wind, and she jumps out from the Bullhead first. Followed by the Spectre, he lands behind her and dwarfs her from his Super-Soldier height. He looks at his cybernetic hand and he lets the hook fold out and then back into his forearm as the pieces of metal shift and twist round. “Lovely home, your majesty.” The Spectre greets as he approaches with the little mute.

“What news do you bring, my little assassins?” She asks of them as she looks at the two assassins. He smirks when he approaches and crosses his cybernetic arms.

“The people of the world are taking the bait. With the lack of visuals of the Knights of Grimm and the creatures becoming scarcer, they believe that the world is at peace. Meaning we will be ready for our counter attack!” The Spectre informs her with a mad smirk on his face and Salem smiles, the first bit of good news she has heard in quite a while. Salem pushes her hands against her legs and stands back up, looking around at the landscape as she walks forward slightly; Fear watches her walk around with his Scythe in his hand like a cane to support his crooked back.

“You’ve all done me great honour, hiding out survival to the world. Jacques Schnee, Darren Ortega and Professor Merlot have done well. But I have been informed by Mr Schnee, that some of their collaborators have turned away from them with important information. Those collaborators have served their purpose, my assassins.” She explains as she pulls the dust from her long white hair. She turns to her Assassins and clenches her fist with the sand in it. “It’s time to cut off all loose ends. Spectre, Neopolitan...kill them all.” She orders.

The Spectre smiles. “With pleasure.”

 

**Neo**

Days after their meeting with the Dark Queen in Vacuo, the two approach a house in a street at Vale. The Spectre wears a jacket and a shirt, along with some jeans to make himself look like a father. Whereas Neo uses her semblance to transform into the appearance of a little girl. Her long pink and brown hair turns blonde, her eyes turn lilac and her smile is still there. She wears a pink hoodie with a white Pumpkin Pete’s Face on the middle and she rests her Umbrella on her shoulder. She and the Spectre turn to the house, and they see a little girl playing on the swing.

The Spectre smirks. “Is your daddy home?” He wonders as he looks at her, a sinister voice carries with him as well when he says that. They both approach the little girl, he vaults over the wooden picket fence and he waves to the little girl. The girl freezes like a deer in headlights when she sees the two approach her. “Hello, my dear. Is there any chance I can speak with your father? We’re workmates.” The Spectre explains, making his voice sound friendly.

The girl looks at the Spectre, unaware of his real intentions. He is wearing a long sleeved jacket and a pair of gloves to conceal his cybernetic hands from the young girl. “Um...he and mom aren’t here right now.” She explains.

“Well who is looking after you?” He asks her with a raised eyebrow.

“They only just went to the shop to get some food.” She explains, sounding afraid.

“Well in that case, would you mind if we stayed here for a bit until they came back? Little surprise?” He asks with a smile, and the girl is too kind for her own good. She smiles at the two and she nods and Neo walks up to her and starts to play with her. The Spectre sits there, and he watches like a father would, but he is really just waiting for the perfect opportunity. Neo plays hide and seek with the little girl, covers her eyes when the girl runs away and hides.

But the girl cannot hear Neo counting, since Neo cannot speak. She then hears the door opening and she looks at the Spectre. He smirks and he stands up, with the girl out of the picture, they both walk towards the house. Neo shifts out from her child form and into her natural body again. Her hair turns back to pink and bown and so do her eyes. She turns the corner with the Spectre and they stare at the parents as they enter. “Ah, you must be the mother.” He chuckles.

His arm suddenly activates, a barrel extends out from his forearm and dust charges up in the weapon and he fires it straight at the mother. The dust round shoots straight through her sternum and kills her instantly, knocking her off her feet. Blood leaks from her chest and the father staggers back with fear. He tries to flee with fear, but Neo appears behind him as an illusion and he staggers back. The Spectre stabs his sharp hook attachment into the shoulder of the father and he throws the target across the room and he crashes into the wall with force. He screams with pain, blood oozes from his shoulder and he crawls back against the wall with fear in his eyes. “Why...why are you doing this?” He questions with fear. The Spectre smirks.

“Cutting off loose ends.” He answers. He swings his Hook Hand across his jugular with force and the man chokes with agony on his own blood, dropping to the floor as he chokes, the blood hisses like a pressure hose as it pours from his neck. He struggles for a few moments, before his body stops moving entirely.

They both walk out from the house and the Spectre cleans the hook’s blade with a cloth and then he whistles as he throws it on the floor. As they keep walking, the Spectre receives a call from an individual and he takes out his Scroll. He looks at the contact and he raises an eyebrow with surprise in his eyes. “Well, well...the Admiral has left the bar.” He chuckles when he sees the name of Darren Ortega on the Scroll.

He answers the call and he holds the scroll up to his ear and he listens carefully. “Spectre, I guess that you have been taking care of the loose ends Jacques informed Salem of?” Ortega asks him and the Spectre nods his head.

“Just finished up in fact, took a couple days to handle but it was pretty easy.” The Spectre answers.

“Good, because I have a new contract for the two of you. One might be very intriguing for Neo.” Ortega explains to him and the Spectre looks at him and she is listening.

“We’re all ears.” The Spectre tells him.

“You will have to split up. I will need your help in hunting down Pyrrha Nikos; I have spies telling me she is Vale right now. Neopolitan however has target that will soon be in Vacuo, especially after what is going to happen.” The Spectre explains.

“May I ask who the target is?” The Spectre asks.

“Ruby Rose.” Ortega answers and Neo hears her name and her eyes widen with rage, she tightens her grip on the Umbrella she carries. The Spectre looks at her and he smiles.

“I think the look she just gave me is a yes.” The Spectre tells him.

“Good, tell Neopolitan to get to Vacuo as soon as possible. Team R.W.B.Y will be there before the end of the week.” He assures.

“How can we be certain of that?” The Spectre questions curiously.

“Keep your eyes on the news, that will be your answer.” He says.

The call ends and he lowers the scroll down to his side. He looks at Neo and he nods, and the two part ways on their separate missions, leaving the house they just murdered those people at.

 

**Ironwood**

Ironwood stands inside of his office; he has shaven the beard that he grew when he was in the custody of Jacques Schnee for weeks, nearly a couple of months. He wears his formal attire with medals attached to his coat and he looks down at the map that is splayed out in front of him. The door opens behind him and Winter walks inside, she holds her hands firmly behind her back before saluting him. “Sir.” She greets formally and he smiles, having her shut the door.

“No need for that, Winter.” He assures, the most casual he has ever seemed around anyone that is not her mother.

“Well if we are dropping the formalities, then may I ask why you called me down here?” She asks him, looking around the area. It is dark in here, the only light inside of this room is the one above Ironwood right now. He sighs and turns to face Winter and he crosses his arms when he looks at her, concern is clearly visible in his eyes.

“This is where I deal with the dark stuff.” He explains and Winter raises an eyebrow at him with more concern now.

“What dark stuff?” She asks him. Ironwood turns and he takes one of the pictures that was taken of something that gives them the chills when they see it. A photograph of a burned building and a fiery being sat in a throne of molten cars, and a second fiery figure speaking to it.

“You know what that is better than I do, so you tell me what that is.” Ironwood says to her, since he has yet to see a Knight in person.

“Fury...” She gasps with fear as she sees the Knight sat there.

“I was hoping he was wrong.” Ironwood sighs with fear.

“Why are you telling only me of this? We need to inform the Council, President Thaddeus.” Winter explains as she looks at that photograph of the first Knight to be seen since the fall of the Volcanic Chain Isles five years prior. Ironwood sighs and he takes the picture and puts it back down on the table.

“I did. Took it to Thaddeus first of all people, he refused to believe me. Said it was a glitch in the photo.” Ironwood scoffs and his pathetic response to that. Winter looks at it and she shakes her head.

“No, I fought Fury face-to-face. That is him.” She promises. Ironwood sighs, he did want a confirmation, he just didn’t want to be right in thinking that was definitely Fury that was in this picture. “I remember that as well. It’s one of his crew, Kragen told me that Fury was once a Pirate Captain thousands of years ago. When he became Fury, his crew’s souls were bound to him as fire pirates.” She explains to Ironwood, and he looks at the much smaller fire engulfed being that speaks to Fury.

Ironwood is afraid as well, but he has never been one to deny their existence. Even Thaddeus has fallen to that level, his fear has put him in a state of denial. “Any idea of what they were talking about?” Winter asks him.

“None, my spy who managed to snap this picture was killed moments after. He sent the picture to command just as he was spotted.” Ironwood explains. “Whatever they were talking about, it must have been important.” He states, which makes the situation that much scarier.

“What should we do with this, then?” She asks him. He puts that picture into an envelope and he closes it, and he hands it to her.

“I can’t leave Atlas. Not with the state things are in right now, and I need to keep my eyes on your brother. Whitley may be running the company, but he was also one of the people who made sure I would stay in that cell. He is up to something, and your father is out there somewhere as well.” Ironwood explains. “I want you to take these pictures and get them to Beacon, tell your sister, her team. Qrow, Glynda, the teachers there. They are the ones we can trust this information with.” He explains to her and she nods to him.

Out of instinct, she steps back and salutes him. “Yes sir.” She responds, and she turns to walk away from him. He remains in the dark room on his own and he sighs with concern.

 

**Fury**

 

During the moment it was taken...

Outside of a burned down building in the middle of the woods of Mistral...

Fury sits on the wreckage of a truck; the constant heat of his burning body has melted the metal down to liquid metal around his body. He clenches his hand into a fist with anger in his burning hot eyes as he stares at the golden chalice that sits on the table. He picks it up, but the gold turns to ash as soon as his finger is set upon it. His eye twitches and he roars with rage, slamming his fist down into the ground with all his might. The room shakes as he does so. The fire burns across his body endlessly as he sits there, and then his eyes focus on something that approaches.

A fire engulfed man approaches him, one of his Elemental Crew from when he was a pirate. Their souls have been bound to him as well for eternity, as Elemental Warriors are spies. The soldier walks towards him with fire never ceasing to burn on his body, he holds a Cutlass in his hand and he looks at Fury. “Captain Vex.” The Fire Elemental greets as he approaches and Fury snarls as he stares at him.

“Get the formalities aside, report.” He orders, his voice aggressive and harsh as always whenever he speaks. He leans forward in his throne of molten metal as he glares at his soldier. “Tell me that you’ve found the Spring Maiden.” He says, hoping that it is why he is here.

“I saw her, she was travelling alone through the roads of Vale, but her attacks were far too much for us to handle.” The Elemental Knight tells Fury.

Fury’s eyes burst with fire, the flames across his body ignite and burn brighter and hotter than before. He snarls with anger and swings his fist back into the truck with all his might. Fire blasts from his other hand and burns the ground and the paper on the floor. “You let – the Spring Maiden get away?” He roars with rage, pausing for a moment to truly grasp what he was saying. He keeps on burning the ground and then he stands up from his throne. He clenches his hand into a fist with gritted teeth. “Without the Spring Maiden, our enemies will grow stronger by the day!” He roars with rage.

The Elemental is holding something in his hand and he holds it up to Fury. “I know who can lead us to it.” He says, and he throws the piece of metal onto the ground. It is a fragment of a door from a truck, one with the red markings of the White Fang on it. “The White Fang.” He growls.

“Where are they? Who leads them now?” He questions the Elemental, sitting down in his throne.

“The Albain Brothers, their Lieutenant has recently been captured by Team R.W.B.Y. They still have those in their command.” The Elemental explains, clearly informed on everything that has been going on in the world. Fury thinks, growling faintly to himself as he thinks up a plan of what to do next.

He then turns and spots the spy that is taking the picture of them, spotting the glint from the scroll’s screen as he moves slightly in that bush. Fury snarls with anger and forms a fireball in his hand and throws it straight at the man, completely destroying the man and reducing him to ashes. The Elemental looks at where he threw the fireball and then at Fury again, looking loyal as ever. “Then let’s go find the White Fang.”

 

**Loss**

She walks slowly across the fields of an unknown  land. She holds her Bow in her hand as she walks, her long white hair blows in the wind with her veil pulled back. She does not need to hide her face her, she looks down at the floor as she walks. A beautiful woman, but with pale blue skin and nothing but sadness on her face. She has tears leaking endlessly from her eyes as she walks, and she looks back at Death as he follows her, Ferrum Arctus in his hand as he follows her. “What exactly are we searching for?” Death asks her, and she looks on ahead with a heavy sigh.

“You’ll see.” She promises, continuing to walk on. She looks at a lake and she shudders when she sees it. She looks away from the lake and keeps on walking. Ancient Structures stand tall, they have fallen apart over thousands of years of erosion. Somehow some of these buildings have not collapsed, most are still standing. They both walk through what must have once been a market town, now simply the home of the Grimm or other animals. A Grimm Beowulf hides in the shadows as they pass, Death looks at the Beowulf with his glowing red eyes in his helmet. He looks at her as she walks, she knows the way like the back of her hand.

It is not that she is searching for something.

She is taking him to see something.

They turn a corner to what appears to be an ancient church. The steeple has collapsed and consumed some of the graves. But one of them is still there, on its own unlike the rest of family graves. She approaches the grave and she sniffles when she looks at the name on the grave stone.

Starla Schnee...

This is her own grave.

She was buried apart from her family that she loved so much. She crouches down to her own grave, and even now she still shudders at the sight of seeing her own grave. She closes her eyes and her tears drop from her eyes as she sobs at her own grave. Death puts his hand on her shoulder as he looks at her sorrow. The man inside, Krekras Blackridge, always cared for her. Of the four, they were always the closest of them. Then there was Vengeance, the only Knight to have actually found peace, thanks to Kragen.

But these four are much harder eggs to crack...

Loss wipes the tears from her eyes and she stands back up, gathering her strength to look at her grave with her eyes. She places her hand on the gravestone and she sighs. “I was a fool...young and naive.” She sighs to her own grave and Death takes his hand away from her shoulder and he steps back from her. He lets her have this moment and he walks away from her.

She closes her eyes and remembers back to how she died.

Starla, before she became the Knight of Loss, was returning home from their exploration on the Island where they would meet the Merchant that would give them their gifts. She held her bow in her hand when she approached the door. The night was dark and cold, and she opened the door. “Hello?” Starla called out as she walked inside, concern in her eyes when she does not hear the excited squeaks of her children as they found her to return.

The house was seemingly empty from the lack of noise and she looked around to find them.

Then she turned the corner and entered the next room.

Her heart broke and she collapsed to her knees with horror when she found her family on the ground. Her dear husband and her two beloved children on the floor, all of them dead from unknown causes. Bodies turned cold and skin turned pale. She shrieked out with anguish as she looked down at their bodies. She held her children in her arms as she wept.

She remained there for many hours, nearly the whole night. Her bow laid at her feet as she cried for them, begging the gods to bring them back.

But they never did.

When she knew this was the end of everything she ever held dear, she stood up and walked away from her family and towards the back of her house. She took off her clothes as she walked outside, feeling the cold air on her naked body. She has tears streaming from her eyes as she cried, and then she looks at the cold lake in front of her.

She stepped into the lake with her bare toes and then proceeded to walk deeper into the lake. She walked further and further, floating in the water, and then she closed her eyes and let her body sink under the surface of the lake. She floated down to the bottom of the lake as she let her body drown. She floated there for hours, her once fair skin turned pale blue from the hypothermia, her eyes still tearing up.

But she never felt her soul leave her body...

Because her body had already died but her soul could never be laid to rest.

Her soul, floated out from her own body and she looked at it with disbelief. Her soul, naked, laid on the ground and she cried endlessly, wishing her suffering would end.

Then she saw the armoured boot step onto the dirt in front of her. She looked up, seeing the red eyes of Death. But he did not harm her, he picked her up, and carried her away from the lake. From the shadows that surround him, he crafted a beautiful dress and veil for her to wear, and wrapped her around it. She wore it ever since, and hid her sorrow from the world...

She cries over her grave, for the people of the village buried her from her family...for some reason.

Death looks at her and he lowers his head with sorrow...

And guilt.

The only reason one would be buried away from their family when they died...

Is if they were unfaithful.

“I’m so sorry...” Loss cries with horror...she is not crying to her body. She is crying to her husband. Death stands there, and his eyes turn to another grave on its own and he sighs when he sees it.

He reads the name with guilt in his head.

Krekras Blackridge...


	7. Trouble in Vacuo

**Ruby**

The sun has set behind the horizon, the Fractured Moon floats above them in the sky, piece by piece, slowly falling apart over the years. Everyone is asleep in their rooms, Nora with Ren, her head nuzzled up to him. Kassius and Yang asleep together, his arm round her as she sleeps against his bare chest. Neptune has his arm round Weiss as she sleeps peacefully with him and Blake sleeps up against Sun. Ruby has her head rested beside Oscar in the bed that they share, her eye closed and he is asleep as well, her hand holding onto his indefinitely.

Her sleep is so peaceful...for a while.

For in her eyes, she sees something else entirely than the others. The darkness of her sleep lights up with a deep red sky that forms above her, the Fractured Moon has become completely shattered, just rocks orbiting the planet instead. She feels a cold chill against her body and she looks around, in her clothes as she stands up and observes the charred trees that rise up from the shadowy soil that surrounds her. She feels the soil beneath her boot and it is soft, like snow, but has no colour to it at all. She walks through the landscape as she hears the ghostly voices of those who have died in her mind. “Ruby...” Scarlet David whispers in the background and she gasps, turning around when she thought she heard or felt him behind her. She steps backwards, realising that her mind has been drawn to the mysterious Charred Forest once more...

Whatever this place really is...

She moves her fingers through her long delicate black and red hair that falls down her shoulders, not tied up like she normally has it as it goes down her left shoulder most of the time. She keeps on walking through the Domain, trying to find the trigger to end this nightmare, there always has been before, but that was always Pyrrha...now there is no Pyrrha or Penny in this dream. She keeps on looking around when the howl of the Nuckelavee still echoes throughout her mind and she jumps when she hears it and sees the monster in the distance as it kicks its powerful legs in the air. The red eyes glaring at her then it gallops away into the treeline, vanishing into thin air.

“Tear down your false idols!” The ghostly voice of Doctor Arthur Watts roars in the distance, hearing the bellow of a crowd and the crackles of flames. Trees in the distance are ablaze and she staggers when an explosion makes the ground tremor, almost like an earthquake. The effects of his words still affect the world to this day, the statements that he made; have truly shaken people’s trust in the governments of the four kingdoms.

“You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!” The voice of Torchwick yells faintly and she hears the screeches of Griffins in the distance, but there are none in the sky. There is nothing at all, just ghostly shadows that watch her ever movement, walking with her all the while as she moves. She looks away from the Shadow Men that follow her and she tries to block their voices out from her head, walking faster through the domain.

“Where do you think you’re going, my little flower?” The mad voice of Tyrian whispers behind her and she screams with fear, spinning round and expecting to see him there...

...but nothing.

Nothing at all, even in death he still scares her to this day. Her hands tremble as she walks backwards, looking around at everything that surrounds her and she holds her arm still with her other one.

She then turns round and her heart nearly stops when three men stand in front of her with angered looks in their eyes. Watts on the left, Torchwick on the right, and Tyrian in the middle. All of their eyes glow the same colour – red – and they look fierce with rage. And they speak in unison as well when they glare at her. “The Canvas Will Be Wiped Clean.” They all speak, with a voice that is unfamiliar to Ruby but familiar to others, one that passes through her like a bullet.

She screams with terror...

Jolting upright from her bed with a yelp, scaring the life out of her boyfriend. Oscar jumps from her scream that terrified him and he sits up beside her and looks at her. Ruby pants with fear, sweat dripping from her skin and hair, her eye wide with horror. Oscar holds her as he looks at her. “Whoa! What is it?” He asks with a panicked voice, reaching over to the lamp beside him and he pulls the chord and turns it on, lighting the room up. She breathes heavier and heavier and begins to hyperventilate aggressively, feeling as if her lungs are on fire and she holds her hands to her throat as she panics and struggles. Oscar sits upright and he holds Ruby by her shoulders and looks at her, right into her eye so then she can focus on his eyes. “Hey...hey...with me, okay?” He asks her calmly and he breathes in loudly and then breathes out loudly. “In...” He says as he breathes in. “Out...” He continues as he exhales to help her and she watches him as she continues to hyperventilate, then she breathes in with a shaky breath with him. She keeps on panting however, tears welling up in her eye as she experiences this terror that she just experienced.

She looks at him longingly and with complete trust and she holds onto his shoulders as well as she breathes with him. Her shaky breath starts to fade and she begins to regain control of her respiration, breathing in and out over and over extremely loudly, and then she starts to cry. Her tears and emotions cannot be held back and she sobs, and her beloved boyfriend holds her close. She wraps her arms around him as she cries into his shoulder and he lays back into the bed they share, caressing her soft hair as she cuddles up to him. “It’s okay...” He whispers to her and she closes her eye, the tears stream down her cheek as she sniffles and she looks at him. He rises up and looks down at her as she lays there and he caresses her cheek gently and lovingly with his hand. “What did you see?” He asks her quietly and she stammers, he wipes the tears from her face with his thumb. She sniffles and she holds his hand as he has his arm round her body to comfort her. She rests her head into his arm and as she closes her eye and sighs, voice shaken and tears squeeze out from her eyelid.

“The Forest...” She stammers when she says the name of it, the same place that they have both seen. And others have seen the Charred Forest as well, but they do not know what the meaning of such a place is.

“Again?” He asks her, concern filling his voice for his dear girlfriend.

“Yeah...” She faintly says to him as she holds onto him tight. Oscar lies down onto the bed and he lets Ruby rest on his chest as he wraps his arm round her back and caresses her back, feeling some of the scars that Ruby gave her from the things he did to her. She rests her head upon his shoulder as she holds him, he has scars from Tyrian as well. It was not just Ruby he harmed when they were captured, but he hurt her a lot more than he hurt Oscar. He has a couple scars on his chest and she gently moves her hand across one of them on his chest. She closes her eye and she sniffles again. “I saw Tyrian again...Watts and Roman were there as well.” She explains with a fearful voice and he looks at her and she sits up next to him, holding her bare arm. Another scar there as well from what Tyrian did. Oscar looks at her and he gently moves his finger across her back to comfort her.

“They can’t hurt us anymore, sweetie.” He says to her and she closes her eye and sighs, pressing her lips against her palm, her arm bent and elbow pressed against her knee. She turns and looks at him when he says that, and clearly that is not the case for her. Even in death they are still torturing her, Tyrian especially.

“I keep seeing him, Oscar...Roman I can handle...but...” She stammers as she looks at him tearfully, one tear drips from her eye. Oscar sits back up and he cradles her in his arms and she rests her head against his shoulder as he looks down at her. She looks at him and he caresses her cheek with his thumb.

“I know...I see him sometime as well, but he can’t lay a finger on you anymore. He’s dead, and he is not coming back.” Oscar assures her and she sniffles. “But I also know that I can’t imagine what you experience...because I had it much easier than you did. I hate myself for leaving you there...I thought you got out as well.” He explains, for guilt is the thing that haunts him. Despite winning the love of the girl he developed a crush over, he still despises himself for feeling like it was his fault for her being captured again and being tortured more by Tyrian whilst he was hanging out with Blake and Sun after Yang and Kassius found him. But Ruby has never blamed him, because she always knew that he would have never known, they got split up by Death during their escape, their fates were in the balance. Oscar only got out because Hazel hid him from the Lord of the Wood when the Leshen came searching for him. Ruby looks at him and she smiles affectionately, cupping his cheek with her soft and warm hand and he looks at her.

“Please, don’t ever blame yourself for how things happened back there. Neither of us had any idea of what was going to happen.” Ruby explains.

“I shouldn’t have left you there, it should have been the other way around.” Oscar explains and she shakes her head.

“Oscar...sweetie...” She whispers as she pulls him closer and they gently touch their foreheads together and she closes her eye, her arm round his neck as she holds him there gently. “I could have never lived with myself if it were the other way around...” She says to him as she holds him there. They open their eyes as they look longingly into their lover’s eyes. They then share a devoted kiss, Oscar gently moves his fingers through her soft hair and she holds onto him tight. They break their kiss, and her heart still pounds but more from love for him. Their tender moment really did heal the wound that she suffered from that nightmare and she smiles at him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She whispers as she caresses his cheek.

Ruby sits up and she strokes her hair and looks back at him and smiles. “I’m gonna go wash up my face...I look like a mess. I’ll come back to bed in a sec.” She assures. She stands up from the bed and walks towards the bathroom, turning the light on as she walks inside. Oscar lies in the bed and he smiles as she walks in. He sighs and closes his eyes, sad for the condition that she is in, both mentally and physically after what Tyrian had put the poor thing through at Salem Sanctum.

“Her strength is inspiring.” Ozpin says and Oscar jumps from hearing his voice again.

“Seriously? Watching us sleep?” Oscar questions with disgust.

“What? No, I sensed there was shock in you so I looked in to see what is happening.” Ozpin explains and Oscar sighs, rolling his eyes as he sits in the bed and he scratches his leg and straightens his boxers that he wears in bed. Ruby closes the door behind her and she looks at her body in the mirror, looking at the scars that Tyrian gave her on her athletically built body. Ruby wears a red bra and pants when she goes to sleep, it has always helped her sleep easier especially when she is with Oscar. However the two have still not had sex, something that does surprise quite a few of their friends, considering that they and Jaune are pretty much the only ones left who are still virgins among them.

Ruby looks at the scars on her body, she has one across her belly and one that goes across her collar bone and slightly onto her breast. She also has a scar across her spine and another on her pelvis. She has a small scar on her left bicep. However the most prominent scars are the burns that she suffered from the explosion of their home, the ones on her cheek have faded extremely well, hardly even visible. However she has some scars on the right side of her neck and her right shoulder and forearm have some burns there as well. She has a scarred left leg from the flames and there are some burn scars on the side of her torso and in areas of her back. She has endured pain, too much for a seventeen year old at the time to experience. Her twenty one year old body now carries the aftermath of the horrors she experienced in that time.

Including the most apparent one, the eye patch that covers the wound she suffered when Death formed a Glass Bow and took out her eye with it. She looks at herself and she reaches behind her long black and red hair and she unclips the patch and takes it off her head and looks at the scar. She leans forward to the mirror as she looks at her reflection, seeing the scar tissue that formed there instead. The scars stretch past where her eye was, and the damage is horrific for her to look at. She quickly takes the eye patch and puts it back on, concealing the horror.

She shakes off the horrible image from her mind, thinking of something beautiful. She thinks and thinks, cookies do come to mind at times, along with a swarm of puppies that absorb her with their adorableness. But the one that really hooks onto her, is the ring on her finger. Whilst it is not that of marriage or engagement, it is still a beautiful gift from Oscar. He bought her this beautiful gift on Valentine’s Day, a silver ring with a rose shaped crystal attached to the ring for her. Ruby cried when she got it, and still thanks him every day whenever she looks at it. He also has made it very clear that if she thinks that this is a beautiful ring, she will have to wait and see what her Engagement Ring will look like. The pair has been together for five years now, an engagement is not out of the question, no matter how young they are.

She sighs and then looks down at the sink and she gently turns the tap and water starts to pour out from the nozzle and into the sink for her. It is cold water, refreshing after her fear, she closes her eyes and scoops the water up and rubs it into her face. She washes the salty tears from her cheeks and sighs with relief, feeling the cool water trickle down her face.

She picks up the towel and wipes the water from her face and she looks at her reflection.

Tyrian stands there and he smirks at her as he stands there. “Hello my flower.” Tyrian’s haunting voice says, his hand suddenly bursts through the mirror and reaches out for her. Ruby lets out a shriek of pure terror, her legs give out and she collapses to the floor with fear. Oscar’s eyes widen and he springs up from their bed and he runs to where she is. He opens the door and sees her sobbing hysterically on the floor. He crouches down and looks at the mirror.

The mirror is in perfect condition.

It was all in her head.

Oscar closes his eyes with grief for her sanity, and he gently picks her up, holding her in his arms as she cries and he carries her back to the bed. He sits down and gently caresses her long black and red hair. “Sshh...” He comforts quietly as he holds her and she continues to cry, but quieter.

“Why won’t he leave me alone?” Ruby sniffles with torment and Oscar squeezes his eyes shut. He takes her and he lays her down in the bed beside him and he pulls the bed sheets over her and lets her hold onto him as they lay there in the safety of their bed.

“I’ll never leave you.” Oscar says.

“I promise.” He promises as he holds her close.

“Oscar...she needs help.” Ozpin says to him, and Oscar knows that Ozpin is right in this scenario. Her condition is getting worse and worse by the day. He then looks at the bedside table and sees his scroll on the table. He reaches out to the scroll and he opens it, it is three o’clock in the morning right now. But that is not what he is searching for.

He opens his contacts and he searches though them, and he stops on one.

Kragen Nox.

“I’m going to call him tomorrow, Ruby.” Oscar says to her and she wipes a tear from her eye as she looks at his name. “I will not stop until you are happy, okay?” He says to her.

She sniffles and closes her eye, nodding her head as she snuggles up to him. He closes his scroll and holds her close and he keeps the lamp on. It will help her sleep when they are not in completely darkness after a moment like that.

At this current point in time?

Tyrian has won.

He is still torturing her even in death.

 

**Penny**

The morning comes and Penny is the first to get up, because she was never asleep in the first place. She walks out from her dorm, with a spring in her step and as happy as can be as she walks down the hallway. The door to Ruby and Oscar’s room opens and they both walk out, wearing their outfits. Ruby still looks shaken from her night, with a tired eye and a sombre expression. She holds Oscar’s hand and leans against him as they walk, and the Android stops as she manages to detect that something is on Ruby’s mind. She turns round and looks at Ruby when she walks past her and she has a raised eyebrow. “Ruby? Are you okay?” Penny asks her as she walks over to her and Ruby turns around and looks at Penny.

“Huh? Oh, yeah...I’m okay.” She says, but she has never been a good liar, and Penny is no fool either.

“Your body language tells me otherwise.” Penny points out, her diagnostics analysing her body language to even to her temperature readings. Right now her temperature is warm around her heart and cold around the rest of her body, which means that she is suffering from extreme anxiety or perhaps even depression. Something that Penny has become very concerned about.

“I...” Ruby stammers, but Oscar tells Penny for her so then she does not have to worry about it.

“She didn’t have the best sleep last night...bad nightmares.” Oscar tells Penny and she looks very concerned for her with wide eyes.

“Oh no...I’m so sorry, Ruby. Is there anything I can do to help you?” Penny asks her.

“Not really, Penny...I just wanna...I don’t know actually.” Ruby says as she looks at the floor and kicks her foot back and forth emotionally. Penny stands there, then an idea springs to her mind, her memory is jumbled and forgetful, but she is still capable of remembering things that come to mind.

“Oh! I just remembered! Neptune told me that he is going to help me attach that memory drive that Grif gave us! Would the two of you like to join me and see if it works?” Penny asks them with an excited look in her eyes. Ruby looks at her and she smiles, a sense of normality is what Ruby really needs. And Oscar smiles as well when he agrees.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Ruby agrees as she follows Penny through the building. They turn and start to walk down the steps to the courtyard. Penny pushes the doors open and stretches out her arms as she stands there, looking around as she walks out there. She gazes up at the sunlight as she absorbs the solar energy through the faint solar panels built into her skin that keeps her body charged all year round.

“What a beautiful day!” She squeaks happily.

“It is.” Ruby agrees as she follows her friend across the tennis court, nobody is playing there right now, but they can be certain that Sun will be playing someone in a game out here. He always does do that, every single time, then Glynda shouts at him for getting distracted for the twelfth time in two hours. Penny turns and looks at Ruby’s new hairstyle, her long hair tied up into a tail that sits on her shoulder.

“I like your hair, Ruby. You look really pretty.” Penny compliments with a smile, and Ruby touches her hair as a reaction. She blushes and smiles shyly at her Synthetic Friend who walks with her.

“Thank you, Penny.” Ruby says with a smile, and Penny smiles back adorably. Oscar walks with them and he looks at Penny’s hair, and a question forms in his mind.

“I’ve got a question, Penny.” Oscar begins and she looks at him.

“Yes?” She politely responds.

“Your hair, is it made of real hair? Does it grow?” He asks her and she looks up at the sky as she ponders that thought.

“Not really, it is a collection a metal fibres so thin that it feels like hair. I can morph it into different shapes and extend it if I wish to, but I have always liked this style.” Penny explains and Oscar looks impressed by that intricacy.

“Wow, that must have been difficult to make.” Oscar chuckles when he imagined weaving extremely thin fibres of metal into a chassis like that.

“My maker did tell me that my hair was one of the hardest parts of making me, it can be a pain at times. When it is wet I can do nothing with it.” Penny explains and Ruby giggles when she touches her hair.

“I know how that feels.” Ruby agrees.

“Does your hair have any functions?” Oscar asks her.

“Does yours?” Penny asks him.

“Fair enough.” Oscar replies, unable to counter her statement right there. They walk over to where Neptune is, he has his goggles on his head and the equipment that he needs to attach the memory drive to her head. He waves to them with a smile and they wave back as they approach. Oscar turns and he sees a Green Hummingbird looking at him from one of the colonnades, it tilts its head as it looks at him before flying away.

Oscar shakes the sighting of the Hummingbird off, but he does not realise that he has seen that Hummingbird before.

In Arkhonex thousands of years ago.

They approach Neptune and he walks over to them. “Hey guys, ready to get your memory back, Penny?” Neptune asks her as he gently pats her shoulder and she gleefully bounces on her toes.

“Of course!” She cheers as she sits down in the chair for him. He and the Silver Eyed Engineer that helps them repair the school here have done some miracles in repairing Penny. She looks like she was never hit by a lightning bolt in the first place, patched up the hole in her side perfectly. She looks so happy to remember everything without any trouble ever again.

“So Grif gave us this Memory Drive?” Oscar asks Neptune and he turns to him.

“Yep.” Neptune answers as he holds it in his hand. A small piece of hardware but one that could be so useful to a pleasant little android like her. Memory is something she cares about the most, as long as they are happy memories that include her friends with her. He sets it down on the table and he picks up a screwdriver as he prepares the operation on her. He crouches down behind her and he pushes some of her orange hair out of the way. Ruby and Oscar look at each other with a concern on their minds.

“Grif?” Ruby asks.

“Yeah.” Neptune responds.

“ _That_ Grif?” Ruby asks when she mimics him, extending her arms out to make her in good shape physique look overweight and she mimics his voice as well. Neptune chuckles and he looks at her impression.

“Yes, _that_ Grif.” Neptune says.

“You do remember when he gave Kassius that faulty Cybernetic Part, right?” She asks him, leaning over his worktable to look down at him and Neptune stands back up.

“I know, he hasn’t been the most reliable of sources. But it is better than nothing.” Neptune adds as he leans against it and looks at Ruby. She raises her brow when she looks at him, testing his belief in that very statement.

“Have you tested it? Checked if there’s nothing on it?” Ruby asks him.

“Yes, I tested it. It did have some crap still on it but I wiped it. It is completely clear.” He assures as he picks it up and shows it to her. She takes it and looks at it, checking if it is all ready to be used. Oscar smiles when he sees her not acting as upset as she was earlier after her nightmare, when she gets around her friends and family, she can completely block it all out. But when she is on her own or goes to sleep, that is where things can get complicated. She keeps on searching for rust but she can’t actually find anything. “Cleaned it and everything, I promise you. It is as good as it’s ever gonna get.” Neptune explains and she gives it back to Neptune.

Neptune smiles and he pushes his yellow goggles down and over his eyes. He crouches back down behind the excited Penny Polendina and she sits there, ready to see her memories again. She has a big smile on her face and she is tapping her feet into the floor repeatedly as she sits there. Neptune begins to unscrew the panel that the drive must be plugged into, and he takes the screws out and puts them on the desk. He opens the piece of metal on the back of her head and he finds the slot where it needs to go. Still missing, he looks at the drive and then the slot. “Alright...here goes nothing.” Neptune says as he pushes the drive into the slot and she sits there, ridged as her software programmes scan and test the item just added to her.

“Downloading files.” Penny says aloud and Oscar raises his brow.

“I thought you said it was cleared?” Oscar asks him.

“I did.” Neptune says, looking concerned now.

Her eyes then return to normal and she looks happy for a moment. “I have my memory back –” But then she pauses and her pupils and irises constrict with horror from whatever it is that she is seeing. They all look closer with concern.

“Penny?” Ruby asks her.

“Aaah!” Penny screams with terror, pressing her hands against her cheeks with fear and they all look extremely worried for her safety.

“Penny! What’s wrong?” Ruby asks her friend with a great amount of concern in her voice. Penny shakes her head with fear and disgust with what she is seeing in her memory right now.

“What are those people doing? I know there are many enjoyable ways to procreate, but that is not one of them!” Penny screams with terror, covering her eyes but that does not seem to help her. Ruby and Oscar’s eyes widen with horror and disgust when they realise what is on that Memory Drive and Neptune looks at them.

“Uh-Oh.” Oscar realises with wide hazel coloured eyes.

“What?” Neptune questions.

“I think Grif just gave us his Porn Drive.” Oscar says and Neptune’s eyes widen with both horror and disgust as well, just like theirs.

“And you just put it in Penny’s head...” Ruby realises as well as she slowly points at the panicking girl. She shakes her head and taps her feet on the floor with horror.

“Stop it! That does not go in there!” She yells and they all look at each other. “Get it out! Get it out!” Penny begs and Neptune swiftly runs over to her and he rips the Drive from her head and he looks at it with disbelief. He shakes his head with anger as well as he glares at the Drive, Penny walks away from the chair and she presses her hands to her eyes with revulsion.

“I swear to all the gods, I will kill that man if he comes back.” Neptune promises as he holds that Memory Drive in his hand and he sighs with abhorrence. Ruby turns to Penny as she paces around.

“Why do I still remember it all?” Penny screams with horror.

“I guess our lessons were too good.” Oscar chuckles. Ruby looks at Oscar and they both burst out laughing at that entire moment that just happened. Ruby holds her stomach as she laughs so much, Penny looks at them both laugh and she gasps, planting her hands on her hips.

“Hey, that was not funny!” She states as she looks at them, blushing as she says it. Seems her chassis is even capable of displaying emotions through blushing as well as tears.

“Yes it was! That has made my day!” Ruby giggles, and her saying that actually takes the embarrassment away from Penny.

She made Ruby’s day.

She smiles and looks extremely happy herself.

She wipes a tear from her eye after laughing so hard and she recovers her control over her body after laughing. “Well, at least we’ll never know what is on that thing.” Ruby giggles and Neptune just looks at them and he shakes his head.

“Easy for you two to say. I have to find it and clear it.” Neptune says with a straight expression as he holds the Memory Drive up for them to look at.

“Oh yeah, good luck with that Neptune!” Ruby laughs, walking away with Penny and Oscar.

“Yay, lucky me.” Neptune sighs sarcastically.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby and Oscar return back to the old Team R.W.B.Y Dorm Room, which has nos become the hangout room for everyone to see each other inside of, the same goes for Team J.N.P.R’s old Dorm Room. They walk over and they hear the sound of a television on inside and they look at each other with a concerned look. They walk in, seeing everyone inside and watching the screen intently. Ruby and Oscar read the headline on the news with disbelief, hearing what Lisa Lavender is speaking about.

Ruby gasps, covering her mouth with shock.

_Shade Academy Headmaster Assassinated_

“The murderer’s identity has not yet been revealed, but whoever was responsible for the crime also murdered the Headmaster’s Assistant as well. A gruesome crime scene, the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Vacuo are working their hardest to find out what has happened to their headmaster.” Lisa reports, before Sun switches the television off and he sighs, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. They all look at each other, Jaune sits on one of the beds with Crocea Mors in his hand as he looks at him.

“This is terrible...” Blake says as she looks at Yang who is sat on the floor next to her. Kassius looks at them and then at Sun, he was from Vacuo. He knows the place better than any of them here know the place.

“So what do we do?” Weiss asks them, Ruby turns when Neptune catches up after getting a message from Sun about what has happened.

“I need to go there, I have friends back there that might have something on this.” Sun explains.

“Could it be...” Yang begins but she stops before she continues, sighing when she even thinks of the possibility, closing her eyes when she thinks of it. Jaune can already guess what she is about to say and he looks at her.

“Pyrrha?” Jaune finishes for her and she looks up at him on the bed. “No, she wouldn’t.” Jaune says.

“How are you sure of that? She was trying to kill us, last I remember.” Weiss states, remembering the Storm Generator that they fought Pyrrha on during the Siege of the Volcanic Chain Isles. A violent and tense fight at best as well.

“Because she is being hunted and last we saw, she was headed to Vale, not Vacuo.” He explains and they look at each other.

“What about that Neo girl?” Kassius suggests, shrugging his shoulders, since he does not really know her. Ruby looks down and thinks of Neo and she walks in.

“It could be, she has never shied away from killing people, no matter how high up they are. She’s an illusionist as well.” Ruby explains when she walks inside and Oscar walks with her. Yang smiles when she sees her little sister behind her and Penny and Neptune enter the room as well.

“But why would she? We haven’t heard or seen the Acolytes of Lien since the Volcanic Chain Isles.” Ren asks and shrugs his shoulders.

“Vacuo is where they started, if they are to be anywhere, it’s there.” Sun states, remembering that the Acolytes of Lien did start out as a Splinter Group from the old Vacuo Military Force. “Mercenaries and thugs live all over the place in Vacuo.”

“And Rogue Huntsmen.” Blake adds.

“This is serious. A Headmaster being assassinated by somebody is pretty big, and I doubt that the Huntsmen who were trained at Vacuo know anything of tracking and analysing crime scenes.” Sun explains, since he knows how the people there think. All the people there care about is crime and reward, that is it. Not many people get qualifications as Detectives at Vacuo.

“So what should we do? Get on a ship and go there?” Yang asks him. Jaune sighs and he pushes his hand through his hair.

“I can’t go, not when we’re so close to finding Pyrrha.” Jaune explains as he reveals his side of the story.

“He’s right, this is the best lead we’ve had in five years.” Kassius states.

“I’ll go, I know the place like the back of my hand.” Sun explains, holding his hand up and Blake is the first to stand up.

“I’ll go with you.” Blake volunteers. “You came with me to where I came from, time I repaid the favour.”

“It won’t be as pretty.” He warns.

“I knew that when I met you.” Blake replies and he jolts from the burn she just gave him. Yang shrugs and she stands up as well.

“Why not?” Yang says when she stands there, her hand on her hip. She looks at Kassius and he nods to her, he and her have always been able to stay apart for a while. It makes it all the more romantic when they see each other again.

“I’m coming.” Ruby assures, looking proud as she stands there. And she needs to be able to do something to block out the horrific nightmares that haunt her dreams.

“So am I.” Oscar unconditionally says as he stands with his girlfriend. Ruby looks at him and smiles sweetly. Weiss sits there and she sighs, rolling her eyes and she stands up as well.

“Might as well make it all of Team R.W.B.Y she says as she stands up.” Weiss sighs as she stands there.

“I’ll come too.” Neptune says as he walks forward. Nobody else volunteers to join them, but they might need Penny here more than they would need her out there. She is strong enough to help repair the damage done to the school.

“Alright, that settles it. Jaune and his team keep searching for Pyrrha in Vale, Penny stays here to fix up the school with everyone else. And the rest of us go to Vacuo.” Sun sums up.

“This is gonna be like a School Trip!” Yang cheers.

 

**Pyrrha**

Pyrrha walks through a market street of Vale, on her own with her hoodie on. The hoodie is torn in places and she has a bandage around her left shoulder. She wears black gloves as she walks around and wears a black beanie hat over her long red hair. She holds some spare lien she has found in her hand and gives it to a young girl who is selling some apples. The girl gives her the apples in a bag and Pyrrha smiles kindly as she accepts the bag. “Thank you.” She softly says to the girl, stepping away from the girl and looking around the area cautiously for any signs of the Acolytes or any other threats that could be out there in hiding.

She walks across the street and stops at the traffic lights as cars zoom by. Civilians converse and walk by her as she stands there with her bag of apples in her hand. Her green eyes widen with fear when she hears a dangerously familiar voice.

“Come! Come and buy some of the finest things that I have for sale! And who knows! I might even tell you a moment in your future for a lien extra!” The voice of Vir Nominis Umbra speaks, calling out to the people that walk by him and then he looks at her. It is definitely him, exactly the same in shape and attire. The Merchant’s clothes, the bald head and the cunning look in his eyes.

She looks away as the light turns green and flees from him.

He holds an apple in his hand and takes a bite from it, swallowing the chunk he just chewed. He smirks as he watches her walking away from him.

Pyrrha keeps on walking and she notices something odd.

Lots and lots of military types poking around the area, watching her.

She pulls up her hood and she begins to conceal herself in the crowd, approaching the alleyway and hiding in there. She leans against the wall to hide from the men and two of them pursue her slowly, walking towards where she went. She crouches down behind a dumpster as the men walk into the alley. One of them holds a knife in his hand and he slowly approaches the dumpster where she hides. “Come out, Invincible Girl.” The man challenges as he looks around.

She darts out and kicks the Knife Wielder in the chest to make him fall backwards into the garbage bags. The other swings his fist at her and she ducks down to avoid the punch from the Mercenary and she slams her fist into his gut to make him hunch forward. She strikes him up the chin and the Mercenary is thrown from his feet and onto the ground with a thud. She unknowingly has walked into their trap, there is a second man with a rope and he wraps it around her neck and tightens it as he pulls down. She strains, gasping for air as she grabs the rope with her hands. She grits her teeth with distress as the man pulls her back with force to try and suffocate her. The other man with the knife lunges forward to stab her with the steel blade.

She uses her Polarity against him and stops the blade before it can puncture her stomach, since it is coated with Purple Dust, the newly found weapon that can break through full aura with ease. She pushes him back with the knife and then throws it from his hand and into his leg. The man screams with agony and grabs his leg with pain. The second Mercenary goes to attack her, grabbing her leg but she slams both feet into his chest and she falls onto the third that chokes her. She manages to get free, coughing as she breathes again.

The Mercenary tries to pull his gun out but she pulls the firearm from his fingers with her Polarity and she slams the gun against the side of his head, making him stagger backwards. The Knife Wielder goes for her again and she stops the knife with Polarity, the black energy surrounds the steel blade that is inches from her face and she moves out of the way and kicks him in the back. She lifts her arm upwards and stops the punch from one of the Mercenaries, and she punches his head into the wall, knocking him unconscious. She jumps up and pushes her legs against the wall to lunge at the other. She kicks him across the side of his head and knocks him out as well.

The Gunman goes for the gun again but she punches him straight in the face, hard enough to knock him out. She pants from exhaustion after the fight she just had with all those soldiers. She looks at the attire.

Black, red and golden accents in their clothes.

They are Acolytes of Lien.

She looks at their unconscious bodies, and then she turns her head to see Vir Nominis Umbra stood behind her. “How long do you think you will last if you do not take lives?” He questions, but she just turns and keeps on running, but he appears beside her with his hands clasped together. “They will not stop hunting you.”

“Leave me alone.” She demands as she tries to flee.

“How is your beloved Jaune Arc ever going to find you if you do not stop?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her when she turns a corner in the alleyway and he is perched atop a catwalk with his legs hanging down, kicking back and forth.

“I don’t want him to get hurt.” She says to him.

“People always get hurt, it is what makes you human.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, and she turns and sees him stood inside of a dumpster. She stops and stares at him. “You should embrace this fact, relish in it even.” Vir Nominis Umbra suggests.

She ignores him and keeps on walking.

“You can run as long as you want, Pyrrha Nikos. But you cannot hide from me.” He states, and she looks around, finding a place to lay low.

From the Acolytes of Lien.

And hopefully...

Vir Nominis Umbra.


	8. Reunited

**Jaune**

Some time has passed since everyone else left to get aboard a ship to Vacuo, Jaune and his team have been following the trail and have arrived at the market town. Jaune walks around the street and he looks around, looking for her. He knows her features off by heart, _look for the red hair, green eyes, athletic body...beanie hat and Pumpkin Pete’s hoodie._

His sword is sheathed into his collapsed shield on his belt, and he looks around the area to figure out where she could have gone. He scratches the back of his neck when he tries to figure it out.

_Someone could have seen her...but there are so many people around here. Who would remember her face?_

He hears his earpiece activating when one of his team members speaks to him. “I’m in position.” Ren assures, watching from the crowd with his hands near Stormflower.

“Good. Nora, Kas?” Jaune asks them.

“Oh yeah.” Nora responds, sat on a bench with her Grenade Launcher sat on her lap. A man with his wife walks past her but then stops and looks at Magnhild on her lap, like it means nothing at all. She looks at him with an adorable smile and he keeps on walking on.

“I’ve got eyes on the street.” Kassius assures, stood upon the rooftops, Vulcan Nox loaded to the max as he looks around the area to figure out where she could be hiding. He crouches down as he looks at the different people, still able to see Jaune amongst the crowd. Jaune walks over to one of the Merchants who are calling out to the people, selling bread. The old man has been seen many times before in their lives and he seems to recognise Jaune pretty quickly.

“Hello! Would you like to purchase some bread?” The old man asks him and Jaune chuckles when he sees the old man.

“Do you just own every single shop in Vale or something?” Jaune asks him.

“I own many.” He answers with a smile.

“Okay, onto subject.” Jaune begins, leaning over to the old man. “Have you seen a girl with red hair around here recently? Green eyes, tall, pretty?” Jaune asks him, identifying Pyrrha by her signature traits. Seeming to focus on her looks at one point due to his love for the girl.

“I think I did. She bought some apples from the little girl over there and took off.” The old man tells him, pointing at the little girl.

“Where did you see her go?” Jaune asks him. The old man points towards the alleyway that she ran into a faced the Acolytes of Lien that tracked her down.

“Into that alley, some men followed her though.” The old man says, concern builds up in Jaune’s body and he turns round, looking at the alleyway. But he knows Pyrrha Nikos, and he knows that a couple of Mercenaries won’t be able to take her down; she is the invincible girl after all. “You think they could have hurt her?” He asks and Jaune smiles.

“Not likely.” He says.

Jaune reaches into his pocket and pulls a couple of lien cards out from it and he sets them down on his table and walks away. “Thanks.” Jaune says to the merchant and he smiles, waving him goodbye as he heads off. Jaune jogs over to the alleyway, his hand held close to the hilt of his sword as he turns the corner.

Before he does get over there, however. Something catches his attention, something rather intimidating when he hears it. A circle of children, around five overall, are singing a creepy song in unison.

 

_“A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,”_

_“His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,”_

_“Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye.”_

_“Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,”_

_“His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,”_

_“Anger through truth, loss through acceptance.”_

_“For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,”_

_“Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,”_

_“The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,”_

_“Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter...”_

 

Jaune looks at the children; concern fills his mind as he looks at them...

For that is no song for children to be singing.

Jaune shrugs the song off and he walks away from the children to continue on his mission.

He looks over and he chuckles as he sees the three Mercenaries on the ground, just as he suspected. “Called it.” He says when he looks at them. Jaune turns on his microphone as he approaches the Mercs. “We’ve got Acolytes of Lien.” Jaune advises as he looks at them.

“Guess their back, huh?” Kassius replies.

“Looks that way.” Jaune agrees.

“Alright, we’ll keep our eyes peeled for any reinforcements.” Ren assures him.

He crouches down to the alleyway where she ran, half an hour after the attack took place. The blood from the leg of the mercenary she stabbed the knife into still glistens on the floor. Jaune touches the blood and then looks onward, hearing the groans of the men who lay there. He narrows his eyes when he sees them and he stands up, walking towards the groaning man, his hand pressed to his head as he lays there. The other two Acolytes of Lien are still unconscious right now, their heads smashed into the walls and the dumpsters that surround them. He walks over to the Mercenary and he crouches down, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up. He glares at the Mercenary with anger in his blue eyes. “Where is she?” Jaune questions and the Mercenary scoffs.

“How should I know? Looking for your lady?” He chuckles when he stares back at Jaune Arc. Jaune’s patience is really beginning to wear thin now, after five years of never finding her; this is the closest he has ever come. He draws Crocea Mors and presses it against his throat, pinning him down against the floor and the man gasps for air as he squeezes his windpipe.

“Let’s try this again, huh?” He asks him, his teeth gritted and face frowning threateningly. The man kicks and throws his arms and legs around in distress from his predicament, all Jaune would have to do is move the blade of his sword quickly to the left or right and he would slit the man’s throat. Jaune leans closer to the man’s face, staring straight into his brown eyes with anger. “Where. Is. Pyrrha?” He slowly asks him with rage in his eyes and the man’s voice is strained from the blade pushed to his throat.

“Okay! Okay!” The man screeches in a scratchy voice as he flails. Jaune relaxes a bit and pulls the blade from his neck and then stands up, looking down at him with the sword pointed to the Mercenary’s face.

“Where did she go?” He demands. The soldier holds his hand up with fear as he regains his breath, looking up at Jaune Arc who has had enough of games for a lifetime.

“We followed her this way and tried to take her. But she kicked our asses.” He tells Jaune.

“Yeah, I can see that. Where did she go?” He repeats, louder this time as he presses the tip of Crocea Mors against his cheek, nearly breaking the skin from how hard he pushes it against his face. The man shakes with fear as he does that, closing one eye with distress, before answering his inquiry.

“She ran that way.” He tells her, pointing in the direction she ran and Jaune follows his fingertip. He sees where she ran and then looks back at the Mercenary at the floor, at his mercy. Jaune, however, is not a murderer; he only kills those that he must kill if there is no other way. But that says nothing about knocking them unconscious. Jaune swings his foot into the side of the man’s head and knocks him out, walking away from where he lies.

“Thanks for the cooperation.” Jaune says to his sleeping body and leaves them where they sleep, snoring away.

Jaune turns the corner and he peers round as he checks for any other Acolytes of Lien. “Kassius? Can you see anything in front of me?” Jaune asks, before emerging from the wall that he conceals himself behind. He readies himself, holding onto the hilt of his sword with his right hand. Kassius walks across the rooftops and he looks at where Jaune is, he can see all the different paths that the alley crosses into, but he cannot see any people in there at all.

“Nope, you’re clear.” Kassius promises.

Jaune emerges from cover and he follows the trail further, he can see the footprints in the muddy floor and he is using that to find her. He keeps on following the prints, and he turns a corner, seeing where she stopped for a couple seconds before setting off again. “Someone was chasing her...” He mumbles to himself.

“I wouldn’t say chase was the right word.” Vir Nominis Umbra abruptly reveals and nearly makes Jaune scream with shock from hearing another man’s voice behind him. Especially after Kassius had just told him that there was nobody there in the first place. He turns and draws Crocea Mors, pointing the blade straight at him as he stands there, emerging from the shadows with his hands held together and that cunning smirk on his face as he approaches him.

“Kassius...I thought you said there was nobody here...” Jaune claims as he glares at Umbra who stands in the open.

“There isn’t.” Kassius assures.

“I’m looking at somebody right now.” Jaune states.

“And I’m looking at you, there’s nothing there.” Kassius tells him and Jaune looks up at the rooftop where he stands. Jaune looks at him with disbelief, but then a theory comes to mind. They have all been informed on what both Oscar and Qrow spoke of, of the mysterious Merchant that emerges from the shadows and speaks with them, vanishing just as mysteriously. Jaune narrows his blue eyes when he looks at Vir Nominis Umbra as he stands there, unaware of his true nature and the torment he must have put his beloved through.

“Who are you?” Jaune asks him, Kassius looking completely confused from Jaune seemingly speaking to nobody.

“Vir Nominis Umbra, at your service.” He says, bowing before Jaune with a smirk as he stands there. He then walks towards him with his hands clasped together, looking Jaune up and down as he observes him. Perhaps more than just his physical form, and more his spiritual one, and then he stops by his side. “Impressive, I can see why Pyrrha Nikos fell for you as quickly as she did.” He says as he walks by him, his eyes widen with disbelief when he hears the mysterious Soothsayer mention her.

“What did you say?” He questions, keeping his sword pointed at Vir Nominis Umbra.

“Well she clearly had a crush on you for more than just you being nice to her.” He compliments, and yet it still sounds intimidating when coming from his mouth. But this is what he does; he gets into people’s heads for some reason.

“What do you know of her?” Jaune questions.

“Oh details, details. That shall all come in time.” Vir Nominis Umbra assures as he smiles at him and Jaune glares at the man as he stands there.

“Why are you hear? You’re the same guy that spoke to Oscar and Qrow, right?” Jaune asks him with curiosity. He can already tell that he must not be human, or at least has one hell of a unique and powerful semblance to appear there and not age by the looks of things. He still looks identically the same as when Oscar met him thousands of years ago in Arkhonex.

“The very same.” He agrees.

Jaune cannot help but chuckle at how he has actually given him the answers that he seeks. “Smug dude, aren’t you?” He scoffs.

“Of course I am.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, holding his hands out as he looks at Jaune, essentially flaunting his form to him as he stands there.

“Tell me how you know Pyrrha.” Jaune demands.

“As I said, that is for another time.” Vir Nominis Umbra repeats, and then he walks around the area that they stand in, his hands kept together in the same position. “But to answer your previous question, I am here because of you and your romantic interest.” He explains as he walks around and Jaune stares at him with more concern than before.

“What do you know of us?” He questions.

“Who hasn’t? The charming Arc Prince that was saved by his princess? A fairy tale in the making if you ask me. Her love for you is what attracted me to this place, she faces so much confusion after the loss of her memory, and yet she still loves you.” He explains and Jaune’s eyes widen when he mentions the shattered memory that she suffers from.

“How bad is it?” He asks Vir Nominis Umbra.

“Find out for yourself.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells him and Jaune raises his left brow. Vir Nominis Umbra turns round and points towards an apartment building behind him, one that Jaune can access through a catwalk. He then notices that the muddy footprint trail leads there as well. “The prize you seek waits in there, on the top floor. Set your eyes on her undying beauty once more, hold her in your arms...do whatever you feel is necessary. But if I were you...” He says as he walks by his shoulder. “I would be fast about it...for time is short.” He states, and Jaune turns round to look at where he went, but he is gone.

Vanished like a ghost.

He stands there and then looks up at Kassius and he contacts the team. “I just spoke to Vir Nominis Umbra.” Jaune tells him and their eyes widen, since they have heard the name before from the tales told by Oscar and Qrow about their conversations with the being.

“That creepy merchant guy?” Nora asks him.

“What did he want?” Ren asks him from where he stands in the crowd.

“That’s the weird part, he didn’t _want_ anything. He just told me where to find Pyrrha.” Jaune says to them and they all listen carefully in order to understand.

“Where?” Kassius asks him, and Jaune looks back at the Apartment building.

“That Apartment Building...I’m going in. Be careful as well, he warned me that we don’t have much time. He might be talking about the Acolytes.” Jaune explains.

“You got it.” Nora assures, holding Magnhild and keeping her cyan eyes peeled. Kassius holds Lash Equinox in his hands as he prepares for a fight, since the Acolytes are not known to give up easy.

Jaune sheathes Crocea Mors and he backs up before running towards the ladder that Pyrrha must have pulled down with her polarity. He jumps up and catches onto the ladder, hauling his body up and climbing up there. It is much easier now than it was five years ago, now that he has built his body up thanks to Sun’s Workout Lessons that he offered for everyone to take part in. He climbs up there and starts to run up the catwalk, one at a time to get higher and higher up the building to find her room. He follows the muddy footprints for a couple of floors until he finds one room.

The window is open and the curtain is blowing in the wind. He climbs inside and he lands on the floor silently, looking around.

The Apartment is dead silent, and empty.

He cannot see her and he keeps on moving around inside. He looks and he sees a bandage on the floor with blood on it, must have been the one she had on her shoulder after suffering that bullet wound. There is a first aid kit on the kitchen counter and it is open, she cannot be far away since it is still sat there. She must have left the room to get something...perhaps...

He crouches down and his eyes widen when he picks up something very familiar, and he has not seen it since Mistral fell.

His sash that he lost when he lured the Grimm away from Ruby after she lost her eye. The mud has stained it and it is very damaged, but it is definitely his one. He holds it close to his chest; she must have found it when they were searching for her. Seems like the whole time that they were searching for her, she was searching for him as well. He sets it down on the table and he continues to look around, his attention is caught by a journal that sits on the side of the counter. He walks towards it and picks it up, looking at the journal.

_Shattered Memory_

He opens it and he reads the first entry.

_Entry #1_

_My mind is a mess..._

_Who am I? Why did I drag him from the water? Who is he? Why am I getting these feelings? I don’t understand...there is so much that is wrong right now._

_None of this was supposed to happen._

Jaune looks at the page and he notices that there are tear stains on the page as well. She really could not remember anything at the time, whatever it was that Salem did to her to turn her into the Onyx Phantom...it has truly ravaged her memory. He turns the page and he looks at the second Entry, this one must have been after she landed her aircraft away from the Volcanic Chain Isles.

_Entry #2_

_Mistral...I was drawn to this place. Everywhere I walk I get these weird flashing images, seeing people and children playing around me...what does it mean? Is this where Pyrrha Nikos came from? Where I came from?_

_The city is completely destroyed, abandoned. I found burned pictures of myself on the ground all over the place, I don’t understand. Why am I on these pictures? Why am I seen as some kind of idol? I’m an assassin, always have been...haven’t I? All these memories are just shards of a past that I cannot remember...that boy...I felt something...I don’t know why...I never felt that way before._

_Could he help me?_

_I did try to kill him, he might be scared of me...I need to do this on my own. Need to find out where I came from..._

_Who am I?_

Jaune sighs and looks at the page, seeing the prints of her hand as she must have gripped the book hard when thinking back. Seeing her write this way, speaking this way...it hurts Jaune. All her memories have been destroyed but she could still recover them again....she remembers them in some form. “Heads up, Jaune. Acolytes of Lien militants approaching from the east.” Kassius advises and Jaune snaps back into action.

“Got it.” Jaune answers.

The sound of the floor creaking behind him makes him gasp and he turns, his front foot forward and hand on his sword, ready to draw it.

His blue eyes meet her green ones.

Pyrrha looks directly at him with disbelief when she looks at him. He looks at her and she looks so much weaker than when he last saw her. Her body is much thinner than it ever has been; she has been on the run for so long she has been suffering from hunger for a long time. Her skin covered with dirt in places and burnt from the sun at times as well. Her eyes glisten when she looks at him, clearly she remembers him, and he looks at her. “Pyrrha...do you remember me?” Jaune asks her. She stammers before she speaks, her voice so much more fragile than when she used to be alive before the Phantom took her.

“Jaune...I remember you...we trained together on a rooftop back at Beacon, and I think I had feelings for you...” She explains, her hand against the side of her head as she tries to remember, but struggles. She knows that she loves him, but her memory is so damaged that she is struggling to piece together the shards of what is real and what is fake.

“The Acolytes have set up a perimeter; they’ve got a couple of Seekers with them.” Kassius reports. Jaune cautiously approaches her, he cares for her deeply but the last time they met she tried to kill him. He sets her journal down on the table and she looks at it.

“I know you’re...confused...” Jaune says as he walks over to her, and she looks up at him. He has now grown taller than she is, not by much by he is still taller than her now. “But I know that you know that we had something...I was thick, sure.” He admits...finally. She looks at him with a more serious tone now.

“I’m not the Onyx Phantom, I don’t do that anymore.” She assures him.

“The Acolytes are making their way up the Apartment.” Kassius informs.

Jaune listens and looks around, hearing the distant chatter of the Mercenaries converging on their position. “Well the Acolytes of Lien are coming for you, and I doubt they are gonna be as friendly as me.” Jaune warns her.

“That sounds familiar.” She scoffs, remembering the Mercenaries from her time trying to find her memories.

“Crap, they’ve got a couple of Bullheads coming as well.” Kassius warns, and Jaune looks at Pyrrha, noticing she is getting ready for combat. She activates her semblance, the black energy surrounds her hands and the sofa seats burst open as Milo and Akuou come flying out and into her hand. They are still her Onyx Phantom coloured weapons, black and gold. Jaune then notices under the tears she has put her armour on as well, seeing the plates underneath. She pulls her hoodie off and drops it on the floor and takes the jeans off. She stands there in her Onyx Phantom armour, black and gold version of her original armour but more armour covering her body.

“This doesn’t need to end in a fight, Pyrrha...we can sneak out of here.” Jaune says to her, hoping they could do it. But even he knows that the option is impossible. Pyrrha sighs and shakes her head as she spins Milo through her fingers.

“It always ends in a fight.” She says to him, sadly as well. This must also hint towards her fighting the mercenaries beforehand as well, or people in general.

“They’re preparing to breach.” Kassius warns.

Jaune’s running out of time.

“You pulled me from the lake.” Jaune remembers and she looks at him. “Why?”

“I felt something...I don’t know what it was.” She states. Jaune smiles kindly.

“Yes you do.” Jaune says and she looks very timid when he says it as well.

“Breaching!” Kassius warns.

“Breach! Breach! Breach!” The Acolyte Captain behind the wooden door orders, Pyrrha turns and she uses her polarity to throw the table towards the door in order to block it from being opened. A soldier stands on the other side with a breaching Gauntlet, slamming it into the door over and over again. The wooden door cracks and splits in places as the soldier continues to try and get inside. There are many soldiers in the inner stairwell, armed to the teeth to take her down.

A pair of soldiers fly up the side of the Apartment with jetpacks on, the thrusters roar aggressively as they rise up, holding rifles in one hand as they shoot the windows open. Shards of glass spray everywhere and slide across the floor, Jaune holds his shield upwards to deflect the bullets from hitting either of them, and Pyrrha stands low to the ground with her round shield extended forward, deflecting the bullets. She throws her shield with hawkeyed precision, Akuou smashes straight into the chest of the soldier with a metallic bang, causing him to fall as the shield severs the cable. The man screams as he plummets down the side of the building. The other Mercenary swings through the open window and kicks at Jaune, but the Arc boy holds up his shield to stop him from damaging his aura. Jaune spins round and slashes Crocea Mors across the arm of the Mercenary, cutting the arm clean off with a spray of blood staining the wall. He then kicks the soldier in the chest, making him stagger backwards and plummet to his death.

Pyrrha looks at Jaune with shock at how he killed a man, clearly she remembers the old Jaune faintly and that he would have never done that. “You killed him...you never did that.” She says with fearfulness for his mindset.

“Things change.” Jaune says to her.

The Breacher slams his fist into the door and it splits in half and he goes to enter, but Pyrrha launches the table straight at the soldier with her polarity, knocking him off his feet. She rushes forward with Milo and Akuou, despite her concern for him, she is no better. They are both able to kill when necessary, just do not enjoy doing it in the slightest. She raises her shield and deflects the bullets from one of the soldiers and she swings Milo across his chest, then spins round as she extends the spear and slices across their chest plates to knock them onto the ground. Jaune chases after her to keep up with Pyrrha; she has always naturally been faster than he is. She jumps and slams both feet down onto the head of one of the soldiers and then swipes round and knocks one of them over as he goes to attack her with a sword. She smashes her shield down into his chest and the man screams with agony as he feels the round shield nearly breaking him in two.

Jaune emerges from the apartment and he looks at the Captain. “Target is on the run! Contain!” The Captain orders double taking when he sees Jaune. Jaune looks at his arm and he has a cybernetic prosthetic and he stands up, a long blade extends from his forearm and he yells as he swings at Jaune, since he lacks his rifle which was thrown from his grip by the table that came flying out at them. Jaune guards with his sword, clangs echo down the stairs as he backs up from the Captain, he then rushes forward with his shield to stagger the Captain, then spins round and slices Crocea Mors across his chest, making the man scream with pain. Jaune charges forward with his shield, knocking him over the railing.

The Captain howls as he plummets down the flights of stairs, clattering against the railings over and over again as he falls, dead at the bottom. Jaune looks at Pyrrha sees her surrounded by the soldiers, he jumps over the hole in the middle and he smashes against one of the Acolytes, his head hits the wall hard and knocks him unconscious. He turns and bashes his shield against the face of one of the soldiers behind him who was about to fire his gun at him. Pyrrha looks back at him and then transforms Milo into its Rifle Form, firing a round into the chest of another soldier, sending him tumbling down the stairs. She spins round and nearly attacks Jaune, eyes widen and she gasps. “I’m sorry!” She yelps, just like she used to all the time, and that actually makes Jaune smile.

“That’s the Pyrrha I remember!” He laughs, standing back-to-back with her as he swings Crocea across the chest of a soldier that attacks. His eyes widen when he hears the activation of a dust pack rushing up the stairs, the orange blur that darts towards him. “Seeker!” He yells to her, meeting the fist of the Advanced Acolyte of Lien whom punches him square in the face with all his might. The Seeker continues to rush past him and moves up the stairs, stopping higher up before attacking once more. The Seeker draws his Katana sheathed into his Backpack and he darts towards him again but Jaune raises his shield up at the perfect time, the Seeker smashes into him and they both recoil back from the impact.

Pyrrha yelps, bumped from Jaune and she tumbles down the stairs slightly, rolling down and hitting the wall. She turns and gasps, when she sees a Tremor Soldier stood there with the powerful Gauntlets attached to his arms. She is too late to react when the Tremor slams his weapon into her chest, sending her flying through the wall and into the apartment of a couple. They scream with shock, both in their bed and the sheets covering them. Pyrrha slides across the floor with dust and brick covering her body and red hair. She looks at the couple and she smiles awkwardly. “Hi.” She says with a smile, the Tremor enters and she raises her shield upwards and points Milo at the Tremor.

The Tremor roars as he swings the Bracer at her and she ducks underneath him and slashes across his leg, making the Tremor fall to that knee. He swings at her once more and she focuses her senses, using her semblance to her advantage just like she learned to. She pushes the Tremor’s Gauntlet away from her face as he swings and then she jumps in the air and performs a graceful back flip and kicks him up the chin. The Tremor staggers back and slams his bracers together over and over again, creating shockwaves that make the apartment room shake like there is an Earthquake happening. “Ever so sorry about this.” She apologises yet again.

Jaune swings at the blade of the Seeker but just misses when the Seeker darts past him down the stairs and lands beneath him. The soldier aims his Sub Machine Gun at him and fires repeatedly at him, firing the dust bullets towards him. Jaune lifts his shield and deflects the bullets, bringing down Crocea Mors towards him with all of his might, slamming the blade against the sharp stairs, sparks burst from the impact. Like flint against steel, the Seeker’s backpack glows gold again and the dust engages his super speed, sprinting towards him once more, that Katana held outwards to slice across his aura and eventually his flesh. Jaune pushes forward with his shield and the Seeker has nowhere left to go but into the shield, since they cannot jump at this speed. The impact creates a blast of air that pushes them both back; a blast so powerful it has caused the Seeker’s Backpack to malfunction. He swings the Katana at Jaune, but the Arc Boy has become a skilled fighter and he slams Crocea Mors so hard onto the blade that he managed to fracture the cheap blade, since they are not real Katanas, not folded steel like they should be. The blade fragments and falls down the stairwell, narrowly missing another Mercenary who runs up the stairs to get to them.

Jaune takes Crocea Mors and drives the blade through his chest, puncturing through the chest plate and the clothes underneath, cutting clean through his chest and blood erupts from his back along with the damaged dust canisters that explode. He pushes the Seeker from his blade with his boot and he slumps to the floor, dead.

Pyrrha rolls out of the way of the Tremor’s blow as he slams the ground, cracks rippling across the ground, the couple in their bed scream and panic with terror as the soldier tries to kill the Fallen Huntress. Pyrrha slashes towards him, the red light trailing from her weapons as she strikes the Tremor, spinning round and slicing across his chest with her shield, making the soldier stagger back with damage done to the gauntlets. She extends Milo into its Spear Form and throws it straight at the Tremor, the spear lodges through his chest, taking him off his feet and through the window with a smash. She uses her polarity to yank her spear from his chest and back into her hand, blood dripping from the spearhead. She hears him roar as he plummets, crashing down onto the roof of a car beneath, the horn going off and his voice ceased. She looks at the couple and smiles. “Sorry about the mess.” She apologises, running back into the stairwell with Jaune as they join back together.

They look at each other, directly in their eyes with deep caring in their hearts. But this is not the time for a touching reunion; they have to wait to get out of the eyes of the Acolytes of Lien. Jaune contacts the others through his earpiece. “Guys? We could seriously use some help.” Jaune says and she looks at him.

“Is Pyrrha with you?” Nora asks.

“Yeah she’s right next to me.” Jaune answers, not anticipating her reaction to his answer.

“Pyrrha!” Nora screams, so loud that it nearly deafens Jaune. He flinches and presses his hand to his ear which is now ringing from the overly excited Nora Valkyrie. Pyrrha giggles, since somebody could hear that from a couple stories down.

“Was that Nora?” She asks him as they both run down the stairs, seeming to be clear right now.

“Yep.” He nods, touching his ringing ear still. Pyrrha smiles.

“I see she hasn’t changed.” She laughs when she remembers some of her memories she managed to piece together.

“Ain’t that the truth?” He laughs.

Kassius sprints across the rooftops to get their position, jumping over the gaps and he raises his finger to his earpiece to speak to Jaune. “I’m on my way!” Kassius promises, he jumps over a gap and sees three Acolytes of Lien preparing to breach the windows to attack them. He points one of Vulcan Nox at them and fires three round towards them as he sails over them. The bullets hit each of the soldiers and kills them, and he lands on the next rooftop, rolling across and continuing to sprint to find her.

Jaune keeps on moving with Pyrrha beside him. “See you soon.” Jaune replies.

“Who was that?” She asks him.

“Kassius Locke, we met him after Beacon. He’s been helping us ever since, nice guy.” He tells her and she gasps sarcastically. Clearly her sense of humour has returned from her joke.

“You replaced me?” She gasps, and Jaune blushes nervously.

“No-No! He just volunteered to help us find you. He made it pretty clear that he prefers to be his own army instead of a being part of a team of four.” Jaune explains, the rest of his history can be explained to her later. She nods and continues to run with him, the Acolytes of Lien have retreated from the Apartment Building for some reason; they have not bumped into any of them since the Seeker and the Tremor.

_Strange...Seekers always travel in pairs._

They both get down to one of the levels but they both stop upon hearing something loud approaching. Jaune looks at a vase on the wooden table and it is shuddering where it stands, and they both turn around at the other side of the room, where there is a window. Their eyes widen with disbelief.

A Bullhead that carries the Acolytes of Lien colour scheme descends from above the window and the side door opens up, holding onto the side of the Bullhead is somebody they never expected to see getting stuck in the fight.

Darren Ortega.

His eyes meet Pyrrha’s and he looks furious with rage, holding a missile launcher on his shoulder and he points it at her. “Murderer!” Ortega howls with pure rage in his voice, aiming the missile launcher at her and firing it straight at her, not Jaune. Jaune grabs Pyrrha and holds his shield in front of the missile. It shatters the windows and keeps travelling, exploding magnificently in a ball of fire, causing the concrete to fragment and send the duo falling from the building. Jaune turns round so then the shield absorbs the impact, he holds her close so then she is safe. Pyrrha holds Akuou above him to protect him from the rubble that falls with them. They both land onto the rooftop of another building and they roll aside from his shield. Jaune groans with pain from the fall, but Pyrrha helps him get back up, they look around and they see the Bullhead flying round the building to attack.

“Come on!” Jaune says to her, holding her hand as they both sprint away from the Bullhead that chases them down. But when they run, they realise that the Bullhead is simply circling them, keeping an eye on them. Pyrrha notices a shadow leaping towards them, meaning somebody is behind them and she gasps. She pushes Jaune away and the individual tackles her into the ground.

He rolls off her and lands on his feet, she and Jaune looks at him with fear. He stands tall, wearing a new suit of combat armour that is made of hundreds of intricate pieces of metal that move perfectly for maximum efficiency. He has a pair of cybernetic arms and he looks at her, lifting his right arm upwards as he looks at her. “Hello, my dear.” The Spectre greets as his cybernetic hand folds away and the sharp metal scythe-like hook hand folds out, sunlight gleams across the hook as he stares at her.

Pyrrha’s eyes flit over to Milo and Akuou that are beside her and she uses her Polarity to pull them back into her hands and she raises her shield against the hook blade that slashes straight at her, she staggers backwards as the golden sparks erupt from the impact. Jaune runs at the Spectre but he fires his cannon in his left cybernetic arm at him, the powerful dust charge explodes the ground underneath Jaune and sends him flying into the air. He connects the hook to his heel and throws him straight into an Air Conditioning Unit, denting it badly as well. Pyrrha yells with rage, slashing Milo at him over and over again with anger and hatred for hurting Jaune.

He goes to slash her but she pushes his hook away with her Polarity and strikes him up the jaw with Akuou, making him stagger back. He spits some blood from his mouth and smirks as he looks at her. “Not bad.” He chuckles, sprinting at her again and he has had more upgrades than just his arms. He now has implanted cybernetic enhancements in his muscles that makes him sprint faster as he slams the hook to her neck and lifts her off the floor and slams her into the rooftop with all his might. The ground shatters and he goes to stomp down on her skull with his metal boot, but she blocks it with her shield, Jaune grabs the Spectre and yells as he throws him over his shoulder, stamping down on his arm. The Spectre has more enhancements; he engages something in his armour that creates a powerful pulse that throws Jaune from his back. He flies into the air and then the Spectre turns, kicking Jaune in the chest as he falls and he rolls across the rooftop. Jaune grabs onto the edge before he falls, hanging there by one hand as he looks down at the ground. Pyrrha’s eyes widen with fear for his life when she sees him hanging perilously.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha yells, seeing the Spectre walking towards him, scraping the hook across the metal skin of the Air Conditioning Unit, trailing sparks. Jaune grabs onto the edge with his other hand and he tries to get back up.

“How about I make things even? You did take my arm, remember?” The Spectre scoffs, remembering their first meeting when he threatened to have the Seeker execute Nora in front of them for information.

Pyrrha transforms Milo into its Rifle Form and she aims at the Spectre, noticing there is a chink in his armour. A line of dust that charges the whole thing, it could hurt him pretty badly. She aims down the sights and pulls the trigger; a loud bang erupts with the flash of the muzzle. The bullet travels towards the Spectre as he walks towards Jaune, about to kill him. The Spectre suddenly spins round and slices his hook across the bullet that was headed for his back, cutting it clean in half and the two halves of the bullet travel straight past him.

He smirks at her, lowering his hook down as he stares at her. He turns back to Jaune and goes to cut his wrists off.

Suddenly the roar of a man appears from a building to his left and he looks up, seeing Kassius jumping down towards him, he tackles him straight through the roof.

 

**Kassius**

The ground collapses beneath his feet and they both fall into an office below. Kassius smashes his face into the ground with his cybernetic fist; he grabs the Spectre by the neck and throws him across the room, the workers inside scream with shock. The Spectre slams into a Printer and he looks up at Kassius with a stern look in his eyes.

Kassius looks up at Jaune. “I’ll hold him off! Get Pyrrha to safety!” He orders. Jaune nods and he turns to Pyrrha, running over to her and they both jump from the building and land down at the bottom.

Kassius turns and looks back at the Spectre as he stands back up, the hook still folded outwards and Kassius glares at him. He did not forget about what the Spectre did to Yang when they last met. “Remember me?” Kassius asks him with rage in his eyes, on the edge of letting Hyde take over and eviscerate him, but there are too many innocents in the area to be risked like that. The Spectre cracks his neck, seeming to be excited by this challenge, swivelling his shoulder round.

“How couldn’t I forget the face of such a pretty boy?” The Spectre snidely challenges and Kassius grabs Lash Equinox and he flicks them upwards, the blades fold out from the hilt and he points them forward at the Assassin.

“You’re gonna pay for hurting Yang.” Kassius growls with anger. The Spectre smirks and raises his Hook upwards.

“Come then, bring me the bill.” He challenges with a pun, but he is in no joking mood. Kassius rushes towards him and the Spectre swings his Hook straight at him with all his might, the wind rushing behind his attack. Kassius slams both blades of Lash Equinox into the Hook and the Spectre’s blade folds down onto the blades and he holds onto them. He rips them from Kassius’ hand and then he fires a round into his chest.

Kassius is thrown back from the blast and he rolls across the floor.

He looks up at the Spectre and he sees him sprinting at him, the Spectre jumps and goes to stab Kassius in the chest with the hook. He rolls out of the way and spins round; his cybernetic fist collides with the Spectre’s cheek, making him grunt with pain. He staggers back and fires his cannon built into his arm at Kassius over and over again. Kassius rolls out of the way, then fires Vulcan Nox over and over again at him, the gunfire makes the people inside scream, covering their heads with their hands.

The Spectre snarls with rage, stabbing one of the tables with his hook and throwing it straight at Kassius. Kassius rolls aside and picks up his swords, slashing straight at the Spectre with force and aggression. The Spectre deflects the blades with his hook and goes to grab them with it again. But Kassius knows that he can disarm him very easily with that weapon, so he fights smart, attacking the back of the hook and not the inside. Kassius jumps in the air and spins round as he slashes down across the Spectre’s chest plate, cutting across it and he staggers back as the sparks erupt from the impact. The Spectre rolls back and fires at Kassius over and over, the rounds explode against Kassius’ chest and he is thrown through the wall, plummeting out the building.

He slams Lash Equinox against the wall to slow his descent and he jumps off.

The Spectre jumps out and he scrapes his hook down the building and he sprints after the duo that Kassius held him back from. Kassius can see the Bullhead pursuing the two of them. He contacts Ren and Nora through his earpiece. “Nora! Ren! The Spectre is coming for them!” He warns.

“Don’t worry! We’ve got a car, we’re gonna pick them up!” Ren assures.

“What about you?” Nora asks.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve got my bike.” Kassius assures, taking his scroll out and pressing a green button on the screen. He turns and smiles when he hears his bike roaring round the corner and drifting towards him, he has bought an auto-drive system so then it arrives to his location. He jumps over the bike and lands in the seat, riding after the Spectre and Pyrrha and Jaune.

He just has to follow the gunfire.

 

**Jaune**

Jaune and Pyrrha run as fast as they can and they look up as the Bullhead with Ortega inside of it banks round one of the buildings. He has also got access to a mounted machine gun on the side of the Bullhead as well, and he is firing it at them both. The bullets dart past them and burst against the ground. Pyrrha looks ahead as they see a tunnel that moves across the hills over the farmland. They are in the outskirts of Vale right now, closer to the farms of the land.

A horn blares behind them and they both turn to see Ren in the driver seat of a car, Nora next to him with Magnhild in her hand in Grenade Launcher form. “Guys!” Nora calls and they open the doors, jumping inside of the vehicle as they begin to drive away from the Bullhead.

“Hello again!” Pyrrha joyously greets.

“I would hug the hell out of you right now, but Ortega is still on us. Same for that other Bullhead.” Nora points out, and Jaune looks back, seeing the second Bullhead pursing them, a man firing the machine gun at them. Ren slams his foot to the pedal and the car accelerates forward through the traffic and they head into the tunnels, Nora looks around and they notice that there are some Acolytes of Lien trucks pursuing them. Soldiers hang onto the side of the doors with rifles in their hands, firing at their car. The bullets dent the metal skin of the car as they keep on driving through the tunnel. The horns of many cars blare as they race past them; the armoured Mercenary Trucks keep up with them as well.

“Well this is a...” Pyrrha begins.

“Fantastic reunion!” She giggles.

“Yeah, exactly.” Pyrrha agrees.

A group of Mercenary Bikers begin to chase them as well, submachine guns held in their hands as they shoot at them. Ren holds the steering wheel with one hand and he reaches back with Stormflower, using the reflection of the mirror to choose his target that he fires at. The green bullets scatter across the ground, until one of them nails the Mercenary in the chest and he yells with pain, falling from his motorcycle. The bike flips and tumbles into a frenzy of spins and crashes. The bike shatters like glass, chunks of metal thrown everywhere, glass shattered and the remains scrape across the ground by the car they are inside of.

The two Bullheads follow the tunnels, there are some openings ahead on the side that they could attack them with.

Nora looks in the mirror and she sees Kassius catching up with them on his motorcycle, firing Vulcan Nox at one of the soldiers and he falls from the car, tumbling across the road. One of the cars hits him and crushes his head under the wheel. Kassius rides up to the wheel of one of the cars and he slashes the tyre with Lash Equinox. The tyre bursts and the truck flips over and rolls into a frenzy, smashing into another truck, sending the man on the side airborne with a terrific scream.

Kassius smiles victoriously as he keeps up with them. But they’ve no idea that the Spectre is chasing them as well, but not in the tunnel right now. There is an opening in the tunnel for a few yards, and suddenly the Spectre jumps down from above and he lands on the bonnet of a civilian vehicle, crushing it down and causing it to flip. He leaps off the car he crushed the bonnet of and stabs his hook into the roof of their car. The car he landed on flips and scrapes across the tarmac, leaving a trail of sparks behind. Ren looks back and sees the Spectre glaring at him as he hangs on, aiming his cannon at them, firing it over and over to try and flip their car.

“Can’t shake him!” Ren yells as he turns his car round over and over to shake him off, but he has a pretty good grip with the hook he has. Pyrrha looks at him and she opens the car door, Jaune’s eyes widen when she does it.

“This guy is really pissing me off!” Nora exclaims.

“What are you doing, Pyrrha?” Jaune questions, she climbs onto the roof of the car and she stands atop the metal as the Spectre climbs on top. He glares at her and smirks as he stands there.

“We once made a good team.” The Spectre points out, referencing their work when she was the Onyx Phantom.

“Yeah, when my mind was a plaything for your boss.” Pyrrha states with anger.

“You know, I preferred the Phantom.” He scoffs.

“I really don’t like you.” She says to him and he scoffs back at her.

“Too polite to curse? Let’s see how you fare against me!” He yells, lunging at her and slashing straight at her. They keep on driving and Kassius fires Vulcan Nox at the face of a Mercenary who drives one of the cars. The car spins out of control and drives towards the wall, until there is an opening and it plummets off the edge of the cliff. The car plummets and explodes when it hits the rocks beneath; the hills have now become the edge of a mountain face.

Pyrrha slashes Milo and Akuou constantly at the Spectre and he deflects the attacks with his cannon-arm, sparks erupt from the attacks and he kicks at her. She rolls back and nearly falls off the car, holding onto the side. She throws herself into the air and flips over him, landing behind him and she kicks him in the face. Ren’s eyes widen when three trucks come charging towards him and he pulls a hell of a turn that nearly throws them both off the roof. The Spectre stabs his hook into the roof to hang on and his other cybernetic hand scrapes across the tarmac. He stands back up and slashes towards Pyrrha to hurt her, but she deflects the attack with her shield and kicks him in the crotch.

“Argh! You really know how to hurt a guy!” He yells.

Kassius drives up to one of the bikers and the Mercenary gasps when the blade of Lash Equinox is swung directly towards his throat, cutting his head from his shoulders. His head bounces like a ball across the road and his body slumps off the bike and into the traffic. His body is hit by many cars, probably a squished mess by that point, his bike spins out of control, flipping and smashing straight into another car.

Kassius turns his head and his eyes widen when the walls of the tunnel open, multiple pillars being the only cover between them and the Bullhead that attacks them. The Bullhead is not the same one that carries Ortega; this has a Mercenary on the gun that opens fire at him, killing many civilians in the process. Ortega’s has retreated due to being low on fuel. Pyrrha uses her Polarity and lifts the Spectre up by his arm and she throws him from the car, the man grunts as he plummets off the car and crashes onto the windscreen of a car.

He rolls off and glares at their car, his implants activate and he charges after them, running at Superhuman speeds, managing to outrun the cars on the freeway. He sprints after their car with determination in his eyes, seeing Pyrrha climbing back into the car.

The Bullhead continues to fire at them, the bullets killing innocent after innocent. Ren drives as fast as he can, but all it takes is for one of those bullets to either hit them or their tyre and they are all done for. She sighs, kicking her door open and she holds Magnhild in one hand in its Grenade Launcher Form. She holds on and aims at the Bullhead’s cockpit as it chases them.

Nora winks, smirking.

“Bang!” She cheers, pulling the trigger and firing a Grenade that flies straight into the cockpit of the Bullhead. Fire erupts from the Bullhead and chunks of metal explode all over the place, smoke trails from its wings, it begins to spin out of control as well. The soldier is thrown from where he was shooting and falls to his death. The Bullhead roars with pain as it spins out of control, disappearing underneath the cliff and exploding.

They continue to drive away and the Spectre slows down, staring at them as they get away.

He raises his scroll up to his mouth. “They got away...” The Spectre tells him with anger.

“I wish you could see my face right now.” Ortega snarls with anger, sat inside of his Bullhead and he punches the wall of the vehicle with all his might, denting the metal.

“They are headed back to Beacon.” The Spectre informs.

“We don’t have the numbers to organise a strike on Beacon Academy.” Ortega tells him.

“We don’t, no...” The Spectre begins. “But Whitley Schnee might.”

 

**Qrow**

The Ancient Arkhoni Arena stands before them, the three of them look at it with awe in their eyes as they see the size of the place. Qrow looks at Raven and she looks at him. “This the place?” Qrow asks her. She pulls the photograph out and she looks at the structure and then at the structure that stands before them.

“Looks like it.” She says to him.

“Well let’s go have a look.” Taiyang tells them, walking ahead of them with his fists clenched. The two twins look at each other, and then they follow Taiyang inside. There are tall, ancient Knight Statues inside. Very similar to the Silver Eyed Guardian Knights that protected the Relic of Choice on the Volcanic Chain Isles, they all look down at the centre of the structure. Qrow looks around, listening carefully for the sounds of any Creatures of Grimm, but there is nothing...

Not a tweet of anything at all.

“Keep your eyes open...it’s too quiet.” Qrow points out.

“I know.” He says, and then he notices something across the way from them.

The symbol...

The same one on the photograph. A wreath of flowers engraved on the stone wall, it has been placed there recently, and in front of Taiyang is some kind of lever, ancient and made of stone. He looks at them and they shrug, so he pulls it to see what happens. The lever creates a loud crack in the mechanism and the three of them step back when they hear it. More cracks emerge and the ground begins to shift, the lever has begun some sort of sequence.

“What’s happening?” Taiyang asks.

“I don’t know.” Raven responds, looking around as the stone pillars move in unison around them.

Then the ground opens up, something rises from the ground and their eyes widen with disbelief...

It is a person...

But not any person.

“Ozpin?” Qrow says with shock.


	9. The Knights' Bannermen

**Qrow**

Qrow stands there, his eyes wide with pure disbelief as he observes the body of Professor Ozpin rising from the ground, like some sort of deity. The dust rises with him into the air and his eyes are closed, he looks like he is asleep. Inside the chamber where he was kept are faint glowing crystals that seemed to conceal him, perhaps kept him in this state. Qrow and Taiyang approach him, whilst Raven stands guard with her hand close to her Odachi, her red eyes flitting back and forth on the woods. It would be very easy for any form of Grimm or human foe to sneak up on them in this woodland. So many trees to use as cover, and the structure is so massive that there could be foes watching them from the rocks.

Qrow stands beside Ozpin and he closes his eyes, shaking his head slightly to see if he is hallucinating or not. He opens his red eyes and Ozpin is still before him, no image created by Fear or even by the mysterious Soothsayer. “Oz?” Qrow says with shock in his voice, eyes still wide when he looks upon his old friend.

But Ozpin does not awaken from his form of stasis; it looks like he is dead.

Taiyang walks over to the hovering body of Professor Ozpin and he presses his fingers to his wrist to check for his pulse. He then looks at Qrow. “His pulse is faint...” Taiyang tells him, and then he looks around at the place as well. “He must have used this thing to hide himself away from Salem and her Loyalists.” Taiyang suggests as he looks around at the structure, large pillars rising out from the ground around them that circle around the opening. Then the stones float back together, returning to where they once were. Each stone interlocks together perfectly, heating their edges up and connecting together with ease. Loud clicks and bangs erupt as they come together with such ease, and Raven walks upon them as they return to where they were. She feels no hollow underside to it, incredible architecture and technology.

Most certainly that of the Arkhoni, their secrets lost and forgotten after their extinction.

“What is this place?” She wonders when she looks at it, at first glance it looks like some sort of Arena or Amphitheatre, but clearly it is neither. Qrow looks at Ozpin’s body and he suddenly drops from where he was floating, but he swiftly catches him as the telekinetic lift shuts off and he holds him there.

“Must be some sort of Stasis Room, to hide people for hundreds of years. Only to be woken up when the time has come for them to return.” Taiyang presumes, looking at it as he stands up, walking over to her side.

Taiyang looks at Raven. “What do we do?” He asks her.

“We don’t have the resources to stabilize him here; we need to get him somewhere safe.” Raven explains.

“Beacon, then?” He asks.

“Yeah, that would be our best bet.” Raven agrees, and Taiyang takes out his scroll and goes to call Yang, but something else comes up.

_Low Signal._

“Damn...guess we’re gonna have to surprise them.” Taiyang says.

Qrow stands tall as he looks down at Ozpin in his arms. “Oz...You’re coming home old friend.” He says.

 

**Ruby**

Unaware of what Qrow, Taiyang and Raven have just discovered, Ruby sits on the Airship that she and her team have chosen to go to Vacuo in. She rests Crescent Rose on her lap as she cleans the gears with a cloth. She observes the gears of the weapon; Ruby has become accustomed to seeing through one eye now opposed to seeing through two. It used to be like constantly having one eye closed all the time, but now it is not like that at all. She can see just as well as she ever could. Ruby wipes some of the dirt from the gears in the mechanics of Crescent Rose, she has also learned how to completely take her weapon apart to clean it and then rebuild it without anybody’s help.

_Rule Number One: A Huntress must never forget to clean their weapon, know the ins and outs of it, for their weapon is as much a friend as the person beside you._

_Professor Port’s words._

She fiddles around with the mechanism that transforms the scythe blade back and forth; grime covers her hands as she plays with it and wipes the dirt from the joints. She takes out the lever and cocks it back, checking that the feed is working correctly. The last thing that Ruby ever wants to experience is to fire the gun and nothing happens because it is jammed. Or for the worst possible outcome in that scenario, the ammunition explodes inside the rifle and blows Crescent Rose up. She already lost one version of her beloved Scythe Sniper Rifle; to lose it again would be heartbreaking for her.

Crescent Rose has seen many upgrades, though since her previous death. With the help of Weiss, the rifle is now capable of simply having all magazine types loaded at once, just with the flick of a switch she can make the rotating chamber change the shells that she is using. Just like how Myrtenaster works. The blade also now has an ability where it can be coated in a form of dust, either fire, ice or whichever she chooses in combat. Now she can make her blows even more effective.

With Crescent Rose, the phrase _whatever doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger_ is quite literal indeed.

Ruby sets the weapon down on the table and picks up her screwdriver, twisting the screws round so then they actually get into the weapon itself. She continues to do so as she finishes up with cleaning her massive weapon, and she turns when she notices in the corner of her eye that Weiss has walked over to her. Weiss smiles at Ruby when she approaches and she stands next to her. “How’s she doing?” Weiss asks her, and Ruby sighs.

“Why is it that whenever I have to clean her...all of the gunk is at the middle?” She asks her, pointing at the weapon on the table with both hands with annoyance. “Every single time, it always goes into the hardest area to get to.” She sighs and Weiss giggles, setting Myrtenaster down on the table beside Crescent Rose. The scythe dwarfs her sword completely.

“I know what you mean. The hardest part of Myrtenaster to clean is the inside of the blade...such a pain.” Weiss sighs as she shows it to Ruby. Ruby holds her sword in her hand, admiring the blade with awe in her big eye; Weiss rarely lets anybody hold her sword. But after what happened to Ruby...everything that has happened actually since the previous Fall of Beacon...she has realised how much she really has here. She has become nicer, whether she would admit it or not. Ruby gently pushes her thumb onto the hammer that rotates the chamber of dust crystals round, no matter how many years will pass, her eagerness to observe other weapons shall never fade.

“Did you make it as well?” Ruby asks her as she sets it back down on the table.

“Yeah, had some help with Winter. And Klein funnily enough.” She giggles when she mentions his name and Ruby raises her brow.

“I’ve yet to meet this guy. You praise him a lot.” Ruby says.

“Well, he has been more of a dad to me than my actual one.” Weiss points out and Ruby nods. She did not speak to Weiss’ father much, but she could quickly figure out what kind of man he is from how ill he spoke of his own daughter. “I owe him a lot; he did save my life by helping me get out of that place.” She says to her and then Ruby stops in her tracks and turns to Weiss.

“Hang on...is this the cake butler?” She asks her with a raised brow and Weiss pauses for a moment, almost like she is embarrassed. Weiss sighs and nods to Ruby. “I knew it!” She squeaks.

“Look, he always made me cakes and hot chocolate whenever I was feeling down.” Weiss explains and then Ruby giggles.

“From what you’ve told me about how miserable Atlas is, you must have been fat.” Ruby giggles and Weiss giggles back. The old Weiss would have snapped at Ruby for that, but she has changed. Her _aggressive_ personality is now more her way of showing her banter towards her friends, she no longer means it in a nasty way.

“No you dunce.” She says and makes Ruby giggle. “I was very proper, I’ll have you know. And Winter made sure that she ate most of them anyway.” She says as she crosses her arms and that seems to surprise Ruby more than anything.

“Winter Schnee has a craving for cakes?” She gasps, her eye wide with amazement.

“Uh-Huh.” Weiss confirms, nodding her head. “You place a cupcake in front of her and she will fight the urge but always loses.” Weiss reveals and they both start laughing at that realisation that Winter appears to be an addict towards any form of cake, or sweet food. All because of Klein’s kindness to make them cakes and hot chocolate if they were ever upset.

Seems that Jacques horrific parenting skills do have a good side.

Cakes.

Lots of cakes.

They both giggle at the story, their laughter travels down the corridor and Yang walks over and crosses her arms with a smile. At least everything that happened to her has made her an emotionless wreck, she may have horrific nightmares and moments in her life ever since, but at least she can still smile and laugh. The little girl has not been defeated by Tyrian Callows, not yet.

Oscar walks over to Yang and looks at her. “You okay?” Oscar asks her as he leans against the wall behind her. Yang looks at him and she turns round.

“Yeah...just happy to hear that laugh of hers.” Yang says to her, and Oscar nods his head.

“I know...” He sighs and then looks at her.

“She had another nightmare didn’t she?” Yang asks him, hearing the concern in his voice when he says that, along with that loud sigh he created as well. Oscar nods and she looks at him, wanting to know everything, she is her baby sister and only wants to know if she is okay. And that includes her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms as well; she has been researching methods to help her, just as much as Oscar has been. “What happened?” Yang asks him, giving Oscar her full attention.

“I woke up to hearing her screaming in fear, she started hyperventilating.” Oscar begins and Yang closes her eyes with anguish.

“She’s doing that again? I thought we were over the breathing problems...” She sighs; they once had to give her an inhaler due to her breathing problems from her issues. Oscar nods to her question as an answer and then he continues on.

“She started to cry and I calmed her down and asked her what she saw.” He continues.

“What was it?” She asks.

“She said it was the Charred Forest again.” Oscar answers and Yang stammers with fear, the mere mention of that place in has become something they all dread to hear of. She has seen it so much, but they also know that Ruby is not the only one who has seen the Charred Forest before.

“I think I’ve had my fill of hearing about that damn place...even Jaune said he saw it once.” She says to him. “I did.” She says, and Oscar nods, crossing his arms.

“So did I...that place is more than just a by-product of her trauma...and I have a feeling that the Knights might be behind it.” Oscar explains as he clenches his hand into a fist, angry that they are still harming the girl he loves with all his heart.

“What happened there?” Yang asks him and Oscar returns back to what Ruby told him.

“She told me that she was hearing voices again. She saw the Nuckelavee again, heard Scarlet David and Sage there...but she was confronted by the ghosts of Watts, Roman and Tyrian at once. They all spoke in the same voice and she said they said the same thing.” Oscar explains, stammering when he thinks on what Ruby told him, what she heard the voice tell her.

“What did they say?” Yang asks him.

“ _The Canvas Will Be Wiped Clean._ ” Oscar remembers, saying exactly what Ruby told him, a chilling statement as well.

_What does it mean?_

Yang’s eyes widen with shock and disbelief when he says that, she even steps back a little bit when Oscar tells her that. Oscar raises his brow and then catches on when he says it. “Don’t tell me...” Oscar starts but she finishes it for him.

“When Fear was messing with our heads when we were trying to find you two...in the Emerald Forest...” Yang remembers, seeing the hallucination that Fear created for her. The sight of seeing everybody she has ever held dear being killed, Death holding Ruby up and plunging his sword through her heart with force. And what did he say? “The Canvas of Life will be wiped clean...” She remembers, nearly identical apart from Death mentioning that the canvas is life.

“How is that possible? For her to hear the same thing?” Oscar asks her.

“These nightmares can’t just be due to her problems...” Yang stammers, she then grabs Oscar’s arm and pulls him behind the wall so then she can secretly tell him something. “Oscar...do you think it is possible that something is feeding these visions to her in her sleep? They only come when she sleeps, right?” Yang asks him with serious eyes and he nods his head.

“What do you want me to do? Watch over her?” He asks.

“No...we will have a place to stay at Vacuo though. Could you set up a camera and see if anything was there if she has another one?” Yang asks him and Oscar thinks on this. It could help her beat this thing if it turns out to be something feeding nightmares to her, and not down to her trauma. He looks at her and then looks at Ruby as she converses with Weiss indistinctively to him. He then looks at Yang and closes his eyes with a sigh.

“Okay...” He agrees and Yang smiles, hugging him gently and he holds her as well.

“Thank you...” She says kindly, releasing him from their hug. “You know, at first I didn’t know if I thought you and her were a good match. The way you’ve been looking after her, though? You proved me wrong.” Yang admits and he smiles, nodding.

“I want her to be happy.” Oscar says.

“Don’t we all?” She asks him with a smile, turning and walking away from him. Oscar stands there and pinches the bridge of his nose. He then looks at Ruby.

_How’s she gonna feel about this idea?_

 

**Sun**

Sun sits in the cargo hold of the ship with his legs crosses as he has a bouncy ball in his hand, throwing it against one of the crates over and over again. The ball bounces off the crate and returns back into his palm as he catches it. He sits there, lacking that enthusiastic look he usually carries around all the time, he looks quite serious in fact. He keeps on throwing it back and forth, and Blake walks down the stairs towards him and she sees him sat on that crate as he does so. She touches her hair as she approaches him, tenderly touching his shoulder, and Sun jolts, turning round and seeing her beautiful face. Blake’s elegance in her face has always been able to calm him and he relaxes, returning to doing what he was doing beforehand. “You can’t help yourself, can you?” She asks him, Sun raises his brow with confusion.

“With what?” He asks her, looking at her large feline amber eyes.

“Being a good stowaway?” She asks him with a smile and he looks at where he has been sat the whole time. He snickers and then throws the ball again; it bounces back and into his hand.

“Yeah...guess old habits just die hard.” Sun says as he bounces the ball on the spot. He catches it and Blake looks at him, sitting down next to him on the crate, crossing her leg over the other as she sits there, reminiscing on their past.

“Crazy to think that was the first time I ever saw you.” She points out, Sun thinks back and realises that she is right. Him looking like a common criminal, not the best first impressions on a girl most of the time. But by the looks of things, it was the perfect first impression for Blake. Sun laughs a little at that as well, winking at her as he ran past her.

“Damn it was cheesy.” He says with a sigh when he remembers that moment and she giggles.

“Yeah, you always have been a dork.” She says, and he gasps.

“What? A dork?” He says.

“That’s what I always found cute about you.” She says to him, making the guy blush shyly and he looks at her with a smile.

“Wasn’t the best first impression, especially not on Weiss.” He points out with a chuckle, remembering how much she disliked him at first. Took her quite a while to like him as well, but for Blake she started to have feelings for him relatively fast, and that is something that was on his mind for a while. “By the way...I’ve always wondered, why did you start liking me?” He asks her as he throws the ball. It bounces back and she catches it before he can, surprising him, she looks at the little ball in her hand and rubs her thumb across the soft exterior of it.

“I was...lonely...I thought my own team started to detest me at the time, from Weiss’ reaction to me being a Faunus, and once being a member of the White Fang.” Blake begins, remembering some of the things that Weiss once said about them. How small their enemies once were, how they wish things could go back to the way they once were. The biggest threats in the world were just Grimm, White Fang and Criminals.

Now they have to face Spectral Knights, possibly a Demonic Entity, a Mercenary Organisation, a Corrupt Business and Mad Scientists. She looks at Sun and smiles gently when she speaks. “But...you listened to me, all the bad things I did with the White Fang, you could have taken me for a monster. But you didn’t, you listened and still had my back no matter what...no one has ever done that for me before, you never judged me. You helped me and looked after me with no questions asked.” She explains and smiles as she gently touches his cheek, caressing him as she looks into his blue eyes.

She wraps her arms around him and plants an affectionate kiss on his lips. “Thank you.” She whispers to him and he gently touches his head to hers.

“You gave me purpose, Blake...after what happened in Vacuo...with Hazel...” Sun explains, his eyes filled with anger when he mentions the name of Hazel. It is very understandable for Sun to be angry over this whole thing, he may be on their side but he still did what he did. Just as Cinder still killed Pyrrha, she might be alive now and Cinder is on their side, but Jaune can never forgive her for doing what she did. Blake looks at him and he looks down at the floor, she holds his hand gently, moving her fingers across his hand and linking them through his. He turns his hand and holds her hand in return.

“Is that what’s on your mind?” She asks him. Sun silently nods, not looking at her, when he grieves he struggles to truly show it to people. That is the main reason behind his personality, he fights to be friendly and happy despite of the things that he has lost. First his parents and then Scarlet and Sage. “Tell me.” She whispers, begging him to not shut her out of that mind of his. He sighs and looks at her with a kind, loving smile on his face.

“It’s just...I haven’t been back to Vacuo in a long time, I only went back there six years ago to see my parents. Then...Hazel turned up and killed them right in front of me with those imposter White Fang soldiers.” Sun explains, remembering it all too well. The farm on Vacuo, the soldiers that were gunning people down, hiding behind their masks. Except for the mountainous Hazel Rainart who killed his mother and father in front of Sun with that dagger he always uses. He clenches his hand into a fist when he thinks back on the moment, like a residual pain that never leaves his muscles.

But again, he opens that fist when he feels her hand gently soothing him as she holds his arm, leaning up against him as she listens to every word that he says. “It’s okay.” She whispers to him and he sighs, closing his eyes.

“I just...” He stammers, closing his eyes as he looks down at the floor. “I don’t know if I’m ready to...” He stammers and she lifts his head up and looks at him. Tears sit in his eyes, something that only she has ever seen. She pulls him close and wraps her arms around him, hugging him tight, he buries his head into her shoulder and begins to cry. He rarely ever shows his sorrow, so when he does, it is very heartbreaking, letting those tears leave his blue eyes. Blake affectionately strokes his spiky blonde hair as he holds him.

He sits up and wipes the tears away from his eyes, sniffling as he does as well. “I’m sorry...” He apologises, voice cracked as he says it.

“It’s okay...” Blake whispers kindly as she looks at him, tilting her head. He rubs the tear from his face with his wrist, looking embarrassed of showing his tears even to his girlfriend. She leans over to him and rests her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes when she does it as well. “You were there for me as well...” She says to him, remembering the Fall of Menagerie, having to watch her parents get slaughtered by the Knight of Fury, along with a large amount of Faunus in the town on the island.

The first ever appearance of the Knights of Grimm.

He keeps on wiping his tears away, but he does feel like a huge weight on him has been removed, of all that grief being let out like that. “I won’t tell a soul.” She promises lovingly, since she knows that he hates showing his sadness around his friends.

Also showing how much he loves and trusts her.

Sun looks at her and he touches her long soft black hair with his hand. “When we go there...I need to go their graves.” Sun says to her and she looks at him and smiles.

“Of course, I’ll go with you.” She suggests and he holds her head by his hand and gently rests his head to hers.

“Thank you...” He whispers to her with a shaky breath, even though they have been in a committed relationship for five years, he is still very shy around the beautiful girl. She smiles and her eyes meet his, they share a tender kiss in the storage bay of the ship.

Now they are both great stowaways.

 

**Penny**

Penny’s large pea green eyes focus on the whiteboard that Glynda has made for her, she watches intently, reading the statement that Glynda has written out for her on the board. _My name is Penny Polendina. I am a huntress from Beacon Academy, and I wish to save the world._ Glynda stands there and she reads it over and over again to get it planted in her mind, and she taps her toes over and over on the floor with anticipation. “Are you ready, Penny?” Glynda asks her, since she is helping with their memory testing lessons.

“Yes...” Penny answers, and she closes her eyes. She remembers the procedure very well, and it is incredible that she is in fact able to remember things as well as she can thanks to these lessons. The technology is stunning, that despite her lacking her Memory Drive that helps her remember everything instantly, she can remember things, but can forget them just as easily. The Drive helps balance it.

“Okay, I’m wiping it off the board, now I want you to repeat what the sentence was on the board to me.” Glynda says to her, standing before her. Penny opens her large eyes and she thinks as hard as she can, trying to place the words in her head.

“My name is Penny Polendina...” She begins, struggling to place the words, her eyes squinting over and over as she searches her mind to find them. She stammers as she thinks, hands pressed to her head. “My name...name is Penny Polendina...I am a Huntress from...from...” She stutters, pushing her hand through her orange hair, biting her lip in distress as she struggles. Glynda walks over to her, altruism glowing off her as she crouches before Penny and she stammers, repeating the sentence to try and remember it.

She breathes out as she restarts, shaking her head around to try and remember. She places her fingers to her temples and closes her eyes as she tries to remember. “My name is Penny Polendina...” She whispers to herself, repeating it over and over again in her head to remember that part. Glynda listens carefully to see how she is doing, and it is sad to see her struggling like this.

She opens her eyes and sits upright. “My name is Penny Polendina, I am a Huntress from Beacon...Beacon...Academy...I – I wish – to save the...save the world?” She recites, fully as well and Glynda smiles with happiness to see that Penny is getting better at remembering things. She still struggles but this is a monumental step in the right direction for Penny, she is able to remember things, but she must learn a method to remember things faster than that. But Glynda chooses to commemorate her achievement today.

“You did it, Penny!” Glynda congratulates and Penny creates a rambunctious giggle, one that is far more excited than she probably intended. She claps her hands together happily as she bounces on the spot happily.

“I did it? I did it! I did it!” She cheers happily. Glynda smiles when she sees the little thing so happy, amazing considering she is an Artificial Intelligence, she has more life in her than most human beings do in the world.

Which is saying something.

Penny looks at Glynda with a happy look in her eyes. “What next?” She asks her.

“Well, you should start to build on this. In time, I am certain you will have your memory back to how it should work. It will take some time, but it is clear that you have a memory to build on.” Glynda explains and she nods her head. A knock on the door catches their attention and they both turn to face the door in question. Glynda stands up and faces the door with her hands crossed behind her back. “Come in.” She allows.

The door opens and Professor Port is stood there, the light shining around him as he stands there. “Professor Goodwitch, it seems we have a visitor today.” Port says to her and Glynda looks at Penny who stands up, walking beside her.

“Who is it?” Glynda asks.

“Commander Adam Taurus, he has come to speak with our prisoner.” Port tells her and she nods, since now they have created an alliance, their hearts do not pound as hard as they used to when they were merely allies because of the Knights of Grimm. Now they know that they can work together outside of wartime, hopefully lead to a better tomorrow. Despite all the bad the Knights brought in their wake, they also have created some good.

_In the event of crisis, folk who would once be foes, would become allies in order to survive._

Glynda and Penny follow Peter Port outside and they greet their guest who approaches with a pair of White Fang soldiers. Adam has not attached a cybernetic replacement where he lost his arm during the Siege of the Volcanic Chain Isles, his sleeve hanging down and he looks at her through his mask, hearing her approach. “Commander Taurus.” Glynda greets as she approaches him and he bows his head down.

“Professor Goodwitch.” Adam replies and Penny shyly looks at him and his two soldiers. She faintly remembers those insignias when she decimated them in defending her best friend, Ruby, at the time. “I hear Team R.W.B.Y managed to capture Mazen?” He asks her and Glynda nods, but still answers due to his blindness.

“Yes, come follow me.” She says, his hearing has become so acute that he can follow people by sound alone. It has made it look like he has been able to see for a very long time, but his eyes have always been hidden behind his mask. Penny walks with Glynda and she looks around as she sees some of the Huntsmen and Students help restore the place to its former glory. Drilling into the buildings, hammering nails into walls to keep them secure, laying plaster and tiles on the structure. Most of Beacon Academy has been repaired, other areas are just under final improvements.

Penny spots the structure of which Mazen is being held in the cells that Thaddeus created years ago when the Knights vanished from the face of Remnant. “It’s just ahead.” Glynda tells them, walking down towards it.

“May I ask where Blake is?” Adam asks Glynda. Glynda looks back at him and then answers.

“She and her team, along with some other huntsmen have decided to investigate the assassination at Vacuo. Some others, including Mr. Locke have continued their search for Pyrrha Nikos.” She informs.

“And are Qrow, Raven and Taiyang still searching for the Spring Maiden?” He asks, hoping to remain informed on everything.

“Yes, haven’t heard from them in a while, Scroll signals have not been kind lately. The C.C.T is not as fast as it used to be.” Glynda states as she arrives at the Block. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a key card that can open the door on command, only those who have access cards can enter the Cell Block, and they walk inside. Glynda stands at the glass, her eyes focused on Mazen as he sits in the same spot he has been the whole time. “He’s inside.” She tells him, and he nods, using his sword to search for his way out of that room and the entrance to where the four cells are. The door opens and he walks out and down the steps to where Mazen is sat.

Mazen turns his head slowly when he hears the footfalls of Adam approaching his cell and he stands up, glaring at him as he stands at the other side of the glass. Glynda crosses her arms as she watches the interrogation go down. “Mazen.” Adam greets and he scoffs at the Taurus. Mazen shakes his head.

“Adam.” He snarls with anger, only seeing a traitor in his eyes, his fists clenched tight when he focuses on him.

“I have come to talk to you, Mazen.” He begins, but Mazen slams his fist into the glass so hard that the whole cells jolts. Glynda goes to shock him as they warned but Penny stops her, since there must be a reason behind that. He was not slamming his fist into the glass as an effort to escape, it was through anger. Through resentment towards the man that stands before him.

“You betrayed the cause you built.” He growls with anger, his muscles tense at the sight of him, like an arachnophobe staring at a huge spider that scuttles towards them. The way he speaks, it sounds like he grits his teeth, spit launched from his teeth.

“Because we had a bigger threat.” Adam clarifies, remembering his reasons for helping the humans.

“And then you turned against us, raised your own army against the White Fang.” Mazen snarls with detest as he stares at Adam, his fist shaking against the thick glass that he punched moments ago. Adam sighs and he grabs the damaged horn that Kassius snapped when Hyde let loose with rage on him. He paces back and forth before Mazen, but the White Fang Lieutenant does not move, he keeps on watching him.

“I saw the truth through them, Mazen. You will as well, the world is not safe from the Knights of Grimm. They are not done, they are planning their next move. The only way for the Faunus to survive is to work together with the Humans.” Adam explains, but every effort he makes in order to convince Mazen to see his side of the story, it does not seem to help at all. It just seems to infuriate the White Fang Lieutenant even more.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” He snarls with anger and Adam looks at him. “I believed in you!” He yells with rage and Adam looks down at the floor, with shame on his face. Mazen looks to the glass, he cannot see them but he knows that somebody is watching. “Listen up! That man? I was once a Huntsman like all of you, but when I lost my beloved family...my wife...my child!” He lists with rage, eyes through that mask focused on Adam. “Murdered by humans because we were different! He and Sienna Khan gave me something to believe in! Something more than just a stand against racism, to fight for what we believe in!” He roars with rage in his voice, glaring at Adam again.

He presses his head up to the glass as he stares at Adam. “Remember that? When I saved you, left the White Fang for a while to be with my family? And those humans slaughtered them in front of me? Leaving my face scarred from the fire that they set in my home? Burning it to the ground?” He growls with rage, but anguish in his voice as well when it cracks as he tells the tale. The tale of how he lost everything he ever held dear in one moment, all by humans.

“And you expect me to forgive them?” He scoffs.

Adam looks back up at Mazen and he sighs, since he does remember that. The moment he stopped being the Huntsman he was...and became Mazen.

The White Fang Lieutenant.

“No...they are all liars. Just you wait, Adam. Say you beat the Knights of Grimm together, you stop all of these monstrous beings that want us all dead...what do you think Humanity will do then? Move on?” He scoffs, rolling his eyes behind the mask, stepping away from the glass.

“No...they won’t. They will just go back to doing what they do best, thinking for themselves and killing those that are different to what they are.” Mazen explains, with sadly wise words behind his statements as well. Glynda looks away from Mazen, ashamed of her own people for what happened to his family. Mazen reaches into his jacket and holds the picture in his hand, the picture of his beloved wife and daughter in her arms with happiness in her eyes. All taken from him because humans saw them as animals and could be poached for sport.

He lowers the picture and his eyes focus on Adam. “I will never help humanity...not after what they have done.” He growls with anger, and Adam sighs, knowing that he will not be able to get anywhere with him on this. But Blake did manage to get through to him, simply because he does care for Blake, he could understand her reasons in her own little way. But he will never change.

Some men are too broken to change.

Some men tried to build things, and others knocked it down.

Adam looks at Mazen. “Mazen...I am sorry.” Adam says with sadness. “But please...I just need to know...where are the Albain Brothers?” He asks him and Mazen scoffs.

“Like I’m about to rat them out.” He scoffs as he sits down on his chair, looking away from him.

“I need to find them, Mazen. They do not truly understand what is coming like you and I do.” Adam states.

“But they know that humanity is a disease...and it must be cured.” He snarls and then remains silent, not saying anything else.

Mazen has suffered too much to change who he is.

 

**Fennec**

“I see you gathered before me...hungry – terrified – clutching your babes to your breast.” The Preacher speaks to a crowd of worried individuals in a town. The town appears to be somewhere hidden in Mistral, one of the poorer areas. All of the people listening to his words are only Faunus, humans on their knees behind them with White Fang pressing guns to the back of their heads. Some starving, some terrified, others holding their children close to them for their safety, the coos of the babies emerging from their tiny bodies. The Preacher stands before them all with a cowl over his head and a cloak surrounding his body, wearing the beige robes around his body with his ears sticking through them. He holds a staff in his hand with the forged skull of a Beowulf attached, the man was once young looking but over time, through war and survival, he has grown a thick beard around his face.

The Preacher is Fennec Albain, next to him is his brother, Corsac Albain. He too has grown a beard and wears the fox shaped hood over his head, holding a staff as well.

“President Thaddeus Brimstone is blind to the truth, mind reduced to ash with the wife of Jacques Schnee just as lost. Using our people as slaves for their own riches! Sieges laid across Remnant as the Atlesian Military rises against the Faunus after blaming us for their murders and anyone else who stands in their way.” He preaches, his voice has become much more powerful and convincing as he speak, glaring at both humans and Faunus. The humans look terrified, some Faunus look scared too, others look inspired. “Jacques Schnee has been burning our homes down with the Acolytes of Lien; rabid and ravenous he bites and bites away.” He poetically speaks.

He speaks of the attacks that the Knights of Grimm have set forth, but he is bending it towards the human threat. Jacques Schnee is bad, but he was not behind the destruction of Menagerie and other towns.

He is feeding them all lies.

He raises his staff up in the air. “Brave Faunus!” He calls out; it seems he has changed as well after the fall of Adam’s old White Fang, with Sienna Khan on his side as well, he has become more fanatical than he originally was. “We all stand at the precipice of this war; our leaders have fallen to the mercy of a businessman with bloodthirsty intent. So now you return your worships to the God of Light.” He explains with a scoff in his voice. “And yet you do not plead?” He barks with anger. “You do not kneel and dust your heads with dust?” He questions with disgust in his tone of voice. “Instead you wail, _why have the gods forsaken us_?” He chuckles at them all, like he is looking upon a bunch of failures.

People whimper with fear as he judges them all with his venomous voice, more like a viper than a fox.

“We must look into the trials the ancient Arkhoni failed long ago!” He begins, clearly has done his research on the Arkhoni to convince these people to join his cause. “In a time past, our gods of light and dark combated each other with their beliefs and during that cataclysmic war of life and death, the monstrous force called the Grimm was born, along with the form of dust. And yet the Arkhoni did not banish the power of dust, did not aim to destroy the Creatures of Grimm with what they learned – no – they used them, controlled them for their own power and wealth.” He explains with anger in his voice, clear that the knowledge of the Arkhoni has been set loose upon the world as well as just what the world knows now. But everything he says is simply a ploy that he aims to convince them to join him. Houses burn behind him as the White Fang burn the homes of humans down, with some of them still inside, wailing with agony as they are burned alive.

The civilians are able to imagine the scenes of which he describes in the shadows against the wall from the glow of dancing flames. They can imagine seeing the brothers fighting and then seeing old women returning to beautiful young forms again with long lustrous hair, pouted alluring lips and sultry eyes and voices. Grimm with blue light flowing through their veins instead of it being deep red as normal. But then as he continues, that is when it all changes.

“And the monsters at our door – the unholy creations of the God of Darkness? The Ursas, the Geists, the Nuckelavee?” He lists and they can see them all as he lists them. Seeing the huge Grimm Bear attacking innocent civilians with rage educed fire erupting from its eyes, their blood drenching the black fur and the bone armour. Then seeing the Geists as they float through the sky and possess anything of use to them, like the Giant Armour, or even skeletons. And then the infamous Nuckelavee, shrieking monstrously as it sends its extended arms at the warriors to kill them all, one stuck in the jaws of the beast. “Did we raise our swords against them? Or have we laid this burden on others?” He shouts disrespectfully.

“On so-called Silver Eyed Warriors, Huntsmen, Squires of Light?” He lists as he stands there, and the hope returns when they imagine seeing a Silver Eyed girl with black and red hair and a long red hood and cape blowing in the wind, blasting a thick and extremely powerful beam of white light into the Nuckelavee to kill it. “Children taught to become warriors at the youngest of ages like the legendary Spartans of Old, some mutating their bodies through blasphemous ritual, and others gifted with incredible strength. But their childish minds cause them to care, and they fear the very thing that they have been designed to stop.” Fennec preaches.  “Yes – the numbers of the Silver Eyed Warriors has dwindled over the years, but few still roam Remnant, offering their abilities for coin to any who would be willing to pay. To this age their shame us with their very existence!” Fennec barks.

They then all foresee the war that is destined to start across Remnant, one that Fennec believes that Jacques Schnee shall start, against Vale, Mistral, Vacuo and Atlas. All for his lust for control...the scary part? He is not very far from the truth.

Everywhere people are fighting one another from the chaos that has been created, cutting each other down with swords, axes and firearms, floods of blood coating the once fertile ground. “Remnant Bleeds!” Fennec roars. “Waiting to be flogged by war!” He bellows. “The battles that a human has forced upon us are the God of Darkness’ whip, reprimand for our sins! Humanity are the cursed race made by the Brother of Shadows to burn our lands to the ground!” He preaches, sounding more and more like a religious nut. But at the same time, targeting humanity as a creation of Darkness, like the Creatures of Grimm.

But as they stand there, their imagination rises up to four imaginary mountains that stand above them. Four sinister figures stood atop their summits, staring down at them all. “And let us not forget the terrors, that scourges from the land of the Infinite and the Unbound –” Fennec begins and their eyes focus on the Four Knights of Grimm, Death with his armoured hands pressed to his hilt of Ferrum Arctus as he stares down at them with his glowing red eyes. Fear stands to his left with a mad smirk, Formido Falcem in hand, Loss on his right with her bow clutched in hers. And finally on the end is the enraged Knight of Fury, his flames burning hot with his Berserker’s Axes held tight. “The Knights of Grimm glide across the skies, to claim all of our souls for the sins of Humanity!” He fearfully says.

“The Spectral Knights will kill and claim us all if we do not rise up against their kind! Humanity will bring extinction to us all, unless we end them first!” Fennec preaches, pointing at the humans on their knees, terrified. Once neighbours, now viewed as foes to the Faunus Villagers.

Fennec clenches his hand into a fist as he speaks with a mad smirk on his face.

“Can we chart a course back into the light? Will we have the strength to put a stop to the wars that have been created from the corruption? Bring an end to the chaos created by the Humanity and their creations? Unite under the shadow of the God of Light?” He lists as he stands before them all, holding his hands up to the sky.

He looks directly at them all with angered eyes, scars on his face and his beard grown long. “Nigh is the time of the sword and axe. None will fight this war in our stead!”

“Nigh...is the time of Extinction and Trepidation.” Fennec concludes as he looks at them all, and he points at the humans who have been rounded up.

“The choice is yours! What do we do with these pests? Kill them? Or Free them?” He asks them all, the White Fang aim their rifles at the heads of the humans and they scream with terror.

“Kill them!” The Faunus all yell at once, until one of them stands up. He has a pair of dog ears as he stands there and glares at the two Preachers, the only man of the lot to say no against them.

“No...we free them.” The Male Faunus says, the crowd gasps with disgust at him as he stands there, and Fennec laughs with disbelief, walking towards him.

“Free them? After everything I just told you?” Fennec laughs when he stares at the young man, and he looks at a woman a year younger than him. One of the humans on their knees, a beautiful woman as well, and there is love in his eyes, something that Corsac catches as he walks over to Fennec’s ear.

“I believe we have an idealist.” Corsac whispers and Fennec chuckles menacingly.

“He sleeps with the human girl!” One of the Faunus yells, ratting him out but he does not fight against the claim. Because it is true and he seems to love her as well.

“It seems he wishes to claim that we are to...mate with them!” He laughs and the White Fang soldiers guffaw with disgust at the man. He looks away and closes his eyes as Fennec stands behind him. “I’m afraid that you are going to have to find yourself in the Brother of Darkness’ arms.” He whispers, taking his knife and carving across his jugular, the man’s eyes widen with agony as his blood sprays from his neck, gasping as he chokes on his own blood. He grabs his neck but cannot stop the blood.

“No!” The woman screeches with horror, reaching out for her lover.

“We were your neighbours!” One of the human men yells with disgust at them. The woman continues to cry with horror as she watches her lover die on the floor, his blood trailing away from where he fell.

“Any more idealists?” Corsac asks, his hands held out, but none stand up.

Fennec snaps his fingers and the gunfire rings out, her screams are silenced and the sound of multiple human bodies collapsing at once echoes throughout the town. A horrific moment in history as they murder an entire towns worth of human villagers simply because of their race and nothing more. They have become just as bad as those who slaughtered Mazen’s family, whether he realises that or not.

Fennec smiles and he walks away with his brother as they take their new members in. They walk into the woods to congratulate their victory, sharing a bottle of alcohol that they stole from a human house. But before they can drink.

“Nice speech.” Fury says, their eyes widen with fear when they hear his monstrous voice from behind them. They both slowly turn around and stare at the Knight of Fury as he walks through some of the trees. His body is not burning hot enough to set the trees alight, his feet made from pumice to not burn the dry grass. “But not entirely accurate.” He says as he walks towards them, snarling faintly as he glares at the two Faunus. Even he seems disgusted by their actions.

“You...You destroyed Menagerie...We were there...” Fennec stammers with terror, not as defiant anymore.

“Good, means you know what I am capable of.” He states and they look at him with fear in their eyes. “You see, I have a mission, and your men could become useful in this mission.” He states and they seem afraid still. Fury takes the bottle from Fennec’s hand and pulls the cork out and his jaws open up, pouring the alcohol into his mouth. It evaporates before it even enters his ghostly system, not like he would be able to taste it anyway. He then crushes the bottle in his hand with little effort.

“So...I could kill you all right now with ease...” He begins, walking closer and staring them in the eyes. “Or...you could help me find the Spring Maiden, and bring her to my master.” Fury says to him, and they look at each other with fear. “You do that? And perhaps I will promise to help make your dream of a Human-Free Remnant a reality.” Fury states, and then their interests are piqued beyond fear.

Fennec regains control of his shivering body, and he nods.

Fury smirks menacingly, the fire burning hotter as he does.

 

**Qrow**

They have found horses to ride back to Beacon with, riding as fast as they can through the woods. Qrow has Ozpin strapped to his horse so then he does not fall off and he looks at his sister beside him and he smiles. “You know...had a pretty interesting dream recently.” Qrow tells her with a smirk on his face.

“Oh yeah? Was it about that cute Innkeeper with the short skirt?” Raven asks him with a grin and he laughs, but shakes his head.

“No, no. Nothing to do with her, but it was with Summer.” He says to her and her eyes widen when he mentions her name.

“I bet it was filthy, then.” She says, still making banter with her brother to keep the mood from dulling on their ride. It is the last thing they need right now.

“At first it was.” He admits. “But then...” He says, as he hears the sound of what is more horses behind them, so many it sounds like a roar. He furrows his brow and looks back when he hears the rumbling behind them.

“But then?” Raven asks him, and his eyes widen with horror from what he sees pursuing them. Raven and Taiyang look back and they gasp with shock.

There are around twenty demonic looking Horses, Grimm Horses without a doubt, similar to the Nuckelavee, but have sharp plates of metal fused to their shadowy hides. Eyes burning red and haunting howls and screeches behind them. The Riders hold swords, axes, hammers and bows in their hands, some even carry what appear to be modern day rifles and firearms of some kind. They are skeletal warriors with the same black sharp pieces of metal around their bodies, linked together to protect them from the elements. Their sockets are filled with red fire, helms melted onto the skulls, just like the metal is fused to the rest of their body. Black smoke trails with them as they pursue their prey, speaking in a tongue they do not even recognise. One of them roars at them, its jagged sword held high over its head.

Raven looks at them and her eyes widen.

From recognition.

“Ride! Now!” She yells with fear, and they kick their horses to make them run at full speed, but the horses have already started to do so from fear of what is behind them. They charge after them at great speeds, roaring and screeching, like something from some horrifying movie, slashing their swords at them.

“Expiro!” One of the Riders roars in its demonic voice, the voice is distorted, much deeper than any human would ever speak. But none have ever seen Grimm of this kind before, ones that are this intelligent. They keep on riding as fast as they can and Qrow sees one of them right next to him, and it swings for Ozpin, trying to kill him. The burning red eyes glare at him and he draws his sword and points the cannon inside at its head, firing it straight into the skull. The head of the being explodes into fragments that fall everywhere, the body plummets from the horse and crashes onto the road, chunks of metal left behind as the skeleton inside reduces itself to smoke.

Raven looks back as they begin to cross a bridge, one she can cause to lift by cutting the rope. She draws her Odachi and slashes across the rope, slicing it clean in half. The bridge swings back up and slams shut in front of the Riders.

One of the Grimm Horses rears up and roars as they escape with the Rider howling as well.

The three escaped unscathed, but shocked from what just attacked them. Qrow looks at Raven and sees the fear of recognition in her eyes. “Raven...what the hell was that?” He asks her.

“They’re the reason I am not using my portals.” She reveals and their eyes widen.

“What are they?” Taiyang asks her.

“I’ll tell you later...back at Beacon.” She tells them.

Something is coming...

There is a reason the Grimm have nearly vanished...


	10. Welcome To Vacuo

**Ruby**

Ruby lies on the seats with her eye shut, sleeping silently with her head rested on Oscar’s lap. Her hand on his as she lays there, Oscar devotedly strokes her hair as she rests her eyes and he looks up when he sees Neptune approaching him and sitting next to him on the other seat. He looks at him and then at Ruby. “How are you feeling?” He asks Oscar, and he looks at Neptune with a confused expression on his face. Oscar raises his brow for clarification on what he means by this.

“Huh?” He responds, sounding lost.

“After the fight we had with that Manticore?” Neptune asks him with curiosity in his voice, and that does help clarify what he meant by that. He initially thought he was talking about the situation with Ruby at the moment. Oscar chuckles and he rotates his shoulder round, a faint crack can be heard inside and he flinches when he feels it.

“Still aching, wasn’t an easy fight.” Oscar states with a chuckle, and Neptune chuckles as well, sitting back in the chair.

“No it wasn’t.” He agrees, crossing his arms. Neptune, however, did not just come here to ask him about how he is feeling after that clash they had with the Manticore Grimm. “Hey...I know its weird timing, it being five years ago and all...but...” Neptune slowly says and Oscar looks at him. Neptune turns and looks at Oscar. “Thanks.” He says.

“For what?” Oscar asks him.

“For saving me.” Neptune says.

Neptune can remember the end of Arthur Watts like the back of his hand, being beaten by the Doctor on that rooftop, Fury’s Berserker Form destabilizing and exploding. The entire building was completely destroyed from the explosion, and if it were not for Oscar slowing down time to save Neptune, he would be ashes along with Watts right now. “You don’t have to thank me.” Oscar says to him, a boy who has always been one to do the right thing and never ask for anything in return. Another reason behind why Ruby fell in love with him, and why he fell in love with her.

“If you weren’t there...I’d be dead. And I don’t think I ever thanked you for that.” Neptune says to him, looking at him and Oscar smiles, patting his shoulder.

“Like I was gonna leave you behind? I don’t leave anyone behind.” He says and Neptune smiles and nods. He looks down at the metal floor and he thinks on what he remembered Watts telling him and he sighs.

“I got revenge that I never realised I needed...I always thought the Dam exploding was all an accident, or it was the Grimm. But it was him all along...” Neptune says, scratching the back of his neck as he thinks on that.

“Well...at least you know you got your revenge and you weren’t searching for it for all your life.” Oscar begins and he looks down at the floor. He begins to remember all the things he saw and heard back at Salem’s Sanctum, and despite that Hazel has joined their side of the coin, he is still being haunted by that Hunt for Revenge he has.

And with Ozpin returning...that might not bode well for any of them.

“The things that Hazel told me...about what Ozpin did to his Daughter. He blames him more for what happened to his daughter than the person that actually killed her.” Oscar remembers, and he actually begins to feel memories that seem familiar. But of course, these are not his memories; they are in fact Ozpin’s memories. He can see things faintly, a young girl with brown hair and brown eyes, a kind smile on her face as she enters Beacon Academy, Ozpin watching from Beacon Tower. He can feel...guilt...in him; it is like that is one of the moments that Ozpin regrets the most. Forcing her into becoming the Fall Maiden, just like how he nearly made Pyrrha do the same thing. And she died as well, by the same person’s hands.

“You’re worried that if we find Ozpin...” Neptune guesses.

“Will Hazel betray us?” He sighs, and then looks at Neptune. “Revenge can turn people into monsters, that hunger for payback can make people forget what they were even fighting for, and just to kill everything in their path until they get it.” Oscar explains, also airing out his concerns for Hazel’s mental health. With the things he said about Ozpin, and now that they have indeed found the man...

...it does raise serious risks, but they do not know at this moment that Qrow, Taiyang and Raven have found Ozpin.

Along with a terrifying new threat.

Oscar and Neptune lift their heads when they hear the intercom buzzing to fill in the passengers on the Airship. “All Passengers, we have officially arrived in Vacuo Airspace.” The pilot informs, waking Ruby up in the process. She groans, rubbing her eye as she sits up from Oscar’s lap, looking around.

“Are we there yet?” She asks.

She looks out the window and gasps with amazement when she sees the huge city amongst mountain sized sand dunes. Towers everywhere and buildings built from sandstone, ships flying around and mining dust from the mountains in the distance. The Schnee Dust Company still has a rather massive pull in Vacuo, lots of work to be found for thieves and scoundrels. There are large walls that surround the city to protect it from the monsters that lurk outside of them; however these creatures do not seem to be clawing against them anymore. But the scars are still there, where countless Grimm would attack the walls, but could never get through. Protected by Mercenaries mostly, since that is what becomes of most Vacuo Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Ruby stands up and places her hand against the glass as she looks at the city, and Oscar stands behind her. They both look at the huge city in awe, neither of them believed it was possible to create a Kingdom in the middle of a desert, but it seems that the people of Vacuo have somehow managed it. The Kingdom where they never had the Relic of Choice, only built as a disguise, to trick Salem into believing it was there.

When it was actually hidden elsewhere.

Sun and Blake approach the two and Sun crosses his arms when he looks at the city, large moisture farms in the distance outside of the city’s protective walls. He does not look as amazed of the place, but he has seen his fair share of locations as they all have. “So this is Vacuo, Sun?” Blake asks him and Sun scoffs.

“I know, what a terrible place to live, right?” He chuckles, looking at the place.

“What? No, I didn’t mean that.” Blake shyly says, hoping that she did not cause offence since this is his birthplace.

“I did. There’s a reason I moved to Mistral, you know.” Sun points out and he walks away from the window. Ruby takes her hand from the glass, feeling it getting hotter as the Vacuo Sun broils the glass and outer hull of the Airship.

“I’ve never been to Vacuo before, what can we expect, Sun?” Ruby asks him and he chuckles, turning to her.

“Not the friendliest of people, terribly hot weather, and not the greatest food.” He tells them, not the most glowing of advertisements for the city. But it is the most honest one, clearly speaking from experience as well.

“Team N.D.G.O were nice enough.” Ruby claims with a shrug.

“Sure, but what about Team B.R.N.Z?” He chuckles, and they do not have the fondest memories of them. Not only were they pretty self-obsessed, but they did not even fight during the tournament. Team N.D.G.O left Beacon earlier and returned to Vacuo, whereas Team B.R.N.Z fled the battle all together. “Trust me; the people here only look out for themselves.” Sun assures, walking away from them as he walks down the steps to get his weapons ready. Blake looks back at him and Ruby catches onto his resentment to this place, but she does not know about what happened.

Only Blake does, really.

“Hey, Blake?” Ruby says and the Faunus Girl turns to her. “Is Sun okay? I didn’t see him much on this trip.” Ruby asks her, fiddling with her fingers, and Blake made a promise to Sun to never tell a soul about his grief.

“Yeah, he’s just not that excited to go back there. Now that you think about it...it makes sense.” She says with a short laugh, walking away from Ruby and following Sun. Ruby smiles as Blake walks away and she turns back to the window, looking out at the city that they approach.

“So what do you think we should be expecting?” Oscar asks her, resting his arm against the wall as he looks at her. Ruby thinks on that, looking down at the floor for a second as she contemplates the facts.

“We’ll see what the situation is like, the state the Headmaster is in. My guess? The Acolytes of Lien or the White Fang.” Ruby says to him on her view on the matter.

“Not the Knights of Grimm?” Oscar questions, tilting his head. Ruby shakes her head as she crosses her arms.

“Not likely, they don’t do Assassinations, they lead full scale assaults. You saw Mistral, the Volcanic Chain Isles. They aren’t assassins.” She says, and then Oscar thinks on some things.

“What about the Spectre? And that Neopolitan girl? You said she was the other Onyx Phantom with Pyrrha, right?” Oscar asks her, remembering everything that she told him about what she saw in Salem’s Sanctum. She still remembers the sight of seeing Neo again, when she glared at her with pure hatred.

“Maybe...it depends on what killed him, though. She used blades...” She says to him and Oscar nods.

“You think this could be part of Jacques Schnee’s game?” Oscar asks her and she looks at the city as it approaches.

“Either him...or his son.” She answers, staring at the city.

 

**Whitley**

The proud Schnee Son stands at the balcony of the Schnee Manor, things have calmed down a great deal since the disappearance of his father and the lack of Acolytes of Lien in the city itself. The Kingdom has regained full control of their military as well, after the revelations of Jacques’ involvement with the Mercenary Group. Whitley, however, has taken control of the business – officially – and has been working hard to regain the public’s trust in the business. Many shares have been lost to the Schnee Dust Company after what he did, but there are still some loyal Shareholders attached to the business.

Whitley has been working very hard to attract more Shareholders to invest in the business again. He has his hands held behind his back as he watches the people of Atlas walking around, his hair is exactly the same but he has grown up. He now has a faint white stubble around his chin, similar to Qrow’s five years ago. He clearly has carried on his mother’s side of the family when it comes down to the hair colour, for his hair is white. Unlike Jacques Schnee whose hair has turned white from old age. He has also inherited the Icy Cold Office that his father worked in, and like his father, it is still just as cold as always. His attire consists of a short-sleeved white dress shirt, the sleeves fastened just above his elbows by navy blue cuffs, each with twin gold buttons. Over his untucked shirt he wears a light blue vest, with a black handkerchief in his right breast pocket. He also wears a black necktie, navy blue trousers and black dress shoes.

He turns his head slightly when he hears a knock on the door. “Come in.” He answers, not actually opening the door physically. The door handle twists and it opens up, stood on the other side is Klein, his hands behind his back as he respectfully bows his head to Whitley who stands there.

“Pardon the interruption, Master Whitley.” Klein begins, but Whitley chuckles.

“You interrupt nothing.” He says, turning to Klein and walking down the small steps that lead up to the Balcony from his father’s office. He walks towards his father’s desk and sits down, clasping his hands together as he looks at the man. He even has the same mannerisms as his father, resting his elbows on his table, indoctrinated by the man since he was only a child. “Please, continue.” Whitley asks of him, his hand stretched out as he allows the man to speak. Klein clearly does not have any more respect than he did when he slapped Whitley for insulting his mother.

Speaking of which. “Your mother wishes to speak to you.” Klein reports and Whitley looks at him and sits back in the chair. He just nods as an answer and Klein walks away from him, when his back is turned, he rolls his eyes and leaves the office. Willow enters after him, she looks much better than she did five years ago. Fully given up the alcohol, she also has been eating healthier as well, looking younger almost as well. Her beauty returned stronger than it already was.

“Hello, mother.” Klein greets, as if he is speaking to her on a meeting, and she walks over to him. She wears a beautiful Schnee Dress, very similar to the one that her youngest daughter wore when she was essentially imprisoned at Atlas five years ago.

“Whitley, I have hardly seen you since last Sunday. Are you okay?” She asks him, concerned for him and he smirks.

“Of course I am, why ever wouldn’t I be?” Whitley laughs as he sits there, as proud as peacock. But his mother has no time for his crap. Willow can see through that exterior, though, she knows her own family. Whitley suffers from something that she cannot pinpoint, something has always made him despise his sisters more than anything, leaving him only to connect to his father.

“You have been working non-stop; you do not have to continue this on your own.” Willow says to him and Whitley scoffs, standing back up from his desk and walking around. He approaches the picture frame that has Weiss’ face on it and he picks it up, looking at it. He smirks and then looks back at her without turning his head.

“Strange...isn’t it?” Whitley asks his mother and she raises her brow.

“What is?” Willow asks.

“Why he kept this picture of her, after everything she did to our family. He has none of Winter.” He points out, and Willow looks around and sadly she cannot see any of herself either and she sighs.

“None of me, either.” She says sadly and Whitley continues to hold the photo frame in his hand. But on his desk is a photograph of his son, the only one that actually ever looked up to him. In a strange way, it seems like he does care for his son, and tried to care for his youngest daughter...but why does he hunt her? Why does he keep on trying to kill her and her older sister?

Whitley scoffs when he hears his mother mentioning the lack of pictures of her and he turns to her, still gripping the photograph in his hand. “Why would he?” He asks her and she glares at him with that terrifyingly stern look a mother gives to their bad-mouthing child.

“Excuse me?” She questions and Whitley glares right back.

“How’s General Ironwood?” Whitley simply asks and she stammers, stepping back.

Whitley knows of their affair.

“How – How would I know?” She questions, but the lie has become void and transparent to the boy. Whitley shakes his head with disgust at his mother.

“I remember when I was very young, coming home from school and seeing the two of you. I remember seeing you covering yourself with bed sheets as the General left. You tried to tell me you were in the shower and he came by at the wrong moment.” He lists, sounding colder and colder as he walks towards his mother with gritted teeth and angered eyes. Willow backs away from him slowly as he approaches her with hatred in his eyes. “When I was young...I remembered the two of you drinking wine and wandering off to the General’s Mansion whilst I struggled during the plays.” He continues, sounding more and more enraged, resenting her to this day for never being there.

Willow’s guilt has never left her for how she treated her own family, for Jacques Schnee is not the only one at fault for the state of their family. Her affair with the General was very pivotal in the divide between the family members. “And you wonder why he has no pictures of you?” He scoffs and she looks away from him with sad eyes, a tear drops from her eye as she stands there. He turns away and returns to his desk, staring at the picture.

He then drops it, the frame slams down onto the ground with force and the glass shatters instantly as it hits the floor. Shards of glass slide across the floor and the piece of paper with young Weiss on it slides across the floor. He then stamps down on it and twists, ripping the paper in two, making Willow gasp. He then glares at her with ire in his blue eyes. Willow looks quite threatened by his presence, seeing his father in him completely, just younger. He clenches his hand into a fist when he stares at her. “Get. Out.” He orders with a stern voice and she reaches out to him, begging for forgiveness for all the wrongs she made.

“Whitley...” She whimpers.

“Out! Now!” He demands, lunging forward with furious eyes and she yelps, backing away. The door opens and Klein stands there, hearing the vociferous voice of Whitley Schnee as he yells at his mother like that. She begins to cry with fear from her own son, fear combined with self-hatred.

Maybe if she made different choices...things would be different.

Jacques could have been different.

They could have been a family.

“Miss Schnee?” Klein quietly says as he reaches out for her, he has always cared for her more than he has cared for the boy. But it is clear that the lack of care that he has experienced throughout his life has made him this way.

Whereas the sisters always got what they wanted.

Whitley glares at Klein, his right arm behind his back as he stands there. “Take her out of here, Klein.” He demands, his voice cracking as he says it. Klein does so, but not for him, for her. He takes her and leads the crying Schnee Mother from her son and closing the door behind him.

Leaving him alone.

Willow presses her palms against her eyes as she cries, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sobs over her grievance of what she has done to the family. Klein puts his arm round her to calm her down. “Miss Schnee? What did he do to you?” He asks her, sounding very protective over her, as he has been with her and her daughters ever since he was first hired all those years ago. She wipes a tear from her eye and she sniffles.

“Nothing...It was what I didn’t do.” She says, walking away and Klein watches her walk off. Little does Klein realise that the daughters are not the only ones that suffer, for Whitley suffers from something else entirely.

Loneliness.

Loneliness to the point where he does not know what it feels like to have anything good in his life, and that is why he cares for his father. He stands there in his study alone, feeling the cold chill against his skinny frail body and he sighs, letting the rest of his anger vent out from his body and he punches the table with his fist with rage. He yells as he does it and he gasps with pain, feeling like he just broke his wrist from hitting it so hard. He staggers back from the table and then kicks it with rage, yelling at the table as well.

He was never as strong and special as his sisters, and that made him feel even more isolated. He is weak and frail compared to them. Before he can hurt himself and the desk anymore, however, he hears a call coming from his father’s computer. Whitley pauses and looks at the screen, seeing a pending call on there from an individual. He approaches the side of the table and walks round, looking at who it is from. His eyes widen when he sees the name that appears on the screen.

Admiral Darren Ortega.

He looks at it, holding his head high and then keeps his left arm behind his back as he approaches the computer. He pushes his finger onto the same button his father used during his secret calls. The windows are concealed with black metal that can block any equipment listening or seeing through on the conversations and a shield forms inside the room, fully protecting the conversation he is having to keep it all secret.

He then answers the call. The projector emerges from the desk and the light spills from the lens, forming the live feed and image of Darren Ortega. He stands there with his hands behind his back. Whitley stands there and he looks at Ortega, still with his left arm behind his back as he always does. “Admiral.” He greets.

“Whitley.” Ortega replies as he looks at the young boy.

“How is the situation?” Whitley asks.

“Well it seems your father has become more resourceful than I imagined after the Mad Doctor gave him a safe place to lay low while we set up our next move.” Ortega reports as he stands there.

“Well, I’m certain that you did not call me for a catch-up. What is it you need?” Whitley asks him and Ortega chuckles at his clever little mind that he has.

“Straight to the point, I like that.” Ortega says as he looks at Whitley. “You see, with your father still in hiding for now, and you are able to rebuild the trust the world has of the Schnee Dust Company, I do not expect much of you. But what I do ask of you is quite personal.” Ortega says as he stands there, peaking the curiosity of Whitley.

“I’m listening.” Whitley says.

“You know of Pyrrha Nikos? The Onyx Phantom?” He asks him and Whitley nods.

“I have been informed of the events that transpired on the Volcanic Chain Isles, Admiral. I know that she betrayed and fled after assisting the enemy. I ask again, what is it that you ask of me?” Whitley asks as he stands there, remaining proud and proper.

“You have gained significant pull in the Atlesian Politicians; I was hoping you could assist me in luring her out from Beacon Academy, for we do not have the current military force that we need. And with your father remaining ever so secretive of his plans right now...I am forced to ask on you for assistance.” Ortega says and Whitley smiles as he stands there, as a genius idea appears in his mind.

“I believe your instincts are correct.” Whitley says, making Ortega look even more curious. “You are not the only person trying to find Pyrrha Nikos, you know. President Thaddeus Brimstone is one of them, for he wishes for her to be punished for the lives she took as the Onyx Phantom and her involvement in Salem’s Plans.” Whitley explains and Darren looks even more interested.

“Do you think you can convince him into arresting her and taking her to Atlas?” Ortega asks him and Whitley laughs.

“Give me the location and she will be arrested before the day is over.” Whitley assures and as soon as he says it, Darren sends him the exact coordinates and the same picture of her in the woods, along with some others in the City of Vale, when they were being hunted by the Acolytes. Whitley hears them pop up on his scroll and he looks at his feed as the information is sent to him. He smiles as he looks at him. “Done, but on one condition.” He says, stopping Ortega before he could end the call and he looks at him.

“Fair enough, guess I can’t expect something for nothing.” Ortega agrees. “What’s your one condition?”

“Bring me Weiss and Winter Schnee.” He states and Ortega raises his brow.

“Why do you want them?” He asks curiously and he clenches his hand into a fist. He then looks at the Giant Armour picture on the wall, for his weapon he is planning to build is still underway. He then looks at Ortega with rage-fuelled eyes.

“Revenge.”

 

**Winter**

The large airship with four folded out arms, long flag-like fibres dangling behind them, moves towards the Academy of Beacon. She has finally arrived with some soldiers to help defend and assist in rebuilding the school. The Airship decelerates as it approaches the landing pad and the wings fold round as it sets down on the landing pad, the engines cool down. The door slides open and she walks down the ramp proudly as she keeps her head high and hands behind her back. A couple of Atlesian Knights walk with her, their rifles in hand as they act as Bodyguards. Her soldiers and Knights walk towards the areas of which that require assistance, and she walks towards Beacon Tower.

She stands inside of the elevator as it flies up the centre of the tower, her eyes closed as she waits and remains silent. Whilst she waits, she looks at her scroll at some of the things that have passed. There is a picture of her and Qrow together when they were on a mission together, she assisted them for a short while in searching for the Spring Maiden, but was called back to Atlas after a while. The picture is one of the few goofy pictures of her ever seen, and even then she still looks pretty proper and in good form.

She smiles at the camera as Qrow made her jump with a picture on her own scroll and she smiles when she looks at it. The two of them are slowly developing something again, now that things have been calmer; they have been able to talk about things. She lowers her scroll down as she thinks on one of the things he said, about their one-night stand...but it was not that at all.

_“Why did you leave me that night?” Winter asked him._

_“I...” Qrow sighed as he thought on Summer, the woman he loved with all his heart. “I was scared.” Qrow admitted and her eyes widened when he said that, she gasped and heart began to beat extremely fast._

_“What – What do you mean?” Winter asked Qrow, anticipation in her voice._

_“I couldn’t lose anyone else...not after Summer.” Qrow said and she looked into his red eyes fearfully for his safety, for his kind heart that he hides from most people. “I thought that...If I left before you woke...nothing bad would happen. And it didn’t...that’s why I left.” He said to her, grief in his voice for how he left her._

_“I’m sorry Qrow...” She whispered to him, caressing his cheek with her bare hand._

_“Don’t be...Summer died because I was careless, I thought nothing bad would happen to her. That the worst thing that would happen is that she would be hurt at the very least...not that she would die.” Qrow told her and she held his hand tight with a look she has never gave anybody._

_Love._

_She was angry at him when they met again at Beacon because of how he left her, and he was angry in return for her getting involved in something that could get her killed. As it did for Summer. He smirked as he looked at her. “Why do I fall for girls named after the seasons?” He chuckled and she giggled in return. She leant in to kiss him, but he moved away from her, her eyes widened sadly and he looked at her the same way._

_He wants to...but he can’t._

_He can’t move on._

She opens her eyes after that state of memory she was just in and she feels her heart pounding the same way. She tightens her hand into a fist to steady her heartbeat, she knows she should not feel that way, but she cannot help it. He was honest with her; about what happened that night...he even admitted that he fell for her. But he wouldn’t let her kiss him. She opens her large blue eyes and looks ready to speak to Glynda, who is sat inside of the office that belongs to Ozpin. Ever since his disappearance, she has taken over the role as Headmaster until he can return back to his duty.

Little do they know that Qrow is returning right now with him found and to be brought home. The elevator doors open and Glynda looks up and sees Winter stood there. Glynda holds the edge of her glasses and then smiles at Winter when she sees her walking towards her desk, and Winter smiles back. The Five Year Gap has made the huntsmen and huntresses feel more like a family than ever before. They visit often and talk more often, since the Knights of Grimm made them truly realise how little time they all really have until something could end it all again. “Winter.” Glynda happily says as she stands up and Winter approaches her.

“Good to see you again, Glynda.” She greets as she hugs Glynda. They hold each other for a couple seconds and Glynda walks over to the jug of tea.

“Tea?” She asks her.

“Oh go on then, two sugars.” Winter says as she sits down in the seat opposite to where Glynda is sat. Glynda pours the tea in and puts two sugar cubes into her mug, handing the hot mug to her. She takes it and takes a sip of the beverage.

“So...to what do I owe the pleasure?” Glynda asks as she sits down.

“Oh you know, the beautiful weather...my sister...all that snazzy stuff.” Winter jokingly says and makes Glynda smile.

“It is a lovely day, but I also know that you would not spend all this time travelling here to chat about the weather.” Glynda points out. Winter sighs and sets her mug of tea down onto the place on the table.

“Well...In all honesty it was General Ironwood that asked me to come here. He brings some...troublesome news.” Winter says to her. Concern forms on Glynda’s face and she listens to the Schnee’s words with full attention.

“What kind of troublesome news?” Glynda asks her.

Winter reaches into the pocket of her attire and she pulls out the pictures taken of the Knight of Fury and sets them down before Glynda. Glynda’s eyes widen with fear when she sees the Knight sat on his throne of trashed, rusted cars. Skin burning ferociously as he sits there, speaking to his elemental warrior. Glynda’s eyes then turn to Winter as she just looks back at her. “Fury...they are still out there.” Glynda realises with a shaky voice.

“You had doubts?” Winter questions with a short laugh.

“More like hopes...I was hoping that the Volcanic Chain Isles would have been the last we would see of them.” She says to Winter, taking her glasses off to bury her head in her hands. She did not see much of the four Spectral Knights, but she also saw enough of them for a lifetime.

“We never freed their souls, so until we learn more about who they are and figure out how to bring them closure, the curse that controls them will never leave. And they can never be in peace.” Winter explains, remembering the things that Kragen Nox told them, about the tales of the Knights. And the truth behind them.

“Who else knows about this?” Glynda asks her.

“Just Ironwood, myself and you at the moment. But the others need to know, my sister, Ruby, all of them.” Winter tells her and Glynda nods, showing how much trust has developed between her and the students.

“They know as much as we do, maybe more. Strange feeling, that.” Glynda says with a short laugh.

“Ain’t that the truth?” She scoffs as she thinks back at the old days, the differences that the times have. When they used to have all the answers, now they do not have the first clue of what is going to happen next. “Other than that...how have things been here at Beacon?” Winter asks Glynda curiously, trying to get off the scary matter of the Knight of Fury returning.

“Well...we’ve made some headway in repairing the school. Miss Polendina is getting better and remembering things without that drive of hers.” Glynda lists as she thinks on everything that has happened. She does not seem to bother to even mention Grif since he is of no interest to someone as proud and proper as Winter is. “Just been repairing the school as best as we can, we’ve got kids back in the campus learning and training again.” She explains to Winter, and she nods as a response.

“Is my sister here? I’d like to see her and give her these pictures.” Winter states.

“No, Weiss and her team, along with Sun, Neptune and Oscar have gone to Vacuo to look at the assassination on the Shade Headmaster.” Glynda tells her, and Winter’s eyes widen with disbelief when she first hears the news.

“Assassination?” She questions.

“You haven’t heard?” Glynda asks her.

“No! What happened?” She asks with a concerned voice.

“Well, all we know is that the Headmaster and his assistant were killed by somebody in the school. Who it was and how it happened? We don’t know, that is why they are going there to figure out what happened there.” Glynda explains, and Winter pushes her hand through her white hair.

“Damn...you think it’s the Acolytes of Lien?” Winter asks, the same sorts of questions that were being discussed between Ruby and Oscar.

“Maybe...but it doesn’t seem like their M.O to assassinate a Headmaster like that.” Glynda says.

“Neither is launching a full scale assault on the Volcanic Chain Isles, or working for Salem and the Knights. But they did that as well.” She points out, and Glynda is unable to argue with her sound logic.

“I guess you’re right.” She sighs. They continue to think on the possibilities, Glynda stands up from the desk and she walks towards the glass of the office, looking down at the school. Her eyes widen when she sees the three horses galloping into the school.

“Ozpin...” She gasps and Winter looks at her with confusion.

“Ozpin?” She questions.

“Look.” Glynda says with disbelief when she looks at the three riders. Winter looks down and she gasps when she sees Qrow, before even noticing that Ozpin is on the back of the horse. Glynda runs past Winter and gets to the elevator, and Winter follows her, getting inside as the doors close and it flies back down the tower.

“They found him? After all this time?” Winter says with scepticism in her voice. “He best have some answers for us.” Winter says, almost like she is angry with Ozpin, but Glynda has remained silent. Only the look of worry is present on her face, and the doors open when they reach the ground floor. They both run towards the three, Qrow carries Ozpin in his arms and Winter looks at him and then the unconscious Ozpin.

“We need to get him into a hospital.” Qrow tells them.

 

**Qrow**

Ozpin lays in a bed, hooked up to life support to keep him alive. The machines monitor his heartbeat, and it is steady but still quite faint. It is like he is in some form of hibernation, his eyes closed and skin quite pale. His body is thin, and somehow that structure managed to keep him alive for five years. His body feels cold, like he has been laying in a tomb of ice for five years, Glynda sits next to Ozpin and looks at him in awe. She thought he was dead for a very long time. She turns to Qrow who leans against the wall with his arms crossed. “How did you find him?” Glynda asks.

“Yeah, I thought you three were on the Spring Maiden’s Trail?” Winter questions, confused of how this could have possibly happened.

“We were, we found an Arkhoni Structure in Vale not far from here. One of Raven’s Men snapped a picture of the Spring Maiden’s symbol on a rock inside of that place. We didn’t even realise he was there, we were expecting to find a clue to find her, but instead we found Oz instead.” Qrow explains, remembering how it all happened.

“I only guessed that it was a button, didn’t expect it to be one though.” Taiyang says with a shrug.

“Well if I’ve learned anything from Arkhoni Ruins...press and pull anything.” Raven says.

“Bow chicka bow wow.” Taiyang replies, making Raven giggle at the dirty comment.

“Guys, can we focus?” Glynda asks the two kids when she looks at Ozpin at her side, and they nod, acting seriously again. But they are still thinking of dirty things in their heads, things that Qrow would rather not imagine with his twin sister stood next to him. “What was the structure?” Glynda asks.

“We’re not overly sure.” Taiyang begins. “It looked like an Arena when we first looked at it, but I saw a button looking thing so I pushed it. The ground opened and Ozpin rose from it.” Taiyang explains.

“It must have been some kind of stasis chamber.” Qrow suggests with a shrug.

Glynda checks his vitals and notices something peculiar. His aura is not there at all. “His aura is completely gone.” She points out...then Qrow has an epiphany.

“Could that thing be the reason why he is bound with Oscar?” Qrow suggests and they all remain silent as they think on the very good suggestion that Qrow had just made.

“It’s possible.” Glynda agrees.

“But why?” Raven wonders. They continue to contemplate. Winter then notices some of the cuts on Qrow and some concern forms for him.

“What happened?” Winter asks him, raising her brow and he touches one of the cuts. Like flashbacks from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he hears the screeching sounds of the Skeletal Riders that pursued them. The metal plates fused onto their bones with burning red eyes and demonic voices. Some speaking in ancient tongues and other speaking in English. He then looks at Raven and so does Taiyang.

“Raven...you said you knew what those things were?” Qrow asks her.

“What things?” Winter asks, more concerned now.

Raven sighs, scratching the back of her head. “I’ve faced them before, when we split up to follow the different leads? I teleported there, and they must have sensed my portal usage and tracked me down there. They attacked us, we barely got out of there alive.” Raven explains, remembering the same sounds that they made. The roar of the Nuckelavee Horses that pursued them.

“What are they?” Taiyang asks her.

“I don’t know...but I think they work for the Knights of Grimm, whatever they are. They reminded me of Death.” She explains, remembering the burning sockets in Death’s skull.

“Or the Guardian Knights.” Qrow adds, remembering those things as well. The souls of Silver Eyed Warriors trapped in Isomacium covered corpses.

_Protect the Relic!_

The voice echoes throughout his mind, the determination that they had to protect that Relic due to the thing controlling them for its own protection...their voices...enough to haunt any man. “Can you describe what attacked you?” Glynda asks.

Qrow nods. “They were these Riders...they came out of nowhere when we were riding back. Now it makes sense why you told us to take the horses...they could have tracked us down faster.” Qrow realises when he looks at Raven and she just nods. Qrow turns back to Glynda and Winter to continue his description of the beings that pursued them. “They were these skeletal things, humanoid in shape, but were covered in metal armour and had glowing red eyes. They spoke with these demonic voices, some spoke in Arkhoni Tongue, others in common.” Qrow continues as he describes them, remembering the good look he got of one of them as it stared at him when it went to attack him.

Winter walks over to him after noticing the real fear that courses within him. He has seen many things, but nothing has frightened him like those things did. They were lucky that they got away...but if the Knights have an army of undead warriors...then they have something much worse than Mercenaries to worry about. “Are you alright?” Winter asks him. Qrow nods when he looks at her, she has been able to relieve the fear before, and she has accomplished it again.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that.” Glynda says to them.

“What about Kragen and the Architect?” Winter asks and they can’t help but wonder if he could be of any help to them. But Qrow shakes his head.

“We can’t wait...the Spring Maiden cannot be far away. And the longer we dally around here, the further she gets.” Qrow denies.

“If this threat is as serious as you say it is, Qrow...he needs to know.” Glynda says.

“Then tell him, but we need to keep moving. Those things were coming after Ozpin, if they were after him then they must have also been coming after Spring as well.” Qrow says, and Raven nods.

“He’s right. We need to keep moving.” Raven agrees.

Winter sighs as she looks at Qrow and he turns and walks outside. Winter follows him out and she stops him outside of the room. He looks at her and she holds both his hands with hers, looking up at him. “We need to talk about this thing between us, Qrow.” Winter softly says to him and he looks away from her. Because whenever he looks at her, he only sees someone else that could die because of him.

“I can’t.” He refuses as he tries to walk away from her but she stops him, holding him there. He looks at her and she looks at him.

“I get it...there isn’t much time...but it does not mean that you can’t take a break.” Winter whispers to him and he looks down at the floor.

“I wish I could...but those things that came after us...” He explains, fearful for everyone’s sake, not his own. “I can’t risk it, if we lose Spring we could lose everything. We nearly lost everything when Amber was killed, we were lucky that Cinder saw the light.” Qrow explains and she looks down at the floor.

“You’re afraid those things could take her power?” Winter asks him.

“Yes, they are not human. And we don’t know what the Knights are capable of...who knows if they can just consume the soul itself?” Qrow asks her and she looks down again.

“I don’t know...but all I’m asking of you is to come back to me. We need to do something about this thing.” She says to him, rubbing her thumb across his hand and he gently touches his forehead to hers. He wants to move on but he cannot stop thinking about Summer, even though she would want him to move on...he cannot get that fear of getting Winter killed because of his bad luck again.

“I will...But I have to go.” He says when he sees Raven and Taiyang walking out of the hospital past him.

“I’m heading off as well.” She says.

“Where?” He asks her.

“Vacuo...did you hear about what happened?” Winter inquires and the others stop and turn to her.

“No...what happened?” Raven asks her.

“The Shade Headmaster was assassinated. Your daughters and their team, along with Sun, Neptune and Oscar have gone there to figure out what happened.” She then shows Qrow the picture of Fury and they look at it. Their eyes widen and Qrow tightens his grip on the picture with anger when he sees the face of that Knight again.

“Fury...” Qrow quietly says with anger.

“I had hoped to never see him again...but of course we would.” Raven scoffs when she looks at the picture.

“I need to get these pictures to them, they need to know.” Winter says to them and Qrow nods.

“Make sure they’re safe?” Raven asks her and Winter smiles and nods.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure they’re fine.” She says, and she kisses Qrow on the cheek with a kind smile, turning and walking away from him towards where her ships is docked. Qrow watches her walk away and he smiles as she leaves. He then turns to Raven and Taiyang and he follows them.

Back on the road again...

 

**Ruby**

The Airship lands at the docking bay of Vacuo, the engines cool down and they step out of the ship, looking at the large city.

“Now...” She says as she stretches her arms out.

“Where’s Shade?”


	11. The Assassination

**Ruby**

She steps fourth, feeling the sand crushing underneath her boot. Her large silver eye looks around the sky and the city that stands before her, feeling the fierce Vacuo Sun that rains down on her fair skin. She turns and looks at Yang as she stretches out her arms as she stands there. “Ooh...I think I might get a tan.” Yang says with a smile as she absorbs the sunlight, her large eyes closed as she feels the pleasant feeling of the warmth on her skin. Weiss looks at her and she touches her thin skin, due to the climate of Atlas, her skin struggles to handle extreme heat compared to Yang.

Oscar stands next to Ruby and he sits his hand on the hilt of Traveller’s Atrocity, looking around. He then looks at her and smiles at her as he moves some of her long hair from her eye. She looks at him and smiles back. “So...where’s Shade Academy, I wonder?” Ruby asks as she stands next to her boyfriend. Sun walks past them and he points at the structure not far from them. There is a tall pair of towers that rise into the sky from the Adobe Temple that stands in the centre of the city, Airships landing inside and dropping the Huntsmen and Mercenaries off at the place.

Sun lowers his finger when he looks at the huge building that stands there, Blake’s eyes look at him as he stands there. His bad memories clearly are not just the ones that surround the loss of his parents, he must have suffered in other ways here as well from the look in his blue eyes. “There.” He answers as he looks at it, walking forward, ahead of Ruby and Blake catches up to him. Oscar and Ruby follow, Weiss feels the hot sun pressing up against her thin icy skin and she rubs her bare arms.

“I’m...not used to this sort of weather.” She claims, feeling the coming burns if she stays out here for too long. Neptune turns and looks at her with a smile.

“Don’t worry, I’ll shade you.” He assures, the taller man stands beside her and he casts his shadow over her and she smiles. Like she is some sort of royalty that deserves this sort of treatment without question. They walk up the adobe steps, feeling the grains of sand beneath their footwear.

Weiss nearly trips in her heels as she walks; her ankle twists from the bumpy floor that they walk upon. Neptune catches her before she could fall and she yelps, looking at her shoes. “Stupid things.” She mutters, Yang turns and looks at the Ice Queen with a smirk.

“Why did you think that wearing heels here would be a good idea?” Yang questions with a short chuckle in her voice as she observes Weiss struggling immensely to walk in those fancy things. She looks at Yang and narrows her eyes.

“I know what you’re thinking, and stop.” She demands, knowing that she is going to make a comment on her being a fancy girl in a not-so fancy place. But Yang’s smirk grows bigger and bigger as she prepares to say what she is about to say, like she is about to break into song. Weiss points at Yang. “I’m warning you.” She says. Yang breathes deeply as she pushes out her chest, leaning back as she breathes, Weiss’ eye twitches. “Don’t you do it.” She warns one last time.

“Weiss is a Fancy Queen! Weiss is a Fancy Queen!” Yang joyously sings in her sing-song voice, thrusting her arms back and forth like she is a puppet, a huge smile on her face. Weiss hates it when Yang does that, simply because she practically screams it at the top of her lungs so then everybody can hear. Weiss grits her teeth and lunges for Yang, but the Goldilocks is far too quick for her to catch as she retreats with a sly little laugh.

Ruby looks at the people that they pass by and she looks at the buildings, the people in them. Unlike Mistral, Vale and Atlas, these people clearly are surviving off whatever they can scavenge. There seem to be lots of dealers around here, selling a multitude of things from drugs to weapons and other illegal products. But the lack of law here makes it so they can sell these things publicly. One of the dealers has a weathered face, sand stuck in his big black beard and some scratches on his face. He has many weapons and illegal drugs on the table and she looks at him. “You looking for your high?” The Merchant asks her, with a gruff voice as he aims to entice the young girl. Ruby just shakes her head and looks away politely after being so polite in reply.

“No thank you.” She says sweetly.

Sun chuckles when he hears her say that. “Fair warning, Ruby? Being polite does not work here.” Sun explains to her and Blake looks at Ruby. She raises her brow with curiosity at his words to understand what it is that he means about that.

“What do you mean?” She asks him, tilting her head.

“The best way to deny someone their products is to keep walking. Don’t look at them, don’t even speak to them.” Sun explains, it might sound quite harsh, but the merchants here are not like the merchants back in Vale or Mistral, these ones are a lot more persistent and cunning than they are. Blake notices a young man who is selling what appears to be an assortment of watches on his desk. He stretches his arm out to Blake and she goes to shake his hand, until Sun holds her hand and pulls her back from him. “And don’t fall for that either.” Sun adds.

“Huh? Why?” She asks him curiously.

“Because that’s a trademark method some of these merchants use to get people to buy their stuff.” Sun answers.

“By shaking their hand?” She questions as they continue to walk onwards.

“As soon as your hand touches theirs, they will slap one of their watches onto your wrist and lock it on. No matter what, you have to pay for it otherwise they can get mercenaries on you.” Sun warns and Blake’s eyes widen with shock at the consequences that can be formed from it. And yet Oscar seems to be sceptical around the idea that some mercenaries would really go after somebody who failed to pay a merchant who tricked them.

“Why would mercenaries bother with some poor merchants?” Oscar questions, and Sun closes his eyes with a sigh as he looks down at the floor, thinking on the answer to this. An answer that he knows quite well.

“Ever heard of the Trinity Marshall?” Sun asks them and they all look at him with a confused expression.

“Trinity Marshall?” Ruby asks him.

“No, never.” Blake agrees.

“Well...few know the identity of the man, but he has more power than the Headmaster does. A man who has a network of thieves, merchants, beggars, spies...you name it. He runs the criminal underbelly of Vacuo, and Mistral...probably even Vale and Atlas too. Scarlet and Sage were once part of it a long time ago.” He reveals and they gasp, he always mentioned that they were both once mercenaries but they never suspected that they worked for a powerful Crime Boss.

“What...like a mafia?” Yang asks him as they walk onwards, Sun keeps his eyes on the people in this market area of Vacuo. The place is very dangerous, spies could be hiding absolutely everywhere.

“Not exactly, he controls them all. He deals with information and money, he is a form of Information Broker, but one that is extremely dangerous. He hears and sees everything...but nobody knows who the man is. The only times we have ever heard his voice, it is disguised.” Sun explains as he walks.

“You’ve tried to search for him?” Weiss asks him.

“We were.” Neptune agrees, remembering all those years back.

“What happened?” Yang asks them.

“Remember when we had the task to shadow that Huntsman when you went to Mountain Glenn?” Neptune begins as he looks at them and they look at the two remaining members of Team S.S.S.N.

“Yeah, I remember. You got junior badges.” Blake says, looking at Sun and he pulls it out from his pocket with a smirk.

“You still have it?” Weiss questions as she plants her hands on her hips with an annoyed expression and Sun laughs.

“Of course I still have it!” Sun laughs, almost guffawing. Then Neptune pulls his one out, slowly and shyly and Weiss slowly turns and glares at him.

“I mean...we’re gonna be detectives...” He nervously says, his hand shaking fearfully. Weiss pushes her tongue against her lip and she sighs through her nose like a bull. He then wisely puts the badge back away into his black and blue jacket’s breast pocket where he hid it in the first place. Weiss rolls her eyes and flicks her ice white hair back behind her head as it fell over her face when she slumped down with disbelief.

“What’s so annoying about it?” Oscar asks with a shrug.

“Because we flaunted it in her face for about a week because she didn’t get anything like that for her trip.” Sun explains, still smirking away and she points at him.

“Now listen here you little monkey.” Weiss sternly says and Sun hides behind Blake. Blake hardly even moves, she just sighs and grabs the bridge of her nose. “It was not for a week...it was for nearly three weeks straight.” She clarifies and Sun rises up behind Blake’s shoulder and she looks at him as he cowers behind her.

“Oh yeah it was...hey Neptune, we should bring that back.” Sun says to him with a smirk, further poking the Ice Bear. Her eye twitches with anger and she slowly glares at Neptune and he steps back with fear.

“I don’t wanna die, Sun.” He says to him and she crosses her arms and smirks as she turns and proudly closes her eyes like she won. But as soon as her back is turned, Neptune smiles and nods excitedly and Sun does the same. Blake sighs and shakes her head.

“Guys, I’d hate to be that girl, but weren’t you two talking about the Trinity Marshall?” She asks them and they snap out of their kid-like selves.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Neptune laughs when he remembers and stands tall again. “So, when we set off to Vale with the Huntsman, we started to watch some of the beggars in the area. They all went to a certain individual and gave all of their money that they collected to him and returned to their homes. Those beggars had a full amount of money because the Trinity Marshall pays them to essentially be spies, and rob people of money who are kind enough.” Neptune explains, remembering very well what they learned from those Beggars.

“One of them tried to pickpocket me.” Sun says, touching his butt pocket.

“Who’s been touching you up?” Blake questions, almost sounding like she is interrogating him, furrowing her brow.

“Whoa! I didn’t wanna lose my wallet, stopped her though.” Sun says as he looks proud of himself.

“How?” Ruby asks.

“I felt her tug my tail.” Sun answers, almost like he remembers it a little too well, it must have either hurt...or felt nice.

“Which tail?” Yang asks with a big smirk on her face.

“Funny.” Sun scoffs.

“Anyway, we tried to track the guy down, but he was just another thug who works for the Trinity Marshall.” Neptune explains.

“He doesn’t sound _that_ bad, he gave homeless people homes and money as long as they worked for him.” Ruby says with a shrug.

“Well, until they talk too much or try to quite. Once you work for him, you don’t leave unless you’re dead.” Neptune tells them and they shudder at the thought of that. Having to live under the threat of a person that you cannot see or even meet in person, and the person will kill them if they try to leave.

“No honour among thieves, I guess.” Weiss sighs as she crosses her arms.

“So...not a friend?” Oscar assumes.

“I don’t think so, he looks out for himself and only himself. He could be a friend if he prove that this is linked to the Knights of Grimm.” Sun explains as he walks into the middle again.

“What if he is responsible for the murder?” Blake asks him, touching his shoulder and they all fall silent. Sun looks around at the area, at the many beggars that are sat down, merchants everywhere. It is likely that the Trinity Marshall already knows that they are here right now.

“That’s a damn good question.” Sun agrees as he looks at them all. He sighs to let the stress leave his body and he walks on, past the merchants and the others follow him. But now, they are being extra-careful of who they pass. Now that they know that any of them could be contacting a Crime Boss that lives here somewhere. One of the Beggars watches them walk and he reaches into his torn, fly bitten shirt and he reveals a radio that he turns on.

“Huntsmen seem to be getting curious, looks like the ones from Beacon.” The Beggar informs, watching them walk off. Then the deformed voice appears on the other end. He chuckles menacingly over the radio.

“Let them hunt.” The Trinity Marshall says.

 

**Sun**

He walks at the tip of their formation, his hands by his sides as he looks around. He keeps walking and he slows down when he spots the steeple of a church not far from here. He looks at it and can see the graveyard, Blake stops with him and looks in the same direction. Sun closes his eyes and sighs, feeling his heart beating fast and hard where he stands. Ruby walks up to them and looks at Sun, seeing the look in his eyes, a look she has seen before, in her own reflection. “Sun? Are you okay?” She asks him, tilting her head.

“Yeah...you guys go on ahead...I need to do something alone.” Sun says, walking towards the Graveyard, and Blake smiles to her friends as she follows him. The first time that any of them have ever noticed that he has lost something, other than Neptune though. The others, though, look very surprised to see him walking off like that. None of them have seen Sun be so serious about something before. Even earlier, he was cracking jokes and winding Weiss up with the badge.

Now he is quiet and looking sad.

But none of them truly know about Hazel and what happened with his mother, that his mother was once a Silver Eyed Girl, but her traits were not passed on to her son. The only reason that Hazel did not kill him.

Even though Hazel has changed and joined their side of the coin, he still has a lot of hate in his system towards the man. Just as Jaune has towards Cinder for what he did to Pyrrha, she may still be alive, but she still killed her in the first place.

They walk on, though. They all know that whatever is on his mind, it is for him, and Blake wants to support him as best as she can. He was there for her, the best she could do for him is to return the favour. Sun walks towards the graveyard, passing the many gravestones that protrude from the ground, some have been partially eroded by sand, and some of them actually have graffiti on them, which is disgusting.

Blake looks at them all, some of the ways that people have been killed. Some by dehydration out there in the dunes, some were murdered by people, others eaten by Grimm. And some? Some of them do not even have names or the ways that they died, either because they struggled to identify them or did not even bother. Blake is starting to understand why Sun hates this Kingdom so much.

Sun approaches a grave, both of their names on it for they were buried together. Blake looks at their names and she holds his hand lovingly, threading her fingers through his, he holds her hand tight.

_Cooper Wukong_

_Cerise Wukong_

_Loving husband and wife, father and mother_

_Murdered by White Fang_

Sun looks down at the gravestone, still able to remember what happened to vividly. When he went to see his mother and father there at his home, at the moisture farms out there in the desert. Of all the people to attack the place...Acolytes of Lien disguised as the White Fang in order to create trouble. But nothing ever came of that, as always the Albain Brothers masterfully managed to make it sound like there was a splinter group lead by Adam Taurus, when it was clearly a load of garbage, and yet they were still telling the truth.

Blake looks at the grave and she takes off her bag that she brought with her, and she unzips it. Blake opens the bag up and she pulls out a beautiful assortment of flowers, tulips and roses and she places them down upon their grave. She sets her hand on the head of the gravestone and closes her eyes, respectfully honouring the parents of the man she loves with all her heart. That was one of the moments in their relationship that she realised that he loved her, and she had feelings for him.

He only told his team, his best friend about that information.

Nobody else, because he was afraid of showing his emotions. He has always preferred to bottle the bad up, it may be unhealthy, but he has always cared more for others than himself. “I wish I could have met them.” She says to him, resting her head on his shoulder as she holds his hand. Sun smiles and he looks at her.

“They would’ve liked you. Especially my mom.” Sun chuckles.

“Why’s that?” She asks him.

He looks at her and gently moves some of her black hair from her eye. “You’re both stubborn, but kind.” He says with a smile and she smiles and giggles as she looks at him. She then kisses him, her hand gently caressing his hairless cheek, and he holds her with one arm, pressing his head to hers affectionately. No matter how many times that they kiss, their hearts are always racing whenever they do. They break the kiss, her eyes open up and she gazes longingly into his blue ones.

“What about your dad?” She asks him and he chuckles.

“Would you believe that he was like me?” He asks her as she rests her head on his shoulder again, looking at the grave with him. She smiles when he says that, imagining what he would look like. A taller, maybe less good looking version of him. “Your dad would’ve hated us both.” He says with a chuckle, thinking back on Ghira Belladonna. But he also knows that Ghira did accept him at the end of his life, after Fury killed him and Kali.

“My father didn’t hate you, Sun...He’d never admit it, but anyone he treated that way was seen as a friend. Only when he knew that you were right for me would he have said so...but...” She explains, remembering the heat, remembering the demonic voice of Fury when he killed them.

“Fury...” He quietly says as he also hears the voice in his head when he led the attack on Menagerie. The island is slowly being rebuilt, but not as many people are actually doing anything here. Mainly the White Fang have been doing so, lead by Sienna Khan, whilst Adam hunts down the remnants of the cruel fang that was created where they hoped to bury it.

Blake looks at him and she smiles as she steps away from him, letting him have some time to himself and his parents. “I’ll let you be.” She whispers to him and he smiles at her as she walks away. He closes his eyes and exhales through his nostrils. He then slowly turns and looks at the gravestone before him. He crouches before the grave as he looks at it, placing his hand upon the cold stone, sighing with a shaky breath as he stands there.

“Hey mom...Hey dad.” Sun quietly whispers, Blake stands nearby with her arms crossed and her eyes closed as she stands nearby. She looks around to make sure that there are no beggars or any shady individuals in the area. Who knows what the Trinity Marshall knows about them already, he could be listening at this very moment.

He exhales and lowers his head. “I’m sorry that I haven’t come by in quite a while...a lot of things have happened since.” He explains with a shaky voice, thinking about everything. The Fall of Beacon, Fall of Mistral, the Knights of Grimm, the Kidnapping of Ruby Rose, the Siege of the Volcanic Chain Isles.

And now this Assassination.

“But I’ve been fighting hard, like I promised I would...I just...I don’t know how to give you both the justice you deserve.” Sun explains, turning his attention to the thing that has been on his mind ever since the fall of the islands. The turning of Hazel Rainart, they have not seen him or Cinder since they departed from the Silver Eyed Warrior’s Keep, they have not reported in for a couple of months now either. “Hazel...the guy that...the guy that killed you.” He stammers when he thinks of the massive man that drove his blade into her stomach and broke his father’s neck with the tensing of his hand.

Blake feels a tear welling in her eye when she hears him saying this, hearing Sun in pain hurts her more than most people. Simply because she rarely ever sees him cry, ever show sadness. But when he cries, she feels the emotion in her bones, most people would. He did not even show tears when Scarlet David and Sage were killed that day by the hands of Lionheart and Death during the Fall of Mistral, he may have done in the background, but refused to show it to other people. “Hazel helped us...I don’t...I don’t know if I can do it. He claims he changed, but every time I look at him, he brings this rage into me...a rage that makes me want to kill him.” He explains, with an anger she has never heard of either, he gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes with rage. She touches her soft black hair gently as she listens...then he becomes softer.

He stammers as he thinks about Blake, and it calms that rage. “I met this girl...after I left for Vale...her name is Blake Belladonna...she’s a Faunus like me.” Sun explains to the grave of his parents and she hears him mention her name and her eyes widen. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone...I’ll admit she is as stubborn as I am, at first she tried to push me away.” He continues and Blake looks down with grief for how she treated him at Menagerie.

“But...after...” He slowly says when he sees the flashes of Fury cutting the village down, smoke rising into the night sky, fire lighting the darkness and consuming the civilians that tried to flee. “After Menagerie...after Ilia...She stopped and we were able to connect...” He explains as he thinks about her. “I wish I could have saved her parents...I wish I could have saved my own...but you told me once, Dad...that you have to put the people you love the most first.” Sun explains and she gasps when she hears him say that.

He smiles as he looks at the grave. “I think she might be the one, mom. We have something that...it can’t be broken.” He happily says, bringing a tear of love to her eye as she hears him telling his parents how much he loves her. “We’ve just got to stop the Darkness first.” He sighs as he crouches down to them. “But when they are gone...I’ll ask her.” He says, standing up and looking at the grave. He touches the gravestone one last time.

“See you around, mom...dad...” He says to them, turning and walking back around to approach his beloved Girlfriend who is pretending that she did not hear any of that. He holds her hand and she yelps when she feels his hand, and then he kisses her warmly and devotedly, lifting her off the sandy floor with one arm. She holds onto him and kisses him hard, right back as she pushes her hands through his hair, working her way round his neck to his bare sternum. They break their kiss, gasping almost and she holds onto him with a smile.

“Come on, Monkey Boy...” She whispers with a smile, as they continue to follow the others.

 

**Hazel**

His hazel coloured eyes watch the grasslands as they gently blow in the breeze. He lies down in the grass, watching the Grimm Creature stalking something in the grass. It is a Grimm Panther, growling faintly, it has long sabre teeth and lots of black fur, spines of white bone armour on its back and shoulders along with the skull. He turns to his partner who has drawn her bow, breathing slowly as she watches the Panther stalking. “Wait for the right moment.” He whispers, looking at her and she watches it carefully.

They notice that there is a Merchant walking along a dirt path with a bag of goodies on his back as he walks along. He has no idea that he is being hunted by the Grimm Panther, but Cinder has it in her sights. She has tied her black hair into a long pony tail, very similar to that of Pyrrha Nikos, in fact. Her large amber eye continues to watch her prey as it moves closer. “Wait for the right moment.” Hazel repeats and she keeps on waiting for it to attack.

The Panther bends down and growls faintly in the grass as it watches him. It roars and charges at him, she releases the arrow and it zooms across the field, lodging into the side of the Panther’s head. The Panther yelps, knocked out of the air before it could tackle the man into the ground and rip him to shreds. The Merchant screams with terror and shock from how lucky he just was, the corpse of the Panther crashes down into the ground with a thud. It slides across the floor and then it bursts into black smoke after being killed, the arrow sits on the floor and she walks with Hazel towards him. She still wears the same Fall Maiden Dress that Salem made for her when he and she were once on the side of the Devil.

“Nice shot.” Hazel compliments and she smiles to him as she walks with him. Cinder has become much softer and quite pleasant in fact, unlike her previous self. After seeing her twin brother – Kassius – was in fact still alive, it somehow brought the good in her back. The Merchant sees them both approach and he sighs with relief when he sees them, walking up to them.

“Oh, thank the gods for you! I had no idea that thing was prowling around.” The Merchant chuckles.

“Don’t mention it.” Cinder assures with a smile, her scars have faded very beautifully on her face, but she still wears her patch to cover the damage done to her eye. Her body is no longer as deformed as it was five years prior, the scars are still there but not as horrific as they once were. She even claims she is now comfortable with wearing a bikini again, if she ever goes sunbathing again.

She still feels uncomfortable around Jaune after what happened with Pyrrha, and so does Hazel with Sun. “Well, if the two of you folk need anything – it’s on the house for what you just did for me.” He chuckles, a humble man who fairly pays his saviours with free stuff.

“Actually, all we would like to ask of you, is if you have seen this symbol anywhere?” Hazel asks him, holding up a photograph. It has the picture of a Sunflower, one that has been engraved into a stone, similarly to that of the Spring Maiden. It seems to be very clear that they have been on the move and marking their whereabouts.

Each Maiden carries a different symbol.

Spring carries the Wreath of Flowers.

Summer carries the Sunflower.

Fall carries the Wilted Leaf.

And Winter carries the Snowflake.

The Merchant looks carefully at it and he shrugs his shoulders. “I’m afraid I do not know of this symbol, although there is an old abandoned village just down this direction.” He says, pointing in the direction he just came from. A different direction of where they came, in fact the same way there have been going in the first place on their journey to find the Summer Maiden.

“Why is it abandoned?” Cinder asks him.

“It is one of the villages that was destroyed around the same time that Mistral was attacked. It has been left abandoned like most of them.” The Merchant tells them and they look at one another.

“What is the name of the village?” Hazel asks.

“Higanbana.”

 

They continue on their path and they find the entrance to the village, the same one that Team R.N.J.R stayed at when Qrow met Raven at the Inn, with the cute Innkeeper and where Tyrian went in search for them. They both approach and Cinder’s eye widens with horror when she sees the damage that the Knights did to the place. Entire buildings burned to the ground, destroyed everywhere. And skeletons lay everywhere, have not even been buried. Some are cut into pieces, some have holes in their chests and heads where arrows where shot into. Others are torn to shreds.

The scars of the past have not faded in Higanbana and Hazel closes his eyes and sighs as he walks into Higanbana, looking around at the place. This little place was once teaming with people, and now they are all dead. Been forgotten simply because they are not a priority compared to Kingdoms that suffered the attacks to the Grimm five and a half years ago. There are a lot of angry widows and orphans in the world who demand answers...some have even chosen to fight to find those answers.

Cinder walks over to a skeleton which has a tray with old smashed glasses on the floor, the torn clothes of a Waitress on the floor. Cinder crouches down and her eyes widen when she looks at the body, it is the skeleton of a woman when she identifies the features of the skeleton. It is the same waitress that served Qrow and flirted with him when he spoke to Raven, and the same one that Tyrian had a chat with to find Ruby.

Slaughtered...by the Knights of Grimm five years ago.

“They’re all dead.” Cinder says to him and Hazel nods.

“The Knights of Grimm were thorough in their extermination. Thousands died in a matter of weeks...” Hazel states with awe in his voice, Cinder stands back up, her eye looking down at the corpse that lays before her and she catches up to Hazel as he walks onward. She looks at him as they walk and she sighs.

“What are the odds that we will even find her? What if she is dead?” Cinder asks him with concern being very clear in her voice.

“Then we track down whoever it was it was passed onto.” Hazel tells her.

“How would we do that?” She asks.

“I don’t know.” He sighs, shaking his head, moving on. Cinder stops and she looks at something that she noticed, something that made her raise her eyebrow when she saw it.

A man was watching her.

The birds tweet a song and she listens to it. But the man has vanished into thin air.

Like a shadow.

She sighs, and continues to follow him on their search.

The damage done by the Knights of Grimm still is apparent today.

And it is not about to fade away.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby approaches the entrance to Shade Academy and Sun is at her side as they approach the tape that has blocked the entrance off. There are Hired Mercenaries acting as Police here, that is how vacant the law is here, that they have hired Mercenaries to _act_ as police officers. One of them holds his hand up to her and they all stop, he looks at them with his rifle in one hand as he speaks to them. “School’s closed, crime scene. Can’t let you in.” The Police Officer says to them and Sun scoffs.

“We’re Huntsmen from Beacon, we’ve come here to figure out what happened.” Sun says to him with a chuckle, his hands held out.

“You could be the President of Atlas, and I’d still tell you to get out of my face. So I’m gonna give you one more chance before this gets violent.” He threatens, clearly no true Police Force since they are threatening people with violence. But then, the soldier hears a voice behind him that amazes them.

“Let them  through, soldier.” She says, and their eyes widen when they see her walking towards them. The Huntress has lightly tanned skin, indigo hair brushed over to her left side, and olive eyes. She wears a high-necked, tight-fitting gray shirt, along with a long, light blue coat. She also wears a leather bandolier with a shoulder pad on the right, which also appears to hold her weapon. She also wears gray pants and dark gray boots. Neptune and Sun smirk when they see her walking over to them and she plants her hands on her hips when she sees them.

“Sun Wukong...” She says with a slight giggle in her voice. “Seems you haven’t changed a bit.” Nebula says when she looks at the Huntsmen and Huntresses that have arrived. It is Nebula Violette from Team N.D.G.O, seems she has been in charge of this investigation before they arrived. Weiss crosses her arms and looks at Neptune, since he did flirt with her and her team when they first met. However it seems Nebula was the only one who actually liked him, whilst the others looked disgusted.

“Nebula...been a while.” Sun says as he crosses his arms with a smile as he looks at the girl he once battled against in the tournament.

“But, we can’t –” The soldier stammers.

“Get out of here.” Nebula orders and the soldier sighs and walks away from the entrance, as she approaches him and the others. “Good to see you all alive and kicking.” Nebula tells them as she looks at them.

“Likewise, things weren’t too great five years ago.” Ruby agrees and Nebula smiles.

“Forgive me, I don’t think we officially met.” Nebula says as she looks at Ruby and she squeaks.

“Oh!” Ruby squeaks. “Oh, yeah! Sorry, I’m Ruby Rose.” She says.

“Weiss Schnee.” Weiss says with a courteous curtsy.

“Blake Belladonna.” Blake says with a respectful head bow.

“Yang Xiao Long.” Yang finally says.

“Oh yeah! Team R.W.B.Y! How did I forget you four?” She scoffs at herself, hitting the side of her head playfully. She then looks at Oscar, understandably not recognising him.

“And who would you be, handsome?” She asks him with a smile and Ruby gives him the sternest look she has ever given to someone she cares for. The look actually makes him jump and he looks at her. He then answers her question.

“Oscar Pine.” He answers.

“Were you at the Vytal Festival?” She asks him.

“No...Uh...It’s a bit of a long story.” Oscar says to her as he scratches the back of his head awkwardly.

“Fair enough, so, we got the message from Glynda. You’ve come to try and figure out what happened to Headmaster Theodore, right?” Nebula asks them as she walks ahead, Sun and Blake with her at the front as they walk inside. She walks into the courtyard and there are Huntsmen training inside, fighting one another with their bare hands. Unlike the other schools, this is actually very dangerous. No safety rings, just concrete floors that they start to pound one another into.

“Yeah...what have you got so far?” Blake asks her as they make their way inside and Nebula scoffs.

“Not a clue, we’re not the best at being detectives, honestly.” Nebula says to her with a laugh in her voice.

“Told ya.” Sun says with a smile as they walk towards the main building in the centre. Shade Academy is one of the oldest of all, since it looks like it is made from the ancient remains of an Arkhoni Keep, the huge doors open up and they walk inside, across the long hall that has lots of lit torches and the rest of Team N.D.G.O surrounding the bodies that were killed. Ruby looks at Sun as they walk through.

“Anything like you remember? Place look different?” She asks him about the Kingdom and Sun shakes his head.

“Hasn’t changed much.” He admits.

They approach the corpse of Headmaster Theodore, his head on the floor with blood leaking onto the floor. His assistant on the ground next to him, his weapon still in his hand. Ruby looks at the other members of Team N.D.G.O.

Dew Gayl is a young female with tanned skin, dark blonde hair swept to her left side, and violet eyes. She wears a sleeveless green dress with an asymmetrical hem, what appears to be golden scale armour underneath her dress that covers her chest, neck and left arm, a lighter green sarong tied around her hips, and a golden pauldron. Two thin chains loop from the front of her pauldron and around her torso to the back. She also wears a pair of over-the-knee scale leggings, the same as her chest armour, armoured boots with a small heel matching the pauldron, and a simple chain bracelet with a ring connected to it on her right hand. She holds her Spear in her hand as she stands there.

Gwen Darcy is a young female with olive skin, curly black hair pulled back from her face into ringlets, and brown eyes. She wears a black corset dress with a dark gray front, purple hem and purple laces on the back. The upper part of her dress is light gray, with a high gray collar and elbow length sleeved with black cuffs. Her belt is a long purple ribbon edged in gray, with a bow in the back and tied in the front, and connected to the belt are a pair of armour tassets that also act as storage for her weapon. She also wears light gray stockings and pale gray ballet flats, with ribbons around her lower legs. She spins one of her throwing knives through her index and middle fingers.

Finally, Octavia Ember is a young female with fair skin, brick red hair left loose and olive green eyes. She wears a blue waistcoat with two long tails and brown bodice detail. A blue crop vest of the same colour is worn over the top. Her skirt is cream underneath an orange open-front layer. She wears a pair of dark blue belts crossed in the front and back, and a pair of silver pauldrons, held in place by a leather belt across her chest. Her shoes are a pair of simple, dark brown boots with a folded top. She holds her Kris in her hand, red dust charged through the blade.

Nebula approaches the body, her Crossbow strapped onto her back as she steps aside for Ruby to look at. “Here you go, this is what one of our students walked in on.” Nebula tells them with her hands planted on her hips again. Ruby gasps with shock when she quickly sees the killing blow.

His head has been crushed by something, not enough to hide the identity of the victim, but the side of his head has slightly been crushed in. Blood still leaking from his head due to the wound, this was clearly done by a blunt weapon of some kind. The same deal with the assistant as well, his head has been smashed in by a blunt form of weapon. There are a couple of cracks in the ground as well, so it was not just one strike alone that did this, this required a couple blows for it to work.

The question is now...

Who did it?

And why?


	12. Follow the Shell

**Ruby**

The corpse of Headmaster Theodore lies before them, he once had a red beard and red hair tied back behind his head. His eyes still open but have turned dry from the time he has laid there. Cracks spread across his temple where the weapon struck him, whoever did this must have attacked him whilst his guard was down for his aura to not protect him, unless the weapon was lethal. Blood trickles down his cheek, Ruby crouched down by the corpse as she examines the damage done. The floor is cracked and fractured beneath his head, so the killer must have struck him hard enough to damage the ground as well, so it must have been something like a hammer or perhaps even a mace. No blade did this, so that rules out Neopolitan, she uses blades, not blunted weapons.

Not likely to be any of the Knights either, there are no signs of burn damage and none of them use blunt weapons. And the damage could not have been done by a fist, the way the skull has been cracked open is physically impossible, the same for his assistant. Sun looks at his corpse and he turns to Ruby. “I know who the Assistant is.” He sighs as he looks at the corpse of the man, short white hair and orange irises. He wears a set of crimson robes around his body with golden accents on them, similar to the Acolytes of Lien, but closer to the Albain Brothers in the scheme of colours. Neither of them are Faunus, both of them are humans.

“Who is he?” Blake asks as she approaches him and she looks at him, very similar injuries, except he also has a broken arm as well. Whoever the killer is, the Assistant must have put up a fight.

“His name is Professor Ghost; he was the Headmaster’s Pyromancer.” Sun tells them as he looks at his body on the ground.

“Pyromancer?” Weiss questions.

“Yeah, he was very powerful with fire. It was his Semblance; he became pretty obsessed over his abilities as well.” Sun remembers with a scoff.

“Tell me about it.” Nebula scoffs as she stands there with her arms crossed.

“He punished Octavia with his abilities for disobeying an order.” Gwen tells them and Octavia nods her head.

“What happened?” Yang inquires, concerned with who their victims are. Octavia pulls her shirt aside a slight bit to reveal scar tissue from fire on her shoulder that was given to her by Professor Ghost.

“Gods...” Weiss gasps.

“All because we did not secure the Brewery.” Octavia scoffs as she pulls her shirt back to where it was.

Blake crouches down and she examines the body with her enhanced senses as a Faunus, she can smell a certain scent on his body. Her ears flick up when she recognises the smell, not a nice one either. “He reeks of liquor.” Blake identifies.

“He always was a drunkard.” Dew scoffs as she walks around, holding her spear in her hand as she examines the walls. Her large violet coloured eyes focus on some of the cracks in the adobe wall. Ruby looks around, gazing up at the ceiling where there are some big cracks, and dust on the floor. She turns and she jumps internally when she sees Torchwick crouched down beside her. He takes his hat off and looks at the body.

“So then, Little Red? What are you thinking?” He asks her, whispering into her ear as he gets close to her side. She sighs and rolls her eye as she sits there, whilst the others speak with Team N.D.G.O over what has happened here.

In Ruby’s head, she begins a conversation with him. “I don’t know.” She sighs as she examines the area. “But it was not a clean kill, would have been a bullet otherwise.” She sighs, looking around. There are plenty of windows, and more so, plenty of buildings nearby for a Sharpshooter to take the shot and get away unseen. _So why did our killer decide to make it personal? Brutally kill them this way? It makes no sense whatsoever._

“No...It doesn’t make sense at all, does it Red?” Torchwick asks her as he stands up and walks around the bodies. “I mean don’t get me wrong, my little Ice Cream Gal is capable of many things, but she would not do something as sloppy as this.” He scoffs as he looks at the bodies of the two men, and Ruby looks at him, speaking to him telepathically.

“Oh yeah? How do you figure that?” Ruby scoffs.

“Well for starters, Neo does not use blunt weapons. She’s smarter than that, blades are her specialty. She was always too small to apply the strength required for a Blunt weapon, so odds are? This was a dude who did this, a strong one as well.” Torchwick surmises as he looks at the corpse on the ground, the blood that stains the floor and fragments of skull matter scattered as well. He is not wrong, this would take a tremendous amount of force to do this and it must have been fast as well to vanish as quickly as the killer did.

“Have there been any other killings?” Weiss asks.

“Not yet.” Octavia answers.

 “Although, folk have already given the killer a title.” Gwen tells them.

“What is it?” Sun asks her.

“The Imperator of the Sands.” She answers.

_The Imperator of the Sands..._

_An old Vacuo Myth, similar to the Onyx Phantom, however this one was very different._ Ruby looks at Gwen when she says that, Torchwick looking at her as well, despite her having no idea that he is even there. “Gwen? What’s the Imperator of the Sands, again?” She asks her.

“Legend has it, that the being is a monstrous creature that would hunt people that would challenge it. It used brute force, killed them quickly in a similar fashion and vanished just as quickly as well.” Gwen explains from memory, making it sound more like a Creature of Grimm rather than a person, but it is physically impossible for a Grimm to sneak its way past the walls and inside of the Headmaster’s Throne Room without anybody noticing it.

But now people have given the creature a form of title.

“Was there anybody here when it happened? Any witnesses?” Neptune asks Nebula as he approaches her.

“Nope, he was having an important meeting with his Pyromancer about something. The Headmaster was...a troubled man.” Nebula reveals, leading to Ruby hearing that and she stands up, walking towards Nebula.

 “What do you mean?” She asks.

“He suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia, he saw enemies everywhere.” Dew tells them, her hand on her hip as she stands there, her head slightly tilted as she speaks, eyelids hang low over her eyes. She always has the expression that she is either bored or does not give a damn. They all look at her with a raised brow; they know more about this man than any of them, even more than Sun.

“Who did he trust?” Ruby asks Dew.

“Just his Pyromancer, pretty much.” She answers with a shrug.

“That makes things interesting.” She says as she walks around, looking at the place.

“How so?” Nebula curiously asks. Ruby then begins to enter her intelligent summary process she does after examining a corpse. She has always done this in the contracts they have collected after finding corpses and learning what they can from the people around them.

“Well, if he was in here with just the Pyromancer, that means that either he was lying and somebody else was in here, or we are dealing with a stealthy Assassin who struck from the shadows.” She explains, and she walks over to the body of the Headmaster on the ground. She crouches down and then points at his corpse. “Look at where he fell, he clearly could not have been sat in his throne if he was struck down there, he got up to ran. That must have meant that the killer must have taken the Pyromancer out first, breaking his arm when he attacked.” She explains after her detailed analysis, she stretches out her arm and points at one of the huge adobe pillars in the hallway towards the throne where he used to hold his audiences. There is a charred scar upon it, cracks riding up the pillar and into the ceiling. Fragments fell onto the ground, explaining the dust under their boots when they entered.

Ruby then looks at the dead Pyromancer. “We can be lead to assume the killer broke his arm to send his attack the other way, and then hit his head to knock him down. Hitting him a second or even a third time to make sure he was dead.” Ruby explains as she stands there, like she can see the event happening all over again, visualising a shadowy figure attacking the two people.

“After the Pyromancer was dead, the Headmaster attempted to flee and the Imperator of the Sands hit him across the side of his face to knock him down. He was still alive so he hit him a couple more times to ensure he was dead.” Ruby summarises to them all as she crouches down and points at the cracks in his face, even some cuts from where he was hit initially, breaking the skin on impact.

“Wow.” Nebula says as she claps her hands. “That’s some impressive detective work, Ruby.” Nebula congratulates, with legitimate intrigue in her gratitude.

“We still don’t know who did it though, and why they did it.” Weiss says to them all, crossing her arms as she looks around. Neither of them have the faintest idea of who could have done this; however the entire city has their eyes peeled for anyone that could potentially be the Imperator of the Sands.

Oscar looks around the large room, until something catches his eye, and his hearing senses it as well. He hears a faint voice behind him and he turns round swiftly and his eyes widen with confusion of what he sees. He looks directly at the throne and he can see a fracture form a man sat upon the throne. Like pieces of glass, that float around and they have different shades, making the fractured body of the Headmaster, like some sort of ghost. By his side is his Pyromancer as well similar condition as well. Oscar quizzically looks at them, and then they begin to move around. “Headmaster, are you sure that you want to do this?” He asks the man.

“Yes! The traitors are everywhere, ears and eyes judging everything I do!” The Headmaster yells at his Pyromancer, his voice is aggressive and sharp as he bellows. Their voices echo through time and he walks towards the throne, looking at this...echo...and he listens to what is being said. He can hear a person faintly in the distance; his voice is different to the Pyromancer’s and the Headmaster’s. Younger, like a Huntsman’s in fact.

“Please, don’t do this!” He begged, voice hardly being heard. Perhaps Oscar is seeing the Headmaster’s last moments, not listening to the man.

“Silence! They are all traitors! All of them! Suffocate them all!” He bellows with rage, and the shards break apart before him, the sounds of screams and the sound of skulls being struck by the blunt weapon. Oscar jolts back from the screams and Ruby looks at him, noticing that slight jolt he had. Nobody else notices but she does, standing up and looking at him whilst the others converse over the options. Oscar looks at Ruby, touching the temple in his head and then he sighs. She walks towards him and he holds her hand, walking her away from the others as he quietly speaks to her.

“What’s wrong?” Ruby asks him quietly.

“I just saw something important...at least I think it was.” Oscar says as he shakes his head slightly, utterly confused of what he just saw. His Semblance is more than he realises, he does not just have one form of power. He can see the past by the looks of things, if he can learn how to...perhaps even travel through time itself.

“Tell me.” She asks of him.

“I saw...the Headmaster and his Pyromancer.” He tells her and her eye widens with surprise.

“You mean...him?” She asks with bewilderment as she points at the _dead_ headmaster at their feet.

“Yeah...But they weren’t whole. Their voices were echoing, and their bodies were shattered into little pieces that were floating around. I could hear what they were talking about, but that is not the important thing.” He tells her and she stammers.

“Wait...are you saying you can see the past?” Ruby inquires.

“I guess so – I’m still figuring out what I’m capable of.” Oscar says to her as he shrugs his shoulders when he speaks to her. “But, I’m avoiding the important bit, I heard a third voice in that – echo.” He says to her, thinking of what he is going to call those things. If he ever sees them again, he will call them Echoes in Time.

“There was another person here?” She asks him.

“Yeah, seems like they did have a secret meeting with somebody. But the Headmaster was...he was enraged. He was ordering his Pyromancer to... _suffocate them all_.” Oscar remembers, hearing the enraged bellow of the man that yelled it. His voice echoing through his mind as he remembers the voice. Not the voice of a good man, and Ruby looks quite concerned. Few people know about the Vacuo Headmaster, he does not allow much publicity about himself, due to that Paranoia he suffered from.

“That doesn’t sound good, but it makes this even more interesting.” She says to him as she thinks on this newly found information, thanks to his semblance.

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it.” He scoffs.

“Well now we know that the killer could have been trying to save the city from him.” She adds.

“We don’t know that, he could have been talking about some threats out there.” Oscar suggests and Ruby sighs, realising that he is right in that statement as well. The Killer could be on their side, or he could have just jeopardised the safety of Vacuo even more than it already was. Oscar sighs and he thinks, and luckily Ozpin’s voice returns when he needs him most.

“Theodore was the most untrustworthy of the circle we created. He was very dangerous, especially with the company he kept. With the Trinity Marshall and the city itself, but we needed to clue him in on this. We did believe at the time that he had access to the Relic of Choice.” Ozpin explains to Oscar and he chuckles.

“Good thing you didn’t.” He says and Ruby looks at him.

“Huh?” She asks him.

He points to his head. “Oh, Ozpin.” She realises, nodding her head. She then begins to speak to Ozpin directly. “Would he destroy the city, Professor?” She asks him, and Ozpin contemplates.

“I don’t know, things might have changed since he last checked in before the Fall of Beacon.” He explains, remembering the last time.

“What did he say last time?” Oscar asks.

“He said that he thought that the city was turning against him.” Ozpin answers, and Oscar sighs, grabbing the bridge of his nose.

“What did he say?” Ruby asks, since she is not telepathic.

“He just said the last thing that Theodore told him was that he was afraid his city was turning against him.” He answers.

“That’s...not good.”

 

**Jaune**

“You found her?” Glynda gasps with amazement, with Jaune and Kassius stood at the other end of her table. Kassius holds his hands behind his back as he stands beside Jaune who looks at Glynda, she looks extremely happy to hear this news. “Where is she?” Glynda asks him, enthused with this information.

“We brought her home, we thought it would be best for her to get some rest in a comfy bed instead of the floor.” Jaune answers and Glynda nods, agreeing with this point.

“Oh, this is great.” She says with happiness, but then she notices that there is concern on their faces as well. “But you don’t look as happy.” She points out.

“I am, really I am...but we came into some trouble when trying to get her home.” Jaune begins and she leans forward and rests her arms on her desk as she looks at Jaune with concern.

“What happened?” She asks.

“The Acolytes of Lien were hunting her, and they attacked us. The Spectre and Admiral Ortega were among them.” Kassius answers before Jaune can, and her eyes widen with fear, but then she sighs with frustration as well. She pushes her hand through her blonde hair and takes her glasses off for a moment as she rubs the bridge of her nose.

“So they’re back?” She sighs, just another annoying thing to be added into the equation. Along with Fury returning and an army of what appears to be undead warriors, her day is just getting worse and worse by the moment. And to add the cherry on her sundae of terrible things to happen all at once, Vacuo’s Headmaster has been assassinated.

What a fantastic day she is having.

“It looks like it, they were coming after her, and Ortega seemed very determined to get her for some reason, I don’t really know why.” Jaune explains to her.

“Well, he won’t. We haven’t come this far to getting her back to just lose her all over again.” Glynda promises. She stands up and looks at Jaune. “I will make sure that the Academy is secured, have everyone ready to defend it and her if they dare come here. They won’t touch her.” She assures them. She is not blind, either, she can tell that Jaune just wants to be with her. She smiles and she gestures her head towards the elevator. “Go on, she needs you.” Glynda says to him with a smile.

Jaune smiles and he nods to her turning and walking away from her desk, Kassius walks with him as they approach it. “And Jaune?” She calls, as they enter the elevator, he turns and looks at Glynda. “Well done.” She says to him with a smile, she has very much so become much kinder and softer towards the students, opposed to how she used to be. But as they all have learned, there are threats out there in the world that can topple down their world at a moments’ notice.

So they should be kind to each other whilst they still can.

Like it is their last day on Earth.

Jaune smiles. “Thank you, Professor.” He says, and Kassius hits the button to head back down to the ground level. The elevator flies down the side of Beacon Tower, and they look out the window as it moves down, looking at the place. Kassius presses his hand against the side of the elevator and he flinches when he feels Hyde effecting his mind again, Jaune spots that. “You alright? Hyde annoying you?” Jaune asks, and he sighs.

“Yeah...he might have learned how to trust you, but he still tries to take over.” He sighs as he hits the side of his own head with his hand. He shakes it off after feeling the burning sensation of Hyde trying to manipulate him. Jaune leans against the back of the elevator, unknowingly on the doors that will open.

“Hey, Kas...if you don’t mind me asking...what’s it like?” Jaune asks, Kassius looks at him with a raised brow.

“What’s what like?” Kassius asks him.

“Having a second mind in your head? Does it hurt?” He asks curiously. Kassius chuckles and he stands in the corner, pressing his back against the metal as the elevator descends.

“Sometimes, I always feel a hot, tingling sensation in my temples.” He describes, pointing to his own temple with his cybernetic finger. “Sometimes it just feels like a hot paper towel pushed against my head, other times like an iron.” He illustrates for Jaune, and he closes his eyes with a sigh. “It also really ruins my sleep schedule, Yang sometimes wakes up on her own because Hyde wakes me up with either nightmares or just him muttering in my head. I have to wait outside sometimes to let him pass before I go back.” He explains.

“How long does it take?” Jaune asks him.

“On Hyde’s good days? Around fifteen minutes, on his bad ones? The whole night.” He sighs, scratching the back of his head with his human hand. “It’s not all bad though, when you’re alone, you still have someone to talk to, even if he does like putting dirty thoughts in my head.” He sighs.

“Are you sure that’s Hyde or you?” Jaune asks with a chuckle, and Kassius laughs.

“It blends together at this point.” He laughs. “I’ve grown used to him, for a long time I wanted him gone...but he has been a part of my life for so long that if I lost him, I think I’d lose it.” He says with a chuckle. He and Hyde are a symbiotic relationship, they cannot survive without the other. And Hyde has saved his life more times than he can count, having what is essentially two brains in his head simultaneously has helped him, but has also hindered him as well.

“Aw!” Hyde exclaims in his head.

“Shut it.” Kassius sighs, making Jaune chuckle, since he can tell that Hyde must be muttering to him.

“I’ll admit, Kassius – I was scared of you when I found out about your Semblance. But, now that I’ve gotten to know you, I don’t anymore.” He explains and Kassius smiles.

“Thanks, Jaune. Means a lot.” He says with a smile.

The doors open and Jaune yelps, falling through them as he was leant against them the whole time. No matter how many years pass, he will always be the clumsy fool he has always been. He screams like a little girl as he falls and hits the floor, making Kassius guffaw with laughter, holding his chest as he laughs. “Are you okay?” He tries to ask through sharp intakes of air as he laughs.

Jaune holds his thumb up with an embarrassed sigh, sitting upright. “I saw that coming a mile away.” Hyde chuckles as he looks through Kassius’ eyes.

“On that we agree.” Kassius chuckles.

 

**Pyrrha**

She sits on the bed, looking at the floor with her legs hanging over the edge. Nora and Ren look at her with bewildered eyes, they still cannot believe that she is alive. They look at her like they stare at a ghost. During the daring escape, they were making jokes and all that, but only now has it truly set in that she is alive and back. Or at least, she is partially back anyway, her memory is still tender and fractured. She turns and looks at the pair of them and notices that they are holding hands. Her memories are jumbled, but there is one thing that she remembers about them. “I thought you two weren’t – _together,_ together.” Pyrrha says to them and they both look at their hands held together tight and lovingly. Nora shyly smiles at Pyrrha and then she sighs, sitting upright.

“Things happened...after Beacon.” Nora says to her with a shy smile on her face and Pyrrha quietly laughs for a second as she looks at the floor again.

“Very true.” She softly agrees, thinking on what happened. What she saw when she died...The voice of the Soothsayer that pulsed through her body like some sort of shockwave. His eyes that glowed red behind the green ones that looked more natural. Poor Nora and Ren do not know what to say to her, what would be appropriate given the circumstances, seeing the way she just wiggles her fingers around.

“I’ve never seen you with your hair like that.” Nora points out with a very kind smile on her face as she admires the long wavy red hair that covers her cheeks, parts of it covering over one of her eyes. She pushes some of it from the eye that was obscured and she looks at them, with a confused look as she touches the soft red fibres.

“It...Was different?” She asks them, her voice fragile as she speaks, not as royal as it used to sound. Like she is constantly about to cry. Pyrrha cannot even remember what her old hairstyle was like, somehow, for it has been this way ever since she returned to the physical world. The living world.

“You...don’t remember?” Ren asks her and she stammers.

“I – I, my memory is not what it once was...I have been trying to remember who I am, my memories are jumbled around. I remember you two, Jaune...Team R.W.B.Y...Cinder...but not a lot else.” She stammers and Nora covers her mouth with her hand. It mainly hurts her to think that she might have forgotten her happiest memory, the dance at Beacon nearly six years ago now.

Ren looks at her and he sighs. “You can still get them back.” He assures, and she looks at him with a smile.

“I remember that about you.” She states softly.

“What’s that?” He asks her curiously.

“You’re kindness, your ability to push people on, not let their bad feelings get in the way.” She says with a smile, and Nora smirks as she sits forward.

“And what about me?” She asks with a big grin, making Pyrrha smile bigger and cuter than before.

“I remember very vividly that you liked breaking legs and you are freakishly stronger than you look.” She recites from memory and Nora squeaks with happiness that Pyrrha remembered that about her. It may be small things, but it is better than what they had with the Onyx Phantom.

The door opens and they all look at who enters.

Jaune walks inside and he stops in his tracks, just like them, even though he knows she is alive and back...it still catches him off guard whenever he sees her. Her large green eyes gazing up at his sapphire ones, Kassius stands behind him with his arms crossed and she looks at him. Ren and Nora, without question, get up and they leave Jaune and Pyrrha alone, for those two definitely need some time to talk. They close the door behind them, and Jaune stands inside of their old dorm room with only Pyrrha in there with him. She looks at him and she shyly looks down at the floor, one of the big things she remembers is simply an emotion.

Guilt.

She feels so much guilt for how she left him, how their last ever moment together went. “Pyrrha...”Jaune quietly says, still unable to get the fact from his mind that she is alive again. He walks over to her and he sits down next to her, looking at her. Seeing the way she is, with that black and golden armour, based off her original but changed the colours to try and affect him when they fought...but the thing that he cannot unsee is her change in personality. Pyrrha has always been a quiet and humble girl, but her quietness clearly has just gotten worse. He then holds her hand and her eyes widen when she feels his hand on hers.

A flash of memory bursts into her mind when she gasps, feeling the warmth of his hand when she was leant against the wall in Beacon Academy, nearly six years ago now...before she destroyed Penny. The Autumn Leaf that fell before her, hearing the thoughts that were travelling around her mind constantly that day. _This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen!_ She then snaps back to the present, looking right at him the same way that she did that evening with longing in her large eyes. “Jaune...” She gasps when she realises that they are not in a fight, her heart pounds a million beats a second and she breathes heavily with pure love for him, but fear as well.

“Whoa, it’s okay.” Jaune assures her softly as he puts his arm around her thin body, she has become much slimmer than she used to be, but not from her fitness training, from her lack of food. She has not been eating healthily for five years, and it has taken a major toll on her body. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere ever again.” He promises her, she holds his hand and she leans up against him with shut eyes as tears stream from them. Only now for her, has it really sunken in that she is no longer in the grasp of Vir Nominis Umbra in that cruel realm of his that she was snagged from death. She is actually alive and back in his arms, she smiles gently as she feels the warmth in his body, holding him gently, and he holds her close. It has struck him at the same time, just by feeling her hair, smelling her, hearing her voice...the things he feared he could never experience ever again.

But now they can...

...but there is one question on his mind. The one that has been rattling around in his mind ever since. “Pyrrha...what happened to you?” Jaune asks her with fear in his voice, not that she may be different, but of what happens when you die. However she did not have what one would call the best experience of the afterlife.

Pyrrha stammers when she remembers, one of the only things that is not jumbled in her memory is how she died. She closes her eyes and can see Cinder stood there, that smirk on her face as she drew the bow back and launched the arrow into her sternum. A different Cinder Fall, for Sapphire Locke has returned, but does not allow to be called by that name anymore. She sniffles as she opens her eyes, not wanting to see the Charred Forest. “I...” Pyrrha stammers. “I remember seeing Cinder...” She whimpers, feeling the scar on her heel where the arrow was lodged when she threw her shield. Jaune gently caresses her back as she snuggles up to him where they sit. “Do you believe in destiny? Those were my last words...” She says with horror in her voice, just coming to terms with that fact is horrifying when she realises that those were the last things she ever said.

“Then Ruby got to the top and tried to save you...but she shot the arrow.” Jaune concludes that part of the story, for Ruby told him what she saw that night that haunted her for many months afterwards. Pyrrha’s eyes widen with horror and she looks at Jaune, eyes bursting with fear.

“She saw?” She questions with sadness, for she only remembers Ruby as an innocent and adorable young girl who was only two years younger than her. But she never wanted Ruby to see something like that, she was always too precious to be put through something like that.

“Yeah, she saw...she and Weiss tried to save you. I begged them to, but they were too late, there were too many Grimm between them and the Tower, and as soon as Ruby got there...she saw you die.” Jaune explains with pain in his voice, despite her being next to him, as he tells someone how somebody else witnessed their death...it is a mindboggling thing to speak of. One that nobody would ever want to speak of either. Pyrrha covers her mouth, feeling the urge to cry coming upon her, she never wanted anyone to be effected, she only wanted to meet her destiny. The destiny that Vir Nominis Umbra planted into her mind ever since she was a child. That her Prince Charming would come along, but she never expected it to be Jaune Arc.

“I never – never wanted her to see anything like that...is she okay? Is she still alive?” Pyrrha asks Jaune with a fearful voice that trembles. Jaune smiles kindly and he wipes the tears from her cheeks with his thumb.

“She’s...coping, she struggled for a while after what happened to you...but she is struggling with something else now, not with what happened to you, but with what happened after.” Jaune explains to her, and Pyrrha’s eyes widen with fear for the sweet young girl, her fingers moving down her chin. She grips her collar with concern.

“What happened?” She asks with a sniffle.

Jaune looks at her with a confused expression, and then it really hits him. “Do you really not remember anything? When you were under their command?” Jaune asks her, she shakes her head.

“It’s all shattered memories, I remember nothing from one point in the afterlife, until you freed me on that tower on those islands...I had to help in some way but after that...I was lost.” She stammers. “What happened to Ruby?” She asks again and he sighs, scratching the back of his head.

“You went to Mistral, right?” Jaune asks her, and she nods her head.

“Yes...I was drawn to go back.” She remembers.

“Well, it fell when the Knights of Grimm returned, I was trying to help Ruby when it was falling apart. Weiss was badly injured by Death and the others were hurt, Scarlet David and Sage were killed in the battle.” He explains, remembering that...slaughter...very well. The deaths of Team A.B.R.N will never leave them, how the Knights wiped them out in mere seconds. “She was dazed, and Death formed with a Bow and Arrow formed from Glass, he hasn’t done it since...I don’t know why he could then...and he shot at Ruby.” He explains and she gasps.

“Is she okay?” Pyrrha asks.

“She survived...but...she lost her eye.” Jaune tells her and Pyrrha whimpers for the poor girl. She shakes her head with sadness, never wanting her to come to any harm. “She was captured by Salem and the Knights, tortured by Tyrian Callows for months, but we saved her...eventually.” He sighs, still punching himself over how long it took them to rescue the poor thing. “She has P.T.S.D from it, but I’m hoping her boyfriend Oscar will be able to help her through it, we’ve all been there for her.”

“What about Tyrian?” She asks, with what sounds like anger in her voice.

“He’s dead, he tried to kill her when they escaped the Islands, after we saved her and stopped Salem. He tracked her down to her house, and nearly killed her and Yang. But Ruby beat him, killed him and watched him die. He can’t touch her anymore.” Jaune promises and she sighs with relief, there is a lot that she needs to catch up on. If she truly cannot remember anything that happened between now and then.

Jaune then looks at her, since she seemed to have become more concerned for little Ruby rather than answering his question. “But...Pyrrha...I need to know – what happened to you?” He asks her, for he has every right to now. She stammers and she closes her eyes as she remembers how she felt like she was falling constantly, her soul plummeting into another realm...

“I...I thought it was over, but when I died, I felt like I was falling forever. I was terrified, as the white around me turned darker and redder, and beneath me as I fell, I saw black trees stretching out for as far as the eye could see, fire everywhere...moon broken.” Pyrrha explains, remembering it all from her tragic memory. Jaune’s eyes widen, because he has been told of the Charred Forest by Yang, Oscar and Ruby...it has appeared in all of their minds now.

And now...he knows that this place is not just some Nightmare World...it is real.

It is a Realm.

“I crashed into the ground, I was terrified.” She explains, voice shaky with fear, remembering the starless skies, blood red and the howls of the damned that echoed across the Charred Forest. “Then...I saw him again.” She says.

“Who?”

 

**Vir Nominis Umbra**

Five years prior...

Pyrrha wails in agony as she feels the red electricity charging through her bones, burning her soul and she cries. Tears stream from her eyes as she hangs there by her arms and legs, like some kind of cruel display. She can see other souls being tortured here as well, one of them is now familiar as well. The soul of Sage is here as well, being drowned endlessly in what seems to be a pit of blood, he screams and wants to die, wants his suffering to end but it never does.

The whistling tune of the entity arrives and she whimpers with fear, seeing him emerge from the shadows with his hands held together, that menacing smirk on his face. This is clearly months after her death, still trapped in this horrific realm that she can never leave. She turns and gasps with horror as she sees other huntsmen experiencing similar, horrific fates, some being fed to Beowulves, but their bodies regenerate instantly, but they still feel that excruciating pain of being ripped apart, devoured forever. Vir Nominis Umbra points at her with his index finger, smirking menacingly at her as he approaches her. “You, my dear, are a tough egg to crack. I have killed you time and time again, drowned you, fed you to Grimm, and yet you still refuse to be controlled.” He says as he walks towards her with that evil smile on his face. He looks at her and he touches her cheek, sweating endlessly and she cries with pain, feeling her bones on fire but she refuses to succumb to his will.

Pyrrha coughs with pain, like her throat is burning as well. The things that hold her up are bones and skin that hold her there. He holds her by her cheek and wipes the tear from her eye, scaring her further more as he stares at her. “Pretty thing, aren’t you?” He whispers, and she looks away from him with a terrified cry, closing her eyes and he smirks, stepping away from her. He turns and looks at Sage who screams as he is lifted up from the bones, blood dripping from his face as he gasps for air. He holds his hands behind his back and leans forward, looking at him with a smile. “Hello there, how are you feeling?” He asks Sage with an insane smirk on his face.

Sage whimpers with fear, barely able to breathe past the blood. “Please! Make it stop!” He begs him, Sage was never like that when he was alive. He was calm and controlled, here has been broken down into a mess.

Vir Nominis Umbra rubs his green hair and he looks at Pyrrha with a smile. She stares at him, sweat dripping from her hair and chin as she looks back with fear for him. He continues to smile, expression not changing as he forms a dagger in his hand and cuts Sage’s throat open, spilling his blood into that pit. He gasps for air, but the wound slowly heals itself, and he never dies, only suffers. He continues to smile as he walks towards her. “Pain works on everyone eventually...” He says with a cold smile, and he slides the knife across her face and she cries out in pain as the serrated edge cuts through her skin, drawing blood.

He then narrows his eyes as he stares at her. “Everyone...but you...” He says with confusion, stepping away from her with a laugh, throwing the knife into her chest and she screams with pain, feeling the knife puncture her lung. She tries to breath, but only begins to asphyxiate, but can never die. She writhes around there, trying to free herself from the grasp of the evil being that holds her there. He then uses what appears to be telekinesis, tearing that dagger from her sternum, the same point of which she was shot and he catches the blade. He wipes the blood off and he looks at the crimson fluid that runs across it.

For in the spiritual world, the soul still works the exact same way, they just can never die. They can sustain injury, but never die.

He drops the blade onto the floor and looks at Pyrrha.

She cries almost hysterically with pain, looking at the hole in her sternum which just regenerates, the blood dripping onto the floor. Vir Nominis Umbra approaches her and he looks at her. “What is that makes you...tick?” He asks her, flicking her nose with a smirk and she sniffles as she looks at him. His eyes narrow and an idea comes upon him. He floats up towards her and he grabs her by the face and forcefully kisses her on the lips. She shrieks with distress as he does it and then pushes her away, reading her memories from her lips. He floats before her and he closes his eyes. His form transforms before her and she whimpers, seeing blonde hair extending from his initially bald head. His clothing shifts, the orange hoodie with pouches and goodies turns into a black Pumpkin Pete’s Hoodie and his trousers turn into jeans.

He spins round, revealing himself as Jaune Arc.

Her eyes widen, tears streaming endlessly from her eyes as he sobs. His voice, however, is still that of Vir Nominis Umbra. “So this is what must be tested?” He chuckles with a smile, crows bursting from his body, the body vanishing and the true form of Vir Nominis Umbra returning. He snaps his fingers and the bone structure that restrained her shattered. She falls and hits the floor hard, looking up at him with fear.

Vir Nominis Umbra approaches her with his hands clasped together with a cunning smirk.

Vir Nominis Umbra grabs her by her pony tail and begins to drag her away from the other screaming souls who are eternally tortured, leaving Sage behind. He continues to drag her away and she screams with terror, kicking and wailing. “Please! No!” Pyrrha wails, and whilst he drags her, he whistles menacingly.

And then he sings over her screams as they both fade away into the shadows.

As he sends Pyrrha to her own personal hell.

_“A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,”_

_“His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,”_

_“Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye.”_

_“Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,”_

_“His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,”_

_“Anger through truth, loss through acceptance.”_

_“For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,”_

_“Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,”_

_“The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,”_

_“Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter...”_

 

 

**Pyrrha**

Jaune’s eyes are wide with horror and rage that she was put through such tortures and pains. He just wants to hold her and never let her go, especially after realising that he also spoke to Vir Nominis Umbra not very long ago either. “Torment and Control...till the moon will shatter...” Pyrrha softly repeats after concluding how he took control of her. “He sang that horrible song all the way there.” She tells Jaune, looking at him with tearful eyes.

Vir Nominis Umbra has had a terrible effect on the beautiful girl, turned her into a heartbroken wreck, one that cannot get past her torment.

He caresses her cheek and he holds her close, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Pyrrha...I...” He stammers, nearly about to cry as well.

“He...he created a hell specifically made to break me...and it worked.” She sobs, remembering some of the things she saw. “I saw you die over and over again, in the worst of ways, seeing you abandon me, he created images of you and Weiss together, like you forgot about me...I...” He stammers and Jaune looks at her and he holds her close.

“None of it was true, okay? I – I was an idiot, I never should have ignored you...I’m so sorry, Pyrrha.” Jaune sniffles, his eyes tearing up as he caresses her cheek and she pulls closer to him and she goes to kiss him, but she stops. Something stops her, her heart is pounding and she wants to kiss him with every fibre of her being. But she is scared to, she has wanted him for so long, and now she cannot even bring herself to kiss him. He holds herself there for a while, but she just looks away with tearful eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Jaune...” She quietly says to him and he shakes his head.

“Don’t be sorry, I am the one that should be. If I just talked you out of it...” He stammers, feeling responsibility.

“No...You don’t understand, Jaune...” She nervously says, looking around as she holds him closer. “That was not the first time I met him, Jaune...” She stammers, and Jaune raises his eyebrow.

“What?” He asks her with fear in his voice.

“The Soothsayer...” She tells him. “Vir Nominis Umbra, whatever the hell that thing is...I have met it before.” She says to him, remembering back to her own childhood.

“What are you talking about?” He asks her, and she closes her eyes with a heavy sigh for the confession she is about to give him.

“When I was small, I once spoke to a Soothsayer, I asked him about my future. He told me about everything, being a warrior, being a hero...even you, Jaune...he said I would meet someone who would love me for me.” Pyrrha says to him and he caresses her cheek as she looks at him, and he is terrified for her safety.

“What are you saying?” He asks her.

“Destiny...the idea of it?” She says to him.

“He planted that idea...” She confesses to him. His eyes widen with fear for her and he sits upright.

“What?” He asks her with concern.

“He made me believe in it...I only realised that when I was killed, when I was taken to the Charred Forest.” She explains. “I don’t know what Vir Nominis Umbra is, but he is extraordinarily powerful, and we cannot trust it.” She explains to him.

“I spoke to it, Pyrrha.” Jaune tells her and her eyes widen.

“When?” She asks him.

“Before I entered that apartment you were in.” He answers. She stammers with fear, he is definitely following her for some reason.

“He’s following me...” She whimpers with fear.

“I won’t let him touch you.” Jaune promises and she giggles at his bravery, but she knows that it will not work against him.

“I appreciate the thought, Jaune...but he is not of this world. He is stronger than all of us, I tried to kill him but all of my attacks do nothing to him. If he gets to me...he will kill you and take you with me. I will not let you die.” Pyrrha explains to him with fear in her voice. “I may not be able to remember many things, but I remember this most clearly...he is coming to destroy us all...and he is linked to those Knights in some way.” Pyrrha explains.

He holds her hand and looks into her eyes.

“Then we will find a way to beat him.” Jaune promises, wrapping his arms around her and laying down on the bed, letting her snuggle up to his side on the bed. “But we do this together, I am not losing you ever again.” He whispers to her.

“Deal.” She agrees with a smile.

They both lay there in the bed, happily in each other’s loving arms. They have yet to kiss again, but that will come naturally.

Watching them from the rooftop of one of the other buildings, however, is a sinister figure.

The Soothsayer watches them with that sinister smirk on his face, his hands held together and he turns and walks away, leaving them to their peace.

 

**Weiss**

The Schnee Huntress sighs, walking outside from the Headmaster’s Throne Room with Neptune beside her. Weiss sets her hands down on the railing on the balcony and she lets out a sigh as she looks around. Neptune turns and looks at her, raising his brow. “Are you alright, Weiss?” Neptune asks her, she sighs, closing her eyes as she looks at him, then opening them.

“I don’t know...this whole situation, Nep...It stinks.” Weiss sighs, thinking about what happened with the Headmaster. Some time has passed, when they arrived it was afternoon, now the sun is beginning to set. Whereas in Beacon, the sun is still high in the sky. Neptune leans against the railing with his eyes set on his beautiful girlfriend.

“Okay, talk to me. What’s on your mind.?” He asks her, she looks at him and she sighs, turning to speak her mind to him.

“All of this, the Trinity Marshall, the Imperator of the Sands...what if they are just the same person?” Weiss asks him, she has clearly been thinking a lot on what Sun and Neptune told them about the Trinity Marshall, there is undoubtedly more behind this mysterious name than meets the eye.

“But it does not seem like his M.O to randomly assassinate a School Headmaster like that, Information Brokers know about the importance of the Headmasters and all they care about is survival. So if the Trinity Marshall knew about what was going on in Ozpin’s Inner Circle, then he would want to survive. Killing a Headmaster would not be the best way to go about it.” Neptune explains, he has done his research on Information Brokers, which is very clear from how much he knows about them. That and Sun knows a lot about them, since he comes from Vacuo. They are essentially this Kingdom’s Council. They run everything – Knowledge is Power.

“Yeah, but you heard what Oscar and Ruby told us. Oscar’s not one to make crap up, he can see the past in those _echoes_ and if he said that the Headmaster was planning to destroy the city, then maybe he did it to save everyone.” Weiss explains to Neptune, remembering the details that have been discussed with them.

Neptune scratches his blue spiky hair as he thinks on what she just said. “Well, we will continue tomorrow, see what we can dig up. Sun and Blake have gone to that hotel to book us some rooms for us to stay in. Sun said it is reasonably good.” Neptune says to her.

“How good is _reasonably good_?” She asks him with a cynical look in her large blue eyes.

“Well I wouldn’t expect anything above three stars.” Neptune warns. She groans and rolls her eyes. He then cups her chin and lifts her head so she is looking at him. “But...I have a few ideas to make it five stars.” He flirtatiously hints with a wink. Weiss’ mood changes as she smirks at him and wraps her arms around his shoulders, lifting up one leg as well like a ballerina.

“I like how you talk...we’ll see tonight.” She whispers as she kisses him firmly on the lips with a slight giggle. He holds her with one arm and then they break their kiss. She goes to kiss him again, until she feels her scroll vibrate, and they both look down at her pocket, but Weiss thought something else entirely. She looks down at her chest and gasps, slapping Neptune.

“Ow!” Neptune exclaims.

“Later.” She says with a proud smile, pulling her scroll out and he sighs, as it turns out, he was in fact looking down at her chest.

She looks at her scroll and gasps when she sees who is calling.

_Winter Schnee_

“Winter!” She squeaks with happiness, some things never change. She answers the call immediately and holds the scroll up to the side of her ear. “Winter!” She repeats as she hears her sister’s voice on the other side of the call. Neptune leans against the wall and listens to her.

“Weiss, my goodness it’s good to hear your voice.” Winter says with a sigh of relief, for they do not know of the pictures she brings them of Fury, yet.

“How have you been?” Weiss asks her with excitement in her voice, and she hears Winter laughing gently on the other side of the scroll.

“Honestly, pretty bored for a while. Just making sure Atlesian Students are training well, you have no idea how much I miss Beacon in comparison.” She groans, how things change as well, for at one time she hated Beacon.

“I know the feeling.” Weiss responds with a similar groan as she looks at Vacuo.

“I’m on my way to Vacuo, Weiss. I have landed at the Schnee Dust Company Trade Building.” Winter informs them and she gasps, she can actually see the building from there as well. It is the biggest and brightest building in the entire city, funnily enough as well. The Schnee Symbol glowing on the rooftop of the nearly completely glass building.

“Are you really? Why have you bothered to come to this disgusting place?” Weiss asks her, and she hears a sarcastic gasp come over the other end from Winter.

“Weiss? What would Sun think of that?” Winter gasps.

“Oh, trust me. He hates this place as much as we do.” Weiss tells her with honesty, making Neptune chuckle as well. Winter laughs on the other end, she has become much more personable now, as they all have.

“All this happy chatting aside though, I have some news that I must discuss with you all...news I can’t talk about over unsecure Scroll Networks, especially here.” Winter explains, and Weiss looks at Neptune with a surprised expression, which is just as equally concerned as well. Neptune steps forward as he sees that look in her eyes.

“Is it bad or good?” Weiss asks, and Winter pauses.

“I don’t really know.” She says with a sigh, clearly referencing the return of Ozpin instead of that picture of Fury. “I will tell you all more when I find you.” Winter says.

“We’ll come to you, Neptune and I. We can bring you to the Crime Scene, probably the safest place.” She explains.

“Okay, I’ll see you soon.” Winter responds. “And Weiss?” Winter says.

“Yeah?” Weiss asks.

“Be careful.” Winter requests. Weiss smiles and she nods.

“I will.” Weiss promises.

The call ends there and she lowers her scroll and closes it, fitting it into her pocket. She sighs and looks at Neptune with a look he recognises. “I’ll see you in a sec, yeah?” He assumes and she smiles and nods to her dear boyfriend. He walks away and closes the sliding door behind him. Weiss turns to the balcony and leans against it, she sighs as she looks out, able to see Winter’s Ship in the distance.

She stands there, then feels a tear trickle down from her eye.

“I see confidence must be hereditary in us Schnees.” The recognisable voice of the Knight of Loss states, Weiss’ eyes widen with shock when she hears her voice and she spins round.

Loss stands before her, her long white hair blows in the breeze, along with her black robes that she wears as she stands before Weiss. She may be the smallest of the Four Knights, but she is far from small, she still towers above Weiss in comparison. This is the first time any of them have seen any of the Knights since the Volcanic Chain Isles. Weiss goes to grab Myrtenaster but realises the weapon is not on her and she gasps, reaching for the door.

But...

Starla holds her hands out and looks like she does not want to fight, almost hunching forward. “Weiss! I promise I mean you no harm, I came here to speak with you.” Starla tells her and Weiss stops in her tracks, staring at the glowing blue eyes hidden behind that dark veil that hides her beautiful, pale blue face. Weiss then stands tall again and lowers her arms back down as she looks at the Knight of Loss who has just magically appeared.

Loss must have arrived here in her Mourning Dove form, and none of them even noticed her arrival. Weiss looks at her with narrow eyes as she tries to figure out her point of why she is here, and only one question comes out. “What is with you, Loss? One moment you are trying to kill us all, the next you are trying to be friends with us? I don’t get you, Ruby said the same about you and Death, even Fury was the same.” Weiss states to Loss, trying to understand the Knight that stands there. Starla sighs as she stands before Weiss, like the parallels of one another, she is the one that is broken from her sorrow, whilst Weiss still has her loved ones. But they look almost identical now that Weiss is a young woman.

Loss sighs as she stands there, looking down at the floor. “Weiss...” She sighs.

“You all vanished after the destruction of those islands, the only one we saw again afterwards was Tyrian and he is dead now as well as Watts. You killed countless of innocent people, and many Huntsmen and Huntresses at Mistral and now you want to talk to me? What is it with the four of you?” Weiss questions as she narrows her eyes, looking at the Knight.

“You do not understand, Weiss – we do not do the things we do out of choice.” Loss explains as she stands there.

“Why are you coming to me? Of the others you seem to remember who you were.” Weiss asks her, and Loss looks at her hand, seeing her pale blue skin where it became hypothermic after she tries to commit suicide in that lake thousands of years ago, thus giving her this form.

“I’m not like Death, or Fear or Fury.” Loss begins as she looks at Weiss, as her voice is not even demonic sounding in the slightest, her voice is sad and yet caring. “My curse is closer to who I was than they were, I suffered with this for a long time, like I am used to it. But there are times where my curse makes me do things I cannot stop myself from doing, and it is the same with the others, but it affects their minds as well.” Loss explains, revealing more about the four of them than Weiss ever expected her to.

Loss sighs, her tears that never stop streaming hit the wooden floor as she stands there. “I have cried to stop myself, but it never does, with the girl I killed at Mistral, I wanted her to run but the curse forced me to draw that bow. Unknowingly, they are all in the same position, we did not choose this fate, Weiss. It is bound to us...” She says, holding her Bow in her hand and staring at it, with what looks like Hatred.

“You do not have to do this, you can join us, Starla.” Weiss suggests as she looks at her and Loss looks directly at the beautiful young girl.

“My curse...our curse...it has given us a duty. I am a Schnee, and I must uphold my duty, even if I despise it.” Loss explains, feeling pain in her own heart as she says it, but Weiss shakes her head.

“You and I both know that is crap.” Weiss says to Starla, and she looks at the younger Schnee. She is inspired by her, for she has actually come here to speak her mind. “We can free you, Loss... and I want to, I really do...but we need hints.” She explains.

“I can’t give you that, my curse refrains me from doing so. All I can say is that you must find those Visionary Books if you have any hope in freeing us from this hell.” Starla explains and she looks at the young girl through that veil of hers.

“We will...but I know that you won’t be able to stop from fighting us, will you?” Weiss asks her.

“No...that is our curse.” She explains.

“Why were you cursed?” Weiss asks her with concern for the Knight of Loss. Starla looks directly at Weiss. She then reaches to her neck where she has what appears to be a necklace, she pulls it from her chest and looks at it as water drips from it. Water constantly trickles down her pale blue skin and even under her clothes where she stands. She presses the nail of her thumb against the circular pendant and flicks it open, inside is a photograph of her dear husband and children. She closes her eyes with sorrow, then shuts it.

Starla looks directly at Weiss. “Never betray him, Weiss...never lie...do not think that you could have a second love life behind their backs...” Starla begs of her and Weiss’ eyes widen when she realises.

Starla did have a love affair with another man for many years, Weiss does not realise yet, though, that the other man was Krekras Blackridge...Death...

“Lies only bring pain.” She tells Weiss, turning to walk away from Weiss as she fits the necklace back down into her corset. She stops, though, and turns back to Weiss.

“Something terrible is coming Weiss, something that will kill many lives here...get out of here while you still can.” Loss warns. Weiss closes her eyes and when she opens them, she watches as the Mourning Dove flies away from the balcony where she so mystically appeared, leaving the youngest female Schnee alone.

Loss is different to the other Knights...

She still remembers who she was.

Weiss waits a couple seconds as she watches the dove fly away. Finally, she walks back into the room towards Neptune and she immediately wraps her arms around him and kisses him on the lips. Something about her message has made Weiss want to savour what she has with Neptune as best as she can. She breaks the kiss from him and he looks very surprised. He looks at her with a smile. “What was that for?” Neptune asks her curiously and she smiles adorably at him.

“Just for being you.” She kindly says to him. She stands there and Yang narrows her eyes.

“Are you alright?” Yang asks, confused of why she is being so nice.

“Yeah, totally fine.” Weiss promises, but she doesn’t realise that her eyes are still watering from the presence of Loss earlier.

“Your tearing up.” Nebula points out.

“Huh? Oh yeah, that always happens. The wind, for some strange reason it makes my eyes tear up like I have just been sobbing for an hour.” She scoffs, wiping them away. Weiss smiles and she turns, noticing that one of Team N.D.G.O is not here.

Gwen is not there.

“Where’d Gwen go?” Weiss asks curiously.

“Gwen? Oh she went to help sort out the Hotel thing for you guys.” Nebula assures and Weiss nods.

“Well, my sister is waiting for me. Coming, Neptune?” She asks him and he nods, walking with her.

“Hey, why don’t I go with you?” Nebula asks them with a raised eyebrow and they both look at her.

“I think we can handle a walk.” She chuckles awkwardly.

“Yeah, but I know the shortcuts through this place like the back of my hand. You don’t wanna go through the market, it’s a nightmare to navigate that place at night.” Nebula assures.

“You know a quicker way?” Neptune asks.

“Oh, of course. Come on, I’ll show you.” She says. The three of them leave the building and they walk outside and towards the market. They can see what she means, the market truly is like a maze in there. Just so many different ways that someone can go in there. And in the darkness of night? That would make this very difficult indeed to navigate through.

“So...Nebula, where’s this shortcut?” Neptune asks.

“This way.” She says, turning left instead of right, towards a bridge that moves across the lower levels and it heads towards the flats.

Some time passes as Nebula shows them a faster way, and sure enough, they arrive at the entrance of the Schnee Dust Company Trade Building. The three of them approach it, Weiss looks very excited. “So, what’s your sister got planned? Slumber party?” Nebula asks with a jokey laugh.

“I’d be surprised if that came from my sister.” Weiss laughs as they walk closer.

Suddenly there is a massive explosion from three of the main floors of the building, the shockwave is so powerful that it knocks the three of them off their feet, along with the others. The windows shatter into thousands of shards that fall towards them. Winter’s ship explodes as well into a huge cloud of flames and smoke, chunks of metallic debris thrown into the sky and crashing into the street. The explosion echoes for miles and smoke pollutes the streets, rubble falling onto the ground.

Weiss’ eyes widen and she stands up with fear in her eyes.

“Winter’s in there!” She screams.


	13. Terrorist Attack

**Whitley**

The Schnee Heir approaches the door to President Thaddeus Brimstone’s office in the large building at the centre of the city of Atlas. He has been granted entry, as he has become a big member of the Atlesian Society, repairing the damage done to the Company. He stands there as the two guards outside of the large office hold their hands up to him, rifles in hand. “State your business here.” One of the Atlesian Guards orders to the young man. Whitley speaks with formal pride in his voice.

“I have business to discuss with the President.” Whitley states, as he bows his head to the two soldiers. The soldiers look at each other and one of them raises his radio to contact the president inside.

“Sir, we have Whitley Schnee here. He says you have business with him?” The soldier inquires, Whitley continues to hold that stance he has adopted with one arm held firmly behind his back.

“Let him enter.” Thaddeus says over the radio, and the soldier lowers his finger from his earpiece and he nods to Whitley. The Guards push the two pristine doors open and they creak as they swing open.

“Many thanks.” Whitley says with appreciation in his voice, walking past the two soldiers and inside of the office. President Thaddeus Brimstone has been living a very wealthy life recently, crystal white walls with golden paint and even pure gold decorated into it, a white carpet that is soft, probably cleaned every single day by the servants he has. The room is large, circular with many paintings on the wall, of the previous Presidents and one of himself right behind his desk. He sits there with many papers before him, an expensive pen in his fingers. Most likely it costs just as much as the suit he wears right now. Brimstone looks up at Whitley as he approaches and he sits back in his chair when the young man approaches.

“Hello, Whitley. How has your day been, then?” Thaddeus asks him with a smile.

“As normal as ever, repairing the damage my father made to the Company.” He answers, using his cover effortlessly, standing before the President of Remnant. He furrows his brow, then scratches his jaw as he tries to decipher why Whitley asked to speak with him.

“I must say, Whitley...it must be important for you to ask me for some of my time to talk. What is it that is on your mind?” Brimstone asks. Whitley reaches into his suit’s pocket and he draws the photograph of Pyrrha Nikos that was sent to him by Ortega. He then sets it down on his desk and pushes it over to him. Thaddeus looks at the picture, his eyes widen when he sees her face. Like a two faced snake, he showed himself to be their ally when the world was in need in the Volcanic Chain Isles, but now he wants to harm her just because of what she did as the Onyx Phantom. Despite none of them being her doing, but the will of Salem and the Knights of Grimm.

“I know where you can find your precious fugitive.” Whitley tells him and Thaddeus looks right at him with intrigued eyes.

“Where was this picture taken? When?” Thaddeus questions, picking up the photograph as he looks at her. He knows with certainty that this is definitely Pyrrha Nikos, the large green eyes, the red hair, the face. Everything about her strikes confidence in his mind.

“A couple days ago in Vale, but I have some more information that just that photograph.” Whitley explains, Thaddeus looks at him again, placing the picture back onto his ebony desk.

“What else?” He asks.

“I heard that she attacked some Valerian Soldiers, with some help.” He explains, lying and disguising the Acolytes of Lien threat as Valerians.

“Who helped her?” Thaddeus questions, anger in his voice as he demands answers and justice for her.

Whitley takes his scroll out from one of his many pockets and places it down on the table; a holographic screen is projected with a video recording. The recording shows Pyrrha fleeing with Jaune at her side, fighting people off screen, but to Thaddeus’ eyes, they are killing good soldiers, not Mercenaries. “Jaune Arc, seems their relationship is not over. They are partners in crime once again.” Whitley explains, now putting a target on Jaune’s back as well.

“He will be punished as well for his crimes.” Thaddeus growls, tensing his hand into a fist. “Where are they?” He questions.

“Some of the spies you asked me to send out there? They reported that they saw the two and some other associates flee to Beacon Academy with her. I think that the School is up to no good again.” Whitley explains, creating one complex lie, but it seems that Thaddeus is none the wiser to figure out the lie in the first place. He stands up and looks at Whitley.

“Thank you, Whitley. This was exactly what I needed; I will order a large force of Atlesian Soldiers to head there now. And I will be with them; I want to hear what Glynda Goodwitch has to say about this.” Thaddeus assures, walking past Whitley and leaving the office. Whitley stands there and he smirks menacingly as he stands there, turning and walking away. He wipes the grin off his face before he leaves, and the soldiers close the door behind him.

He turns a corner, and he takes an earpiece out from his coat, fitting it onto his ear. None of the soldiers realised he had a live microphone on the whole time. “Well done, son...now it is time to proceed to the next part of the plan.” Jacques Schnee tells him, and Whitley grins, walking onward.

 

**Weiss**

The smoke rises from the hole in the side of the building, burning rubble plummets from where the explosives detonated. The blast echoes across the city and the sand dunes, the smoke spilling from the hole. Ribs of rebar protrude out the crater in the Schnee Dust Company Trade Branch’s body, Weiss stands back up after being knocked over by the shockwave, her eyes wide. Even Winter’s ship was blown up in the attack, someone must have planted bombs there as well. Nebula looks up at the flames that burn up there, seeing people staggering around outside with confusion. “Whoever just did that blew up three floors to make sure she’s dead.” Nebula realises, looking at Weiss. Weiss sharply looks at Nebula.

“She’s alive!” Weiss snaps and Nebula nods as she stands up. Neptune gets up and draws hi rifle, looking around for any signs of enemy activity. But the city is despondent, hardly anybody outside over that the survivors of that blast.

“We need to get inside and find her.” Neptune tells them, walking towards the entrance. Nebula’s attention is drawn to a crane that she could use to get to the top.

“I’ll start at the top and make my way down!” Nebula tells them, running towards the crane and jumping onto the platform.

“We’ll make our way up!” Weiss calls back. Nebula draws her crossbow, selecting a button that transforms it into its sword form.

“Just leave some for me!” She calls before slicing the cable that attached the counterweight. The platform launches up into the sky, she jumps off just in time and rolls onto the rooftop, beginning her descent into the tower.

Neptune approaches some of the civilians that survived the explosion from that Terrorist Attack. They are covered in silt, some of them are bleeding from the shrapnel that would have been thrown into them. They are all dazed and confused, groaning as they look around. He holds a woman by her shoulder as he checks her over. “Uh...Where am I?” She groans with confusion, Weiss looks at one of the others and he is lost as well.

“What happened?” He stammers as he hears the rumbling of flames inside of the building where the bombs were detonated. Weiss draws Myrtenaster and she walks towards the entrance with Neptune at her side. She hears her Scroll vibrate and she pulls it out and looks at the caller. It’s Ruby, no doubt the others heard or even saw that explosion from where they were at. Weiss answers the call, holding the scroll up to her ear as she walks inside, smelling the flames from down there.

“Weiss? What happened? We heard that explosion from here!” Ruby calls, a hint of worry in her gentle voice.

“We’re alright, I think somebody just tried to kill Winter in there. Her ship’s been destroyed as well.” Weiss informs as she walks inside of the lobby of the building, more groaning but living employees and civilians inside. The lobby is large with a flickering, cracked Schnee Snowflake Symbol on the ground, damaged from the debris that fell from the ceiling. Hands pressed to their ears, the explosion must have put them into shock. No surprise, really, it was one hell of an explosion.

“Oh no! Do you need any help?” Ruby asks her.

Weiss stops and looks around, but then she shakes her head. “No, we’ve got this. Stay at the crime scene, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. It could be connected to the assassination.” Weiss explains, trying to figure out where to go next.

“Okay, stay safe!” Ruby begs her.

“Same to you.” Weiss responds, ending the call, closing her scroll and putting it back into one of her Dress Pockets. She turns to Neptune and he points to a stairwell that he found.

“This way!” He calls, running towards it, as he runs up the stairs, they find a couple of dead staff members on the floor. Killed by falling debris that crushed them, blood everywhere. She sees the badge on his clothes and he clearly was once an employee here, not anymore though. This attack was sloppy, lots of civilians killed if it was designed to kill a single person, a Huntress of all people as well. Weiss has a secure connection to Nebula and she contacts her.

“I’ve got dead employees down here, Nebula. What about you?” Weiss inquires as they make their way up the stairs towards one of the hallways, many flowers grown along the side of the hall.

“Same here, killed by the blast, some look like they were killed by _gunfire_.” Nebula reports, and they both stop with widened eyes. _If they were killed by gunfire...then that means..._

“Sounds like our terrorists might still be here.” Neptune deduces, charging his rifle up and moving towards the corner. He stands in front of Weiss, and he prepares to attack if anyone is there. He turns round, aiming his rifle down the hall if there is anything, no people are there, though. Except for something else, their eyes widen when they see it and they approach it. It is another bomb, undetonated, something must have gone wrong with it because the timer has glitched out and shut the bomb off completely. It has become nothing more than a live dud. “Nebula, we’ve got an unexploded bomb down here.” Neptune informs, crouching down as he investigates it. He pulls his orange goggles down over his eyes and he prepares to disarm it completely. He has learned how to do so, lucky for them. He pulls a panel off and he investigates the wires.

“Sloppy work, definitely must have done this in a hurry. Could not have been set up longer than half an hour ago.” Nebula says to them, working her way down the levels to figure out where Winter could be. Whether she is dead or alive.

Weiss keeps her eyes and ears open, standing beside Neptune as he fiddles with the wires. She can hear faint voices up the stairs, could be civilians who survived the explosion, or it could be the terrorists. It does not take Neptune much time to disable the bomb, and after he is done, he stands up and pushes his goggles back onto his forehead. “Got it, let’s keep going.” Neptune says to her, picking his rifle back up and his eye down the sight. They run up the stairs, and as they turn, their eyes widen with shock.

A grenade.

It explodes as it lands right in front of them, but it was not designed to kill, but to stun. The flare-up is deafeningly loud and the flash is blindingly bright, making them both stagger. All they see is white for a couple seconds and a high pitched ringing reverberates through their ears. Their sight recovers in a couple seconds, they shake the Flashbang Grenade’s effects off and they take cover, there are soldiers inside.

Weiss looks at one of the soldiers and her eyes widen. The soldier wears a full tactical suit of armour plating, pouches of ammunition attached to his suit and he carries a Military-Grade Assault Rifle. His armour is painted black and red with golden accents, and the soldier looks at them, double taking as he sees them, then he points at Weiss. “There she is! Detain!” The soldier yells, his voice distorted by the helmet that he wears. All the same characteristics of a foe they faced five years ago.

The Acolytes of Lien.

She gasps and Neptune pulls her back as the bullets ricochet off the marble wall, it fragments into tiny shards. “Acolytes of Lien!” Weiss tells Neptune and he groans with annoyance.

“I thought we saw the last of those assholes!” Neptune groans with annoyance. He presses one of the transformation buttons on Trishula and the plates shift and turn, extending into the Trident Form. He spins it through his fingers to deflect the oncoming storm of bullets that fly towards him so then he get to a more tactical position. Weiss looks at them from the wall and she informs Nebula.

“Nebula! It’s the Acolytes of Lien!” She informs.

“Say hello to the Trinity Marshall’s Hired Army.” Nebula scoffs when she hears that name. Neptune transforms Trishula back into its Rifle Form again, turning the corner and firing a charged up round into the chest of one of the Mercenaries, the soldier roars with pain as the impact throws him off his feet. The dust charged bullet burns through the chest plate and he crashes to the ground. Weiss rises up and she turns the corner and stands in the hallway, holding Myrtenaster up as she forms a Glyph under her feet. The glyph carries her like a hover board, sending her zooming towards one of the Acolytes as she slams the pointed blade of her sword through his sternum. Weiss slams him down into the ground, the blade protrudes out of his back, scraping a scar across the ground. She pulls the blade from his chest, blood squirts out as she does it and forms a protective barrier in front of her as a soldier launches a rocket towards her. The explosion shatters more windows and does more damage to their surroundings than to their actual selves.

Neptune jumps and rolls out from cover, firing his rifle at one of the soldiers, nailing him through his golden visor. The soldier grunts, collapsing down to the ground in the offices. There is another one in there as well, with what looks to be a Machine Gun, and he fires through the windows of the other office at them, shattering the glass into tiny pieces. Neptune sprints behind a wall to take cover and then he looks at the fire prevention systems that are spraying water onto the floor. He sees there is a puddle underneath the soldier and he lifts up his hand. His eyes glow and so does his hair as the forked energy crackles through his body.

He points at the puddle and a fork of lightning bursts from his finger tip, shooting across the hallway and into the puddle. The water conducts the electricity, sending the charged energy towards him and through his toes into his head. The soldier screams with agony as he vibrates erratically from the feeling of a couple thousand volts being pumped into his veins. It does not kill him yet, but keeps him immobile long enough for Weiss to run at him. She slashes across his machine gun and cuts the gun in half, then spinning round gracefully as she drives the blade up the soldier’s jaw. The blade erupts out the top of his head, killing him instantly, she pulls downwards to remove her blade from his head. Weiss flicks her blade to throw the blood from the blade before it could set. Weiss looks at Neptune and she smiles, nodding to him.

He runs over to her side and they sigh. “What the hell are these guys doing now?” Neptune says, not expecting an answer from her but just to start a conversation as they keep moving through the building to find her.

“I dunno...but I have a sneaking suspicion my father might have something to do with this.” Weiss theorises as they walk up another flight of stairs, the smoke is beginning to thicken.

“Why?” Neptune asks her with a raised eyebrow.

“Because he wants us dead, and that Mercenary said he wanted to _detain_ me.” Weiss points out, and it is a very good point.

“You think the Trinity Marshall could be him?” Neptune suggests. Weiss is quiet for a couple seconds when she thinks on that idea.

“Maybe...” She agrees.

They walk up the steps and they turn a corner, the fire alarms and blaring constantly, and the room is partially aflame. The systems are trying their hardest to put the flames out, but they are not getting very far. The fires are just too great for them to extinguish, smoke filling the room up. Weiss coughs as she breaths the carbon monoxide in, they cannot risk being inside of this building for too long. She turns, seeing a console that could be of interest to the three of them. Weiss walks over to it and she begins to search through it, finding the _Newest Arrivals_ point on the system.

Neptune stands next to her and looks at what she can find. “Come on, sis...where are you?” Weiss mutters as she tries to see if she had entered the building and if she left before the blast happened.

_Winter Schnee_

_Arrival: Five minutes ago_

_Still present in building_

Weiss sighs with relief but is also afraid as well, the presence of these Mercenaries would mean that they were anticipating her surviving that explosion, meaning that she is still in danger. And they do not know what condition she is currently in right now. Weiss and Neptune search for another way round those flames, but they are blocking their path. Weiss stands there and an idea comes to mind, she pushes Myrtenaster forward. “Stay close to me.” Weiss tells Neptune.

“Don’t have to ask me twice.” Neptune flirts as he stands right up behind her. She forms a barrier in front of her as she walks towards the flames, the flames push around the blue barrier but it gives them an entrance. Neptune aims backwards as he checks that no Acolytes are sneaking on them from behind. They finally get through the flames, and they move up the next flight of stairs.

“She’s in the building still, she might still be alive.” Weiss says to Neptune, hope in her voice.

“Winter’s tough, she survived Mistral and the Volcanic Chain Isles. She’ll survive this.” Neptune promises as they walk up the stairs. The next room that they are inside of is much larger than the offices, some sort of second lobby, where the workers are able to hang out. There is a circular catwalk that goes around the circular room, large chandeliers hang down from the high ceiling. There are flames in here as well, this must have been one of the places where the bombs were placed. The damage in here is quite extensive, there is a huge hole in the side of the building where the smoke is venting out from, making it easier to breathe at least. Weiss leans against the railing, searching for any signs of her sister, but there are only dead employees in here.

Until something else emerges. They see a squad of Acolytes of Lien rappelling inside of the room through the crater. They must have a Bullhead that is dropping them in. They swing inside with firearms in their hands as they throw themselves inside. Some of them roll inside after landing, aiming up at Weiss and Neptune. “Target spotted!” The Captain roars, firing his machine gun at her, Neptune pulls her away and they start moving as fast as they can.

“What about the blue haired kid?” One of the other soldiers asks.

“Kill him, only idiots have blue hair.” The Captain orders. Neptune’s eyes widen with disgust when he hears that.

“How dare you! Blue hair is awesome!” He shouts, firing his rifle down at them, making them scatter to cover. There is plenty of rubble in here to make for a good barricade. One of the soldiers is a Quartet Trooper, his armour designed to mimic the semblance of Flynt Coal. There is a Sharpshooter as well, on the catwalk as he stands there. His cape blows in the wind and he looks through the glowing red goggles that give him better sight. Then...a new class of Mercenary flies in, one that must have been designed whilst they were in hiding.

The Mercenary stands on some form of Glider, a Hover Board, with lots of weapons built into it. It has a pair of thrusters that are fuelled with red dust and the propellers spin round with great speed, the soldier on top holds a Machine Gun as well, controlling the Glider through a chip in his head, so then he can use his mind to fly it. The Glider roars as it flies around, firing missiles at them. The missile explodes against one of the supports on the catwalk that they were running on.

They both plummet down from the catwalk, tumbling onto the floor with a grunt. Weiss looks at the Glider as he flies around the large room, aiming at them as he flies. Her eyes widen when she remembers Reese Chloris, one of the member of Team A.B.R.N, she had a Glider as well, but it was nowhere near as advanced and militarised as that one is. “Didn’t Reese use a Hover Board?” Weiss says as she dives behind cover, looking at Neptune.

“These guys are so uncreative!” Neptune comments.

 

**Ruby**

She keeps on looking at the distance where that bomb was detonated, she has not heard from Weiss or Neptune in a while, she holds her long black and red hair with her hand as she watches. Yang looks at Ruby and she walks over to her, none of them have any idea of what is really happening over there, with the Acolytes of Lien being behind this attack. Yang gently touches her little sister’s shoulder, and she turns to look at her. “They’ll be okay, Ruby.” Yang promises, and she sighs.

“Yeah...I know, it’s just that it all stinks.” She tells Yang. The tall blonde girl tilts her head and crosses her arms.

“What do you mean?” Yang asks her, and Ruby sits on the chair that she stands next to. She crosses one leg over the other and then looks at Oscar. He is still looking for clues, ideally another one of the Time Echoes he came across.

“Oscar said that there was a third person there – that means that the killer could have been invited. It could have been a Huntsman.” Ruby explains as she looks up at her sister. Yang crouches down and looks at her.

“What are you saying?” She asks, and then she looks at Dew and Octavia. She does not like the situation, with that attack happening the same day that they arrive...there are eyes and ears everywhere in Vacuo.

“The Trinity Marshall...” Ruby says, with a heavy sigh as well. Yang looks at her and then they both look at the burning Schnee Dust Company Trade Branch in the distance. The fires flickering and the smoke rising high into the sky where the bombs were detonated inside. “I think I have a pretty good idea of who it might be.” Ruby says and Yang laughs a little.

“No offense, Rubes, but nobody knows who he is. I doubt you might on a hunch.” Yang says with a little laugh.

“Will you just listen to me?” Ruby snaps, standing up and actually making Yang jump. That is one of the more unfortunate side effects her P.T.S.D has had on her, the long fuse she used to have has shortened a lot now. She has a lot of anger in her system that she struggles to handle on her own, and Yang immediately feels bad for interrupting her.

“I’m sorry.” Yang sighs. “Go on.” She says to Ruby, and her sister continues.

“There’s an attack to kill Winter, her ship is destroyed, around the same time that Weiss goes there as well. Who else could possibly want those two dead?” Ruby asks her, and Yang realises who she is talking about. They did not have many conversations with the man, but he was never killed.

“Jacques Schnee.” Yang answers.

“It must be him.” Ruby says with a shrug, it is a good theory, but until they can back that claim up with some more solid evidence, it will mean nothing when it comes down to the testimonies against him. And not only that, nobody has seen him for five years either, he vanished from Atlas, seemed to abandon the Schnee Dust Company and left it to his son.

But then Yang thinks of something as well. “Or...” Yang says, her eyes wide when she thinks of it. “Her brother – they both hate the two of them and have a lot of pull. Whitley has more than his dad now.” Yang points out, and Ruby nods her head as she agrees, walking around. She sighs as she presses her hand to her head, but then she goes  back to something.

“I’m sorry.” Ruby apologises, she is still the sweet girl she has always been though, there is just a lot more built on top of that adorable little cookie.

“It’s okay, sis.” Yang assures, standing up and walking over to her sister, wrapping her arms round her like a scarf to hold her close. Ruby buries her head into Yang’s shoulder, and Oscar looks at them. At least her sister is still here for her, she can help her in ways a lover is unable to. A different kind of love for siblings, one that is shared for much longer than lovers. Whilst they embrace one another, though, Yang feels her scroll vibrating in her pocket and they both look at where it is. She takes it out, seeing the face of Kassius on it, and the name – _Lover Boy_ – written on it. Yang smiles and winks at her little sister, she could never be mad at her, she loves her too much to be upset with Ruby, the same with her as well.

Yang answers the scroll and holds it up to her ear. “Hey, Kas.” She responds and she hears a very concerned Kassius on the other end of the scroll.

“Oh thank the gods, you’re alright.” Kassius sighs with relief and she smiles, her heart warm with love when she hears him like that. A strange thing to feel romantic about, but it is nice for her to hear that he was worried sick about her. But she does know why he is concerned and he has ever right to be, her eyes focus onto the burning building in the distance. Where Neptune and Weiss are currently fighting through, along with Nebula as well to find Winter.

“Did you hear?” She asks him.

“Yeah, I’m looking at it right now, it’s all over the news.” Kassius answers, back home looking at the television with the reporter speaking on it.

_TERRORIST ATTACK IN VACUO_

_TWENTY FIVE CONFIRMED DEAD_

_ONE HUNDRED INJURED_

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Ruby, Oscar and I are at the Crime Scene. Weiss and Neptune went there to see Winter, then the explosion happened.” Yang explains to him and Kassius sits down on the bed, pressing his cybernetic hand against his forehead as he sits there.

“Are they alright?” Kassius asks her, concern practically exploding from his mouth.

“They are, we don’t know about Winter. We haven’t heard from Weiss or Neptune in a while, I think they might be preoccupied.” Yang explains as she leans against the wall, touching her own blonde hair. She sighs and feels the need to just hear his voice, she is never usually like that, but with him she likes to make him spill his guts. But Hyde tends to do that for her anyway, she has grown to like Hyde quite a bit, so long as he doesn’t try to get two _romantic_ with her. “What about you? Are you okay?” She asks him, since he was helping Jaune find Pyrrha. Kassius chuckles as he sits there, since quite a lot has happened.

“Well...we found her.” Kassius answers and her eyes widen with amazement, she even gasps.

“You found Pyrrha?” She asks for a confirmation, Oscar and Ruby look at her when they overhear her saying that. She looks at them with a smile of amazement to hear of their success.

“Yeah, tracked her down to an apartment building...turned out we weren’t the only ones looking for her, either.” Kassius explains, unaware of their presence in Vacuo either. Yang listens to his words, touching her long blonde hair with her free hand.

“Who?” She asks him.

“The Acolytes of Lien were there, pretty strong force as well. We didn’t even take them all out, we just outran them and they didn’t pursue once we got back to Beacon.” Kassius answers and her eyes widen when she hears those three words again. She closes her eyes and sighs, with frustration more than fear. She looks at Ruby and Oscar.

“The Acolytes were after her? Why?” She asks, and Ruby and Oscar stand up as they walk towards Yang, since now this is concerning them as well.

“I don’t know why...but it must have been important for Ortega to have been down there with them.” Kassius reveals, and she seems even more concerned now than before. He always conducted his work from the Drift of Wandering Star, never down in the field though, everyone thought he didn’t do that kind of work anymore.

“I thought he was too busy drinking his life away?” Yang presumes.

“That’s what we thought, but it looks like he’s back in the picture...along with an old friend of ours.” Kassius continues.

“Who else was there?” Yang inquires, and Kassius sighs when he just thinks of his title.

“The Spectre was there as well.” He tells her, and her reaction shows that she does not forget the moment of her near-death experience against him. And when Summer appeared out of nowhere to save her life from the monstrous man. The man with the Hook-Hand, the main way she remembers him.

“I remember...” She tenderly says, her voice shaken when she says it. The smirk on his face when he beat her to a pulp in their battle...she cannot ever get that out of her mind. And the terror that Fear put in her soul with that warning that she was going to die, in a strange way, he has saved Yang’s life twice now.

First with Neo, and now with the Spectre.

Could that be the good in him coming through in a villainous way?

Yang then notices that Ruby has gotten a call as well, and she steps away whilst Yang talks to her boyfriend. Ruby looks at the person calling her, and it is Weiss. She gasps and answers it immediately, holding it to her ear. She recoils back when she hears the gunfire and explosions over the phone. “Weiss?” Ruby calls out, getting Yang and Oscar’s attention, even Kassius’ who heard her over the phone. Back at Beacon, he stands up with concern.

“What’s going on?” He asks.

“I don’t know, Ruby just got a call from Weiss, I think.” Yang answers.

“Weiss? I – I can’t hear you! What’s going on?” Ruby asks her, holding the scroll close to her ear as she tries to decipher any speech past the gunfire, then Weiss finally speaks after the sound of a Glyph rings out.

“Be careful! The Acolytes of Lien are here, they could be headed your way as well!” Weiss warns, and then the call gets cut off. Ruby turns to Yang with a wide eye.

“What happened?” Yang asks her.

“The Acolytes of Lien are here as well.” Ruby answers.

“Oh crap.” Yang groans.

 

**Weiss**

The Glider Trooper screeches overhead and the turrets on the underside of the Glider spin round, faster and faster before opening fire. The storm of bullets blasts towards the two of them and Weiss grits her teeth as she is pushed back, forming a barrier of aura with her glyph, the bullets push her back as she stands there. Neptune fires his rifle at the Glider, trying to get a good hit on the soldier or the vehicle he operates, but the Glider is extremely nimble. It hovers around and he aims his machine gun at them, firing over and over again to keep them down.

Weiss takes her chance, she holds her blade up and places her fingers upon it and then spins the blade through her fingers, stabbing it down into the ground. Beneath her feet, the glyphs form, and so does one beneath her blade, the ground shakes and she looks at Neptune. “Cover me!” She orders, for she is summoning the Giant Armour to fight the enemies, for they cannot beat them yet. Neptune nods, and he sprints from the cover he was hiding behind and transforms his rifle back into Trident Form. He jumps up and slams the three blades into the wall, running towards them. He engages his Semblance, channelling the electricity across his body as he goes to attack them. He leaps in the air, yelling as he slams the trident down into the ground, a pulse of electricity bursts from the impact, throwing some of the Mercenaries back from the impact, not killing them. He spins round and the three blades shift together into one and forms his Guandao, slashing it across the chest of one of the Troops, the soldier screams from the impact. The chest plate fractures as he is thrown back, the electrical impact makes his armour flicker as well, bursting the flashlight attached to the helmet. He points Trishula towards one of the soldiers that tries to get back up, the blade opens and the barrel in the rifle fires towards the soldier.

The soldier grunts, getting hit square in the chest. Neptune grunts when the Glider flies straight for him and the soldier grabs him by the throat with his cybernetic hand, lifting him into the air as he chokes him, flying around. “Going up?” The soldier asks him, his voice distorted like the others, and the Glider flies towards the ceiling. He throws Neptune towards the ceiling and his back smashes into the roof, he yells with pain, then begins to plummet down to the bottom. His eyes narrow and then he smirks, grabbing the chain that holds the chandelier in place, he swings across the room towards the sniper, the sniper steps back when he sees the Huntsman swinging towards him.

“What’s up?” He cheers, landing onto the catwalk. The Sniper staggers back and draws his machete on his back, dropping the Sniper Rifle, swinging the sharp blade directly at him. The machete is a red blade, just like how they used to have, like the Mercenaries that worked for Junior all those years ago, for they were the Acolytes of Lien when they were bankrupted. He slashes and Neptune ducks down, narrowly dodging the blade, then he swings round and kicks the Sniper across the face, shattering the goggles from the impact. He turns, seeing the soldiers are now shooting at him instead at Weiss, for he has gotten their attention. He looks at Weiss, seeing the Knight forming from the Glyph as she summons it, focusing her mind to create it. He spins Trishula across his fingers and then drives the three blades into the gut of the Sharpshooter, throwing him into the Captain below. The Captain hits the floor and the corpse falls out of the building, plummeting down towards the ground.

The Mercenary Captain turns and glares to his Quartet Trooper, pointing at him. “Take him down!” The Captain orders, looking at the Glider as he comes back around to attack the Blue Haired Huntsman. The Glider’s missiles detach from the holding rack, fire bursting out from its back and flying straight towards him. Neptune jumps off the catwalk, flipping through the air to avoid it. The missile erupts into a cloud of fire and shrapnel as he just narrowly escapes it. Neptune’s eyes focus onto the Mercenaries before him and he spins his Trident round again to deflect the bullets as the Quartet splits into four. The main soldier and his three holograms all open fire on him, shooting endlessly towards him and he keeps spinning the Trident round.

But then...

There is a shockwave from the Schnee Girl, and the mercenaries turn. Their eyes widen behind their helmets with fear as the Giant Armour leaps towards them, the blade held backwards and the Knight slashes towards them. The blade slices across the ground and takes out one of the men. Weiss runs with the armour and she fights alongside it, using her Glyphs as shields against their firepower. The Glider banks around the room and then fires again, the thrusters screech metallically as it moves towards them, the flaps moving independently to counteract the turbulence that it could encounter. It fires bullets down at them and the Giant Armour gets hit in the back, but those rounds have no effect on it, it swings round and goes to slice the Glider in half. The Glider’s nimble abilities saved the soldier’s life just then, but he will not be able to avoid their attacks for long.

The Captain growls with anger and he turns to Neptune, aiming his grenade launcher attachment on his machine gun at him, firing it towards him. Suddenly a glyph forms between them, saving his life and practically ending the Captain’s. He turns round with horror in his eyes as the Giant Armour stares at him. “Please! No!” He wails as the Giant Armour holds its fists above its head, then slams them down onto the howling man’s cries. There is an almighty explosion, burying him in his own mess from the impact. Weiss darts towards the remaining grunts, slashing across one of their arms, cutting it clean off. The soldier screams with agony as blood sprays from his stump, she dances around him as she fights with such elegance. She then pokes the blade into his torso around five times, stabbing five precise holes into his body and then turns round to behead one of the other soldiers.

Neptune fires his rifle into the chest of one of the Grunts, leaving only the Quartet and the Glider left in this room. “I’ve got the Quartet!” Neptune assures, staring at the soldier, and Weiss looks at the Glider as he hovers before her. He stares at her, his helmet looks like that of a wasp, with large circular visors where the eyes are and an oxygen mask that looks like the mandibles. He then rushes towards her, and she gets ready.

Neptune sprints at the four Quartet Fragments and he slides under one of their legs, firing the rifle into the hologram’s back. The hologram flickers a couple times before dissipating, and then he transforms the Rifle into its Guandao form, he sprints towards the one with the blue dust powering his suit of armour – he remembers back to how Flynt Coal looked, he had blue instead of the other colours, that was how you could tell him apart. The Quartet Trooper is no different, he leaps at the soldier and slams the sharp blade of Trishula down into his spine, so deep it bursts from his chest and pins him into the ground with force.

Weiss jumps onto the blade of the Giant Armour and it swings the sword with all its might towards the Glider. The Glide attempts to dodge, but the speed she was thrown at was too fast for him to calculate, she sinks Myrtenaster deep into his ribs, the Glider Pilot screams with agony as she takes him off his glider. The Glider spins out of control, alarms blaring as it falls and crashes into the ground, exploding into a ball of fire, metal thrown everywhere. The Giant Armour gets hit by most of the blast, but still has no effect on it.

Weiss slams the pilot into the ground, blood leaking from his corpse and she pulls Myrtenaster from his chest, flicking the blood off. Neptune catches her before she collapses from exhaustion, she is getting better with her endurance, but she did just summon the Giant Armour, that would exhaust anybody. He holds her like a princess and she giggles as she looks at him. “Are you always gonna catch me when I swoon?” She asks him with a smile and he smiles back.

“I’ll do more than catch you.” He assures and she giggles at his confidence, but they instantly remember to stay on task. She shakes her head when she feels better, the Giant Armour stands tall, the blade pushed into the ground as it waits to either be dispersed or for its next set of orders. The Armour, however, fades away, for its duty here has been fulfilled. It destroyed the force, and they can keep moving.

They both approach the final set of stairs, working their way up and then they see a door. They both open the door, and when they enter, they see the corpse of a Mercenary on the ground. A crossbow bolt through his chest, Nebula emerges from the corner with her Crossbow slung round her back. But then, they see the corpse of a civilian as well. Nebula sighs as she walks over. “Damn it, if I was just a little quicker I could have saved him.” She sighs, looking at the dead civilian on the floor. She walks over to the window, looking out at the city.

“Did you see Winter?” Weiss asks her, Nebula looks back with her eyes as she stands there, her hands tense as she waits to answer. She closes her eyes sombrely and begins to turn.

“I found her body.” Nebula unfortunately reveals, and Weiss’ eyes widen with horror, until...

“You mean _this_ body?” Winter interrogates, emerging from behind Weiss and Neptune with silt and bruises on her body and face. But very much alive, she draws her sword and pulls the smaller one from its body, pointing both of them at her.

At Nebula.

Nebula looks at Winter with a surprised expression and Weiss gasps, eyes wide. But she also notices she is pointing her weapons at Nebula.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby has her scroll to her ear, she decided to call Glynda and inform her on everything that has happened so far, everything that they have learned about the situation. She is currently in the middle of her report to Glynda. “Yeah, it seems like they were both killed by someone they invited to talk to, in private.” Ruby explains to her, perched on one of the benches, her leg crossed over the other. Yang and Oscar are talking to each other, whilst Dew and Octavia are still pacing back and forth.

“Hm...this does complicate things.” Glynda says to her, something Ruby clearly agrees with. She then looks at Dew where she walks and then remembers that she needs to thank her for the help she gave.

“Oh yeah, thanks for sending that message, letting them know we were coming! Made getting through a lot easier.” Ruby thanks sweetly, but then there is a silence from Glynda, one of confusion.

“What message?” Glynda asks. Ruby catches onto her confusion and she giggles nervously.

“You know? That message you sent to Team N.D.G.O, to let us know we were coming...” Ruby says, more cautiously now.

“Ruby...I never sent a message, I do not have any contacts there.” Glynda reveals and Ruby’s eye widens, then she looks at Dew and Octavia, examining their movements. Dew is holding her spear tight with a trickle of sweat moving down from her chin and onto her neck from some sort of anxiety. And Octavia has her sword drawn, the fire dust pulsing through the blade and she holds it tight as well, like they are both ready for a fight to start. Ruby’s eye narrows with anger, realising the truth that was right in front of them. Nebula went with Weiss and Neptune, Gwen went with Blake and Sun, and now these two are here as well.

It’s a trap...

“Ruby?” Glynda asks with concern.

“I’ll call you back.” Ruby sternly says as she glares at the two.

 

**Weiss**

“Winter! Whoa, wait, it’s Nebula! She’s on our side!” Weiss says, standing between them with her hands held up to hope to stop her from doing anything rash. Winter, however, keeps her blades focused on Nebula as she stands there, behind Weiss. Neptune stands with Weiss, but they both look at the way Winter is glaring at Nebula.

“Is she? Because from what I saw, this girl tried to kill me.” Winter tells them both, walking past them both with her blade pointed towards her. Nebula laughs, backing up slightly towards the window with her hand held behind her back.

“Okay...you’ve had a rough day, so I’ll let that slide. Why don’t you put those swords down?” Nebula calmly requests, glaring right back. Winter grits her teeth with anger as she stares at her.

“Quit lying! I saw you, you attacked me, tried to kill me with those Mercenaries you just gunned down as a cover. You killed the civilians as well!” She yells with anger, and then Weiss and Neptune catch on as well. They both turn to Nebula and point their weapons at her as well.

“You came with us to kill her, didn’t you?” Weiss questions with a pissed off look in her eyes. Nebula smirks and shrugs her shoulders.

“Guilty.” She admits, shrugging her shoulders with that same smile on her face.

 

**Yang**

She turns as Ruby approaches her and Oscar, stopping their conversation. They both look surprised but the urgent nature in her eye is enough to catch their attention. “Whoa, what’s up?” Yang asks her, but she holds them both close.

“Listen carefully...we can’t trust Team N.D.G.O.” She whispers.

“What? Why?” Oscar whispers back, and they both listen to her evidence.

“Glynda just told me that she never sent a message to them in the first place. The only way they could have known is if they worked for the Trinity Marshall, and where are they all now?” She whispers to them, and then they catch onto it as well.

“Gwen and Nebula...” Yang realises with widened eyes, her eyebrows furrow furiously and then she turns to them, flicking her hair back with a bright smile to not raise suspicions.

Oscar nods to Ruby, they cannot let this go any longer, and Oscar texts Sun a message. _Don’t trust Gwen or the others, it’s a trap._ Yang walks towards the two girls that stand there, talking to each other, and she plants her hand on her hip as she speaks to them. They both look at Yang with neutral expression. “Hey, girls – can I ask you something?” Yang asks them with a polite and friendly voice.

“Sure.” Dew bluntly replies with a shrug.

“You would have all gotten that message from Glynda, wouldn’t you?” She asks them, and Dew looks at Octavia.

“Oh no, it was just Nebula.” She lies.

One of the things that Glynda always does...is send the message to all members, and everyone knows her number as well.

Oscar hears his scroll ring and he looks at it, seeing Sun’s response.

_What? How do you know?_

Oscar sends another text to him to inform him. _Glynda never messaged them, and they have split up with all of us...piece it together._

Yang laughs as she scratches the back of her head with her cybernetic arm, and with her other, she engages Ember Celica, loading the shells into it to get ready. “Yeah, so...what’s her number?” She asks, as the final test. Everyone knows her number, she has one of the simplest numbers to remember as well.

Oscar looks at his scroll.

_Crap...you’re right...Blake just said she’s been acting weird. We’ll be ready._

The two of them look at Yang with silence and worried expressions. Yang’s eyes change from purple to fiery red and she reveals Ember Celica, her cybernetic arm opens and her second one forms as well. “You goddamn traitors.” Yang snarls.

Dew yells, striking Yang with her spear, sending her flying back. The three of them ready their weapons and stand tall, Octavia spins her sword through her fingers. Dew grits her teeth as she scowls at them.

Team N.D.G.O have betrayed them all.

 

**Weiss**

Neptune aims down his sights at Nebula, keeping her in his view as she smirks at them with her hand held out. “I’m also guessing that you still have the pictures I brought with me to inform them of what’s going on..right?” Winter asks her with a scoff, then she reveals her other hand. And she holds the three photographs of Fury in her hand and she laughs.

“Lucky guess...” She says in a seductive voice towards them all. “Too bad they’ll never see them.” She adds with another smile. She then looks at Neptune and sighs towards him.

“What a shame, you and I could have been a great couple.” She reveals, actually being attracted to the blue haired guy, but any sort of flirting nature he once jokingly batted her easy is now gone.

Weiss points the blade with anger, the chambers rotating round as she gets ready to fight the traitor. “You’re not getting out of here, Nebula.” Weiss warns.

“Try to stop me.” Nebula says, revealing a grenade in her sleeve she slides town into her palm, activating it with a wink. “You Schnee bitch!” Nebula yells, throwing the grenade towards the three of them. Weiss thrusts forward to form her barrier, the explosion erupts around them, and when the smoke clears, they see Nebula falling from the window with a salute, making her escape with the pictures.

“We can’t let her escape!” Winter yells.

Team N.D.G.O played them all along...

They were working for the Trinity Marshall the whole time.


	14. Indigo

**Weiss**

Weiss, Winter and Neptune jump out of the building that Nebula fell from, seeing her land on both feet, hiding the pictures away in her breast pocket, winking at Neptune. She then turns and sprints away from them. Winter snarls and pursues before her sister and Neptune can even chase after Nebula. She keeps on sprinting away from Winter and then the doors open, Nebula looks at the people on the other side and points at them. “Kill them!” Nebula orders, and there are more Acolytes of Lien.

One of them is a massive Juggernaut Soldier, his huge suit of armour stomps into the lobby with a massive chaingun built into the left arm. Missile and Mortar Pods in the back as it is read to unleash hell and a huge mechanical fist that has a Chainsword that can form from it. They have to stop when the soldiers emerge, along with a couple of Seekers as well as the Juggernaut, and a Tremor Trooper. The Tremor Trooper slams his powerful piston powered gauntlets together over and over again, creating powerful shockwaves. Neptune sighs. “Crap.” He groans when he sees the soldiers stood there, the Juggernaut loads the chaingun and aims the many spinning barrels towards them.

“Capture the Schnees!” The Juggernaut orders through the voice disguiser. They are definitely working for a certain someone, the question is – is he the Trinity Marshall? Winter and Weiss stand side-by-side as they both form glyph barriers that deflect the bullets whilst Neptune fires his rifle at them from behind. He rolls aside and he charges the electrical energy from his fingers and into the rifle, powering it up all the way. The blue dust inside glows brighter and brighter, then he spins round to fire.

One of the Seekers abruptly rushes towards him, slamming his fist upon Neptune’s jaw, knocking him off his feet. The Seeker stands next to him afterwards, then grabs him and at that speed, throws him straight into a Soda Machine, crushing the metal and causing it to fall towards Neptune. He groans with pain, and he looks up to see the machine about to fall onto him, and his eyes widen. Weiss gasps and she projects a Glyph that catches it, allowing him to roll out of the way, he then spins round and kicks the Seeker across the helmet. The Seeker grunts, staggering away from him, then proceeding to draw his sword to swing straight at him with a powerful yell. The red blade thrashes towards him, and he holds his rifle up, stopping the sharp blade in its tracks.

Weiss turns and she screams with pain as the Juggernaut grabs her and lifts her off the floor with its massive hand, throwing her into the ground with force. The impact nearly destroyed her aura, but it did not thanks to Winter creating a bubble around her that protected her. Winter yells with rage, leaping towards the Juggernaut with both swords extended, stabbing them into the back of the Juggernaut. The pilot yells with anger as he staggers back, releasing Weiss. She gets up and gets punched in the chest by the Tremor Trooper, the impact is loud and powerful, the shockwave shatters the windows and she flies across the room, smashing through one of the doors. Weiss rolls the impact off, sliding her free hand across the floor, Myrtenaster held behind her back as the Tremor Trooper runs towards her with a couple other Grunts. Weiss grits her teeth hard, and she takes one of her crystals of fire from her belt and she sprinkles them, igniting flames across her finger, then she forms a glyph that turns orange from the reaction of the red dust embers. She fires a couple of firebolts towards the grunts, hitting some of them in the chest, burning through the armour that they wear. The Tremor Trooper stops and looks at their bodies, then at her.

She stands tall, proud and proper as she smiles at him. She has become a lot more confident than before, and the Tremor jumps in the air, slamming his piston gauntlet into the ground with all his might. The floor buckles and cracks, dust bursting from the chasms created from the impact, and she helps as the impact’s shockwave sends her flying up in the air. The Tremor goes for a second attack, but Weiss creates a Glyph in the air behind her, shooting directly past the Tremor Trooper, and landing behind him. She stabs Myrtenaster into his back and the soldier roars with pain as she punctures the dust backpack that powers his gauntlets. Orange dust vents from the machine on his back and he swings round to punch her, but she slides under his attack, and then slices across his leg to bring him down to one knee. The Exo-Suit that he wears hisses after she severs one of the carbon dioxide pressurized pumps in his legs to help him jump high. All Acolytes of Lien have those to give them similar superhuman abilities that the Huntsmen and Huntresses have that make them superior to them in every way.

The Tremor Trooper slams his gauntlet down into the floor as he tries to stay upright, but Weiss cartwheels across the floor to avoid his attacks, then finally jumping in the air, holding her sword up with both hands. She plunges the blade down into his spine, the pointed blade protrudes out from his chest and she twists the blade, kicking herself off his body. Blood drips from the hole she fashioned in his sternum and he eventually collapses after dying. She stands there, flicking the blood from Myrtenaster; she turns and sees Neptune battling against the two Seekers that came after him.

The Seekers both have swords, but he is no pushover, he has learned how to fight them more efficiently after having Oscar on his side. Except these guys are far more predictable than he is, they are only moving quicker, not slowing time like Oscar is capable of doing. He holds Trishula in his hands, watching them as they dart back and forth, and he swiftly guards himself with his Trident, deflecting their blades, they are no good at these sorts of attacks since they cannot aim as well at those speeds. One of them darts straight for him, going to bring the sword down onto his head, to split his skull in two, but he holds his weapon up and blocks it. A long metallic twang rings out, sparks ringing out from the impact; he spins his Trident skilfully through his fingers and rips the sword from the Seeker’s fingers. Neptune yells, jumping in the air as he slams his fist down onto the back of the soldier’s head, stunning him and making him fall onto one knee. He growls with anger, spinning round and slashing across his chest, damaging one of his ammo packs. The dust bullets detonate and explode, does not kill the Seeker, but it still wounds and weakens him.

The Seeker’s backpack has also begun to malfunction, sparks leaking from one of the pistons that carries the orange dust inside. He snarls with anger, until Weiss shoots towards him and slashes across his back. The Seeker growls with pain and rage, staggering from the sudden impact of the Schnee Girl using her Glyph to move at great speeds. She stops and then slams the blade into the floor, ice bursting from the ground in the form of huge icy spikes that burst from the ground. One of the icicles stabs clean through his leg, the Seeker screams with agony, grabbing his leg as blood begins to pour from the exit wound. Weiss then drives the blade of Myrtenaster through his ribs, the soldier gasps with pain and then she swiftly removes the blade in time to deflect the blade of the other Seeker that goes to kill her.

Neptune sees the Seeker slashing at his girlfriend, the red blade scraping across her beautiful Myrtenaster, sparks bleeding from the impact. He then darts away as she goes to parry and counter attack, he then slams his elbow into her back with force, causing her to fall to one knee in the process. The Seeker sprints at her and grabs her by the throat as he carries her across the room, smashing her into one of the potted plants, the pottery is broken into tiny pieces and the soil is thrown everywhere. The roses fall onto the floor, and Weiss groans with pain, some cuts on her face from the shards of pottery slicing her cheeks. She turns swiftly when the Seeker returns to stab her in the chest with his sword. She holds her blade up and hits it into his, but the Seeker does not give in there.

Neptune’s eyes widen and he stares at the backpack, his hair and eyes crackle bright blue as he channels lightning across his body and into his hands. He roars with rage, thrusting his arms forward. Multiple forks of golden lightning bursts from his nails and they come into contact with the Seeker’s Dust Pack on his back, beginning to overload it. The soldier screams with pain as he feels his backpack burning his spine, and the Huntsman does not resist or even falter. He keeps going and going, and Weiss gets out of the way, covering her head with her hands. Neptune grits his teeth with rage, and then the backpack suddenly explodes into flames, completely engulfing the Seeker, leaving no remains but his ashes that fall onto the ground.

Neptune sighs with relief, and he runs to Weiss, helping her back up. They both turn and see that the whole time that they have been facing those soldiers; Winter has been challenging the Juggernaut all by herself. He slices the Chainsword with her sword and she roars as she points her blades at the Juggernaut, summoning her pack of White Beowulves to attack the Juggernaut where he stands, they all roar, leaping onto the giant suit of armour that challenges her. They scrape their claws and gnaw their teeth against the many plates of titanium metal that surrounds the pilot inside, he yells with anger, grabbing one of them and crushing its spectral head with his hand. The Beowulf fades away and then he slashes his Chainsword towards the others that jump to attack him. He then aims his Chainsword at Winter. “Come on then, Huntress!” The Juggernaut challenges, the missile pods in the back of the suit fold out, the tiny warheads ready to be launched and she scowls at the Mercenary.

She runs towards him and the Juggernaut begins to open fire on her, firing countless bullets at her, but they all miss her as she sprints directly at it, they all shoot straight past her and tear up the expensive floor around her. The Juggernaut fires the missiles, they all shoot up from the ground and she jumps high in the air. With grace, she spins round in the air, the missiles fly right past her and then they crash and explode into the ground. She stabs one of her two blades into the chest of the Juggernaut and hangs on as it staggers back from the force of her attack. The Juggernaut goes to stab her with the blade, but she jumps onto the blade and rides it, throwing herself into the air. She forms a glyph behind her in the air, then shoots down towards the weakness in its back. The armour is powered by a central dust reactor in the spine, destroy that and the Juggernaut Suit will be destroyed. She flies down towards the central core, and stabs her sword directly into it.

Sparks and dust burst from it, along with many flames as it begins to destabilize. Winter kicks against its back and rolls off it as she lands onto the marble floor. The Juggernaut Pilot howls as the sit begins to explode, cracking and eroding away as the dust core begins to explode, the arms explode first, one by one as burning chunks of metal are thrown into the air. Then the head and body explode, creating one cataclysmic blast, one that the Schnees must create barriers to protect their bodies, and Neptune, from. The explosion does not fair the building well, however it was collapsing anyway.

The burning shrapnel is either falling from the sky, or is embedded in the building itself. Winter looks forward, in the direction that she saw Nebula fleeing off to. She does not even look back at the others, she just keeps on moving. Weiss looks at her and then at Neptune, he just shrugs.

They both chase after Winter now, who is chasing after Nebula. They run down the hall, and it leads to the outer car park. They see Winter sprinting towards Nebula who has just stolen a car, having to break into it to take it as well. “See ya!” Nebula calls as she speeds out of the place. Winter turns and looks at a car that someone is stood by.

“Huntress business, I need your car.” Winter tells him, and the civilian steps away. No way in hell is he about to challenge her. She opens the car doors and looks at the two of them. “Come on! She’s getting away!” Winter calls. They both run to the car and they get in, Weiss next her and Neptune in the back. Weiss looks at her older sister who has taken the wheel.

“I’m fine by the way.” Weiss says, but Winter does not respond, she just keeps on driving.

 

**Sun**

A civilian stands outside of the Hotel with his phone to his ear. He looks extremely annoyed with whoever he is speaking to on the phone. “What? No I don’t want a triple cheese burger deluxe!” The civilian shouts with rage as he nearly snaps his phone in half. Suddenly a monkey Faunus is thrown through a window and he lands next to the confused man. Sun looks at him.

“I’ll take that Cheeseburger after this.” Sun says to him and the civilian is still bewildered by what just happened. Blake yelps, thrown with him and she lands in his lap, looking up at him, they both look confused, then she looks at the civilian. She awkwardly waves at him, until they both look at Gwen who walks towards them with three Throwing Knives in her grasp. “But later.” Sun says, they both get off one another and they pick their weapons back up, ready to battle against Gwen. She sprints towards them, throwing the three knives directly at them, they both jump and roll out of the way as the blades lodge into the floor where they both were. Some of them explode into purple flickers of dust.

Sun spins Ruyi Jingu Bang through his fingers with expertise, sprinting towards her as he strikes Gwen first. He manages to nail her in the side of the head, but for what she lacks in weaponry, she makes up with in hand-to-hand combat. Gwen guards her face from the second attack, then she punches Sun in the face, he grunts with pain, and then she leaps in the air and spins round, kicking him in the side of the head. Blake darts towards her and she slashes straight at her. Gwen rolls back and then throws two of her knives at Blake, but her Shadow Clone tricked her and she rolls towards her, slashing with Gambol Shroud. She throws her Grappling Hook towards Gwen, catching onto her shoulder and pulling her towards Blake with speed and force, and Blake kicks Gwen as she flies towards her. Gwen hits the ground and slides into one of the cars, where Sun is waiting for her. He jumps towards her and pushes Ruyi Jingu Bang against her throat, she struggles to breathe as he holds her down, but then she manages to wrap her legs around his waist. She rolls on top of him and then goes to stab him in the head with one of her knives, until Blake tackles her off of him. Blake jumps away and then lands on top of one of the cars, pointing her gun at her face.

“Give up, Gwen!” She yells, not about to hesitate from pulling the trigger. Gwen stands back up and she smirks, she has magnetic pieces on her hand which pulls the knives into her palms. She catches them and then throws one with fire dust loaded inside towards her.

“Blake! Watch out!” Sun yells as the explosive blade is thrown towards her. Blake’s eyes widen, her ears rise up and she jumps off the car that the blade was headed straight for. The explosion blows the car to smithereens, burning chunks of metal thrown into the air, and Blake screams as she is thrown up by the heated blast. She tumbles and rolls across the floor, groaning with pain. Sun stands there and he grits his teeth with anger, he transforms Ruyi Jingu Bang into their Shotgun Nunchuck form, and he roars as he fires them repeatedly, swinging them round repeatedly as he shoots at Gwen. She has to flee, for she does not have the weaponry to deflect the amount of fire being shot towards her. She then jumps and rolls out of the way after Sun went berserk. Blake moans as she gets back up, her hand on her head, and then she sees Sun sprinting towards her.

He jumps up to go attack her, but she rises up and throws three more knives towards him. His eyes widen and they hit him in the chest, sending him back and he crashes into the ground. Two of them ricochet off one of the cars and returns back into her hand. The other was broken by his Aura. Blake stands up and her ears curve downwards, eyes squinting as she sprints to Sun’s aid, she rolls towards Gwen from behind and kicks her in the back. She uses the sheath of Gambol Shroud to protect herself from the knives, deflecting them and then spinning round with a second attack. She slashes across Gwen’s aura with both weapons, Gwen shrieks with pain as she feels the attack cutting her body, only to be healed by her Aura.

Sun bursts back into action, spinning Ruyi Jingu Bang around as he fights beside his girlfriend, hitting Gwen in the back of her leg whilst Blake spins round and elegantly kicks her across the face. Gwen is thrown back from Blake’s attack and she reaches for one of her knives. Her large brown eyes widen when she realises – she is out of throwing knives. She then looks at the two heroic individuals before her, standing there with their weapons at the ready. Sun chuckles.

“What are you gonna do without your knives, huh?” He asks her with a smirk.

She then stands back up and she reaches down to her leg, and she has a small belt around her leg that has a combat knife. She draws the blade and holds it up, ready to fight with it. Sun stands there and he slouches forward with frustration. “What is it with you and knives, girl?” Sun groans as he looks at her. She smirks and winks at him.

“They’re good at killing people.” She answers, and Blake scowls at the girl as they get ready to fight her again. Gwen makes the first move, thrusting forward with the blade as she goes to stab her in the heart, but Blake slashes across the blade and then goes for a second attack. Gwen kicks her in the leg and the Belladonna Girl falls to one knee. She goes to slit her throat, but Sun protects her, hitting Gwen’s face with his staff as he jumps and kicks her in the chest with both feet. She rolls backwards and then prods the knife forward at him, Sun backs and ducks from the blade as she goes for him with it.

Blake sprints at him after she cuts him across one of his pecks and then she goes for another attack. Blake throws her Grappling Hook and it wraps around Gwen’s neck, she yanks back and throws her all the way back into one of the cars.

Sun stands back up and sees Blake fighting against Gwen, and he smiles as he comes up with an idea. “Blake!” He calls, as he eyes up a couple of explosive barrels. She smiles and nods, she kicks Gwen in the head and then jumps backwards into the sky. Sun slams his hands together with his smirk, his semblance engaging. His many via Sun Forms appear, glowing gold and partially translucent as they form by the barrels. They both pick them up and throw them towards Gwen. Blake seems to float in the sky, she spins round and points her pistol at the Barrels as they approach Gwen.

Gwen gasps when she realises.

Blake fires the gun and the bullets impact their red painted cylinder bodies. The impact ignites the fuel inside, and there are two mighty eruptions of fire, chunks of smouldering metal thrown everywhere. Smoke trails from the charred remains, and they both get up. Blake quickly checks Sun, looking at the cut that she delivered to him on his defined peck, she touches it to make sure it is not too deep. “Are you okay?” She asks him with a worried voice.

“You just wanna touch me up don’t you?” He asks her and she giggles.

“Shut up.” She says, gently pushing him, they both hear the coughing of a fatally wounded Gwen Darcy. She is burnt and her clothes charred. Her knife has been blown to bits, and there are chunks of metal wedged into her body from the explosion, blood leaking onto the floor. Sun and Blake approach her and they both crouch down and look at Gwen as she coughs up blood and smoke.

“This didn’t have to end this way, Gwen. You could have just told us.” Sun says to her with a sigh. She scowls and spits the blood against Sun’s cheek.

“You think you won?” She scoffs, her voice fragile. “They will win...we can’t stop them.” She tells them, with what sounds like fear as well. Blake shakes her head, touching her hand.

“We can, if we work together. Just tell us who hired you.” She whispers kindly to Gwen whilst Sun wipes the blood off his face with a cloth that Blake gave him. She stammers with fear as she lays there.

“I can’t...” She weakly says.

“Nobody else has to die, just tell us who the Trinity Marshall is...he hired you, right?” Blake asks her with large eyes.

Gwen weakly nods her head, revealing the truth. “Who is he?” She asks him, and her eyes notice a glimmer in the distance from one of the buildings.

She is being watched.

“Who is the Trinity Marshall?” Blake tenderly asks her once more. Gwen then looks at her with a shaking bottom lip.

“A Business man called Ja-” Before Gwen can even finish, there is suddenly a loud crack, and her eye bursts open, her head falls back and blood splatters against the floor. Her body becomes lifeless after trying to tell the truth, and blood leaks from the back of her head as she lays there. They both turn in the direction the shot came from, and they both see the shooter...and they could recognise her instantly.

The Pink and Brown hair, followed by the same eyes.

Neopolitan stands on the rooftop of one of the buildings, her Umbrella has seen some real upgrades, for it has a scope similar to the one that Torchwick once had. And it is essentially a firearm now. She stands back up and walks away, too far away for them to pursue.

But they know...

That was Neo.

And now Gwen is dead, one down, three to go.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby stands tall; her long, majestic black and red hair blows from the gusts of wind created from Dew’s Spear. She approaches slowly with her spear in one hand; Octavia spins her sword through her fingers, fire trailing from the blade. Oscar grits his teeth, drawing Traveller’s Atrocity, splitting the blade in two so then he can be faster with his revolver blades, dust shells loaded into the rotating chamber inside. The shards of fractured time stutter around his body as he stands ready, and petals trail from Ruby’s cape. Yang stands back up, at her sister’s side with Ember Celica at the ready, eyes glowing red with anger. “How could you turn against the cause?” Ruby questions with anger, Crescent Rose held in her hands, loaded with fresh rounds. Dew’s eyes narrow with anger as she stands tall, and then she points the spearhead at them.

“The Path? All that has ever brought is death, we don’t intend on joining that group.” Dew answers, she then lifts the spear up in the air, a vortex of wind forms around her and she blasts towards them, the tornado tears the ground apart from underneath them, launching debris towards them. Yang slams her cybernetic fist into a chunk of rubble and blows it to pieces, whilst Ruby slashes one in half. Oscar focuses his mind and his aura engages his semblance, an almighty crack echoes through time, slowing it down around him so then he can avoid being hit by those rocks. He sprints towards Octavia who was running to attack them, and he slashes towards her at that speed.

Octavia yells with pain, the impact creates a shockwave and she is thrown back from the attack. Octavia tumbles across the floor and she grits her teeth out of frustration, swinging round to attack Oscar as he slashes his two blades at her. As she swings her sword, a line of fire is projected from the blade that contains all of the fire dust charging it. He slides under the attack and then flips the blades round, very similar design to what Ren uses, except his are a lot more powerful, but are not fully automatic. He fires them both towards her and Octavia guards herself with her sword, deflecting the bullets that come shooting towards her.

Dew hovers before them inside of her tornado, smirking at her two foes beneath her as she knows she is practically untouchable inside of her tornado. Yang backs up from the vortex with her sister and she looks at her. “Any ideas, sis?” Yang asks her, watching Dew as she hovers before them. Ruby examines the area, this place has now been ruined as a crime scene, it doesn’t matter anymore, they just have to take her down.

“We need to get her out of that tornado!” Ruby orders, loading a magazine into Crescent Rose and she slams the scythe’s blade down into the concrete, aiming into the vortex through the optical scope. She waits for the perfect shot; the dust in the tornado makes it pretty difficult to get a shot on her. There is a small reveal in the tornado where she sees the tall blonde haired, violet eyed Huntress inside, her hair blowing in the wind she has formed from her semblance. Ruby smirks as she pulls the trigger, firing a round towards her, hitting her in the chest and knocking her out from her vortex. The tornado dissipates with her power leaving the centre, she falls and lands on both feet, the bullet practically grazed her Aura. She spins her spear through her fingers and Yang rushes towards her, yelling as she powers a powerful punch up and swings at Dew. The Vacuo Huntress ducks down and then kicks Yang in the chest, making her grunt. Dew spins her staff with grace as she goes to slam it down on Yang’s head. Suddenly a burst of petals blasts towards her, and the curved blade of Crescent Rose catches the spear and pulls her away from Yang.

Ruby slashes round and cuts across Dew’s aura, whilst Yang jumps into the air and delivers an almighty blow to the back of Dew’s head. She is dazed for a few seconds, but then she growls with annoyance, channelling the power of wind through her arms and into the spear. Dew shrieks, thrusting the spear forward towards the two young women and a powerful gust of air throws them off their feet, launching them both through the wall of the building. They both tumble out, civilians outside scream with terror as they flee from the scene.

Octavia swings towards Oscar with all her might, setting the wall behind him on fire when he suddenly vanishes, using his abilities. He appears behind her and slams his fist down against the side of her head, causing Octavia to stumble away. Oscar runs towards her for a second attack, but she turns and slashes at him, a blast of hot sand hitting his eyes and he yells with pain, temporarily blinded just as Scarlet David was when they fought them during the Vytal Festival Tournament. She has the upper hand now, attacking Oscar once more with her Kris, the blade slicing across his aura and he keeps on moving back.

But she does not know the fact that he has another mind in his head, a genius one at that. “Oscar, her blade relies on dust. Target the canisters, if you destroy her weapon she will be helpless.” Ozpin identifies, and Oscar agrees with him in his head. He has learned a couple other tricks he can do with his semblance, one that is quite similar to that of the Time Bubble, but he uses it on himself. He stretches out his arms, holding his hands up towards his surroundings just as Octavia goes to attack, and a sphere of paused time forms around him. But he can move around inside it, and she cannot strike him. Her eyes widen with confusion and she keeps on striking the bubble to hit him, but in her eyes he is just frozen in time. He smiles and then Time Rushes out of the bubble, she does not notice for in her eyes it looks like he is still inside it. He sprints towards her from behind and connects the two blades back into the sword, slashing straight down at her with all his might. She screams with pain and swings round to attack him.

Oscar slams the blade of Traveller’s Atrocity straight against her Kris, the fire bursts out form her blade on impact, but his sword is not affected in the slightest by it. “What the hell are you?” Octavia questions with a fearful tone of voice as she looks at him, and he smirks.

“I’m a Huntsman.” He challenges, as he slides his sword across the blade of her Kris and slamming the blade against the side of her sword, damaging one of her dust canisters inside. It cracks and hisses as red dust leaks from it, but it does not last for long. She stands there, and watches his every move as he stands there, but she is not the strongest individual there anymore, it is Oscar.

Ruby dashes towards Dew, hacking Crescent Rose towards her over and over again, rotating it round with skill, speed and aggression, a blur of red trailing from her blade from how fast she moves around with it. Petals trail from her body as she fights, and Dew holds up against her rather well with her spear, blocking ever single hit with the body of her weapon, she then slams the spearhead across her side, with the strength of the elements of wind, it crashes Ruby into the ground. Dew jumps towards Ruby to stab her with her spear, but Yang jumps, tackling her into the sand, slamming her cybernetic fist down towards her face. “Always enjoyed a good cat-fight!” Yang laughs as she goes to punch her in the face, Dew moves her head out of the way and then grabs Yang by her hair and headbutts her. Yang staggers back – and Dew just made a big mistake.

Dew holds a couple strands of Yang’s blonde hair, and Yang sees it. Ruby’s eye widens, not for Yang, but because Dew is about to get obliterated. “Oh...you’ve severely messed up now.” Yang warns, and Dew stares at Yang, as she clenches her hand into a fist. Yang throws her arms back with a devilish scream as her blonde hair bursts into flames and her eyes glow bright red, and Dew’s eyes widen with fear.

“Oh...You’ve done it now.” Ruby warns.

Yang sprints towards Dew and leaps at her, screaming as she swings her fist towards her. Dew gasps, taking an incredible punch to the side of the face, so hard they can see the shockwave ripple through her face. Dew is thrown across the road and into oncoming traffic. Dew tumbles onto the floor and she groans with pain, the cars have dealt some mighty damage to her aura as well.

She looks forward, seeing them charging towards her.

Ruby slashes towards Dew and she strikes Ruby across the chest with her spear, making Ruby grunt with pain from the sudden and blunt impact of such a weapon. The impact of their weapons creates a shockwave and Yang screams as she jumps straight towards Dew with her cybernetic fist pulled all the way back. She starts to punch over and over again, every punch cracks the ground from their shockwaves. Her hair burns with rage, eyes flaring red, doing some immense damage to Dew. But she jumps back and then begins to swirl her Spear around, and the weather changes before them. The ground forms a pair of mini tornados that pick the sand up from underneath them. They feel the suction power of their vortexes as they pull them both into their cones, throwing them across the complex. Yang smashes through a window and she rolls onto her feet, digging her fingers into the floor of the empty office building. Whereas Ruby hooks onto a street light, spinning round it and then firing behind her, riding the recoil as she flies straight back towards her foe. Ruby screams as she swings Crescent Rose straight at her. Dew’s eyes widen with disbelief of how well Ruby managed to recover from that.

Ruby slashes across her aura and then spins round to hit her again, dealing massive damage to Dew’s aura. Dew staggers and falls to one knee after she dealt that attack as well. Dew holds her side with pain, standing back up to attack Ruby who has just made her second attack as well. Ruby yells, jumping and spinning round in the air at great speeds, becoming a red blur of death as she spirals towards Dew. The impact throws Dew back, directly into Yang’s fist, knocking her off her feet from the punch she just delivered. Dew hits the floor, her aura practically annihilated and she groans with pain, spitting blood onto the floor.

Oscar charges in slowed down time towards Octavia and he delivers an almighty blow against her chest as he slams his shoulder into her. She is thrown back from the impact and she crashes against the wall. They are not skilled enough to challenge these guys, and she goes to make an attack with her Kris. The fire trails, but her attacks are so weak now compared to how they used to be. She has been beaten down by the Traveller, and he stands there, pointing his Sword at her. “Enough of this, why are you doing this? Are you working for the Acolytes?” Oscar questions with stern eyes.

Octavia stands there, her eyes barely able to stay open and she spits blood out from her mouth. “You’ve gotta make a living around here somehow...” She weakly says, her voice has become very tender.

“You’re Huntresses, I saw you fighting in the Vytal Tournament, why the hell would you fall to this level? You were some of the greatest this school had to offer!” Oscar shouts, unable to believe how a group of huntresses so successful could fall to this level. She looks at him and scoffs as she shakes her head.

“Yeah, the four girls of Shade Academy...beaten by a puddle.” She says as she stares at Oscar, and he stands there, remembering how they lost the Tournament for their Kingdom. All because Neptune used his initiative.

“This is all because you lost?” Oscar questions.

“Imagine if you were one of the greatest your school had to offer, and you failed as miserably as we did? Do you think the people back home would be welcoming?” Octavia scoffs as she stares at him. She then lifts her sword up, pointing the tip of the Kris at him. “N-Now...stand there and fight.” She challenges. She yells, swinging towards him with her Kris.

Oscar stops time and rushes towards her, slamming his fist into her chest with all his might. The punch finished off her aura, taking her off the floor and she falls off the steps to where the Headmaster and Pyromancer lay on the ground. Octavia falls back, and with a lack of aura...

_Crunch!_

The sound her head and neck made as it hit the corner of one of the steps, breaking her neck instantly. Her body lies on the steps, and Oscar jolts with shock...from how quickly he killed her. He never meant to kill her, he only meant to knock her unconscious...he thought the fall would have done that. He looks at her, as the aura leaves her body and her corpse is left behind. Blood trickles down the steps where she fells and he drops his sword, feeling guilt in his heart.

He is not afraid to kill...but he does not feel good about it.

Finally Ruby stands before Dew, she is using her Spear to stand up, her body weak and unable to fight. She looks at Ruby, and the Silver Eyed Girl paces back and forth. Her eye watching Dew’s every move. Yang stands there and she has calmed down, but is still ready to fight. “Dew, stand down. Nobody else has to die.” Yang tells her, hoping that she can defuse the situation while still possible. Dew spits the blood from her mouth, holding her belly with pain as she stands there. She feels as if she has been beaten into the belly every single time by a Beringel, but she has that look in her violet eyes.

“Stand down? No...Not this time.” Dew growls with anger, and Ruby tightens her grip on Crescent Rose.

“Ruby, all we need is to knock her out.” Yang says to Ruby, then Dew goes to attack with her screams of war. Ruby’s eye, however, narrows and she darts towards Dew. The petals trail behind her and she moves unbelievably fast with Crescent Rose ready.

Ruby yells, bringing the blade straight up, cutting clean through Dew’s arm that holds the spear. Dew’s eyes widen as the agony bursts from her elbow, she wails with agony, her spear hits the floor, blood spraying from her elbow. Ruby then spins round and cuts straight across Dew’s knees, cutting her legs clean off as well, blood everywhere in this horrendous bloodbath...unlike anything they have ever seen Ruby do.

Yang’s eyes are bursting from their sockets, unable to speak from what she just saw her little sister do. She is...horrified...terrified of her own sister for what she just committed.

Dew hits the ground, blood pouring from her body, hardly even alive as she lays there, shaky breath as she tries to breathe. Her nerves have been completely severed, her body turning numb. Ruby stands there, blood on the side of her face and her clothes, dripping down the curved blade of Crescent Rose as she approaches the dying Huntress on the ground. Yang looks at her still, not even at Dew...at her sister who just...

...callously did that to Dew...completely unnecessarily.

Oscar’s was an accident, she did that with full intent of doing what she did.

Ruby bends down and glares down at Dew. “Who are you working for?” She coldly demands, and Dew looks at her eye.

“What? What have you...become?” She weakly utters through the dying body.

Ruby grabs her by her collar and pulls her up.

“Who is it?” She yells with fury in her voice. Dew smiles as she looks at her, and then bites onto something. She coughs with agony, white foam pours from her mouth as it ravages her systems...

It was a Cyanide Tooth.

Dew chokes on the cyanide and her eyes roll back into the back of her head, her eyelids close, heart stops beating. Blood pours onto the floor where she lays and Ruby releases her, staggering back as she glares at her. “Damn it...” Ruby snarls with anger.

“Damn you! You traitors!” She howls with rage, whilst Yang and Oscar look at her with horror.

Ruby is not the same girl she used to be...

Not anymore.


	15. The Trinity Marshall

**Weiss**

Her large blue eyes are focused on the purple car that Nebula just stole, she is speeding away down the motorways of Vacuo to try and outrun them. She is swerving through traffic, keeping her eye on the mirror to see them behind her. Winter swiftly drives after her, weaving through the cars right behind her. The tyres screech, smoke billowing from the friction of rubber on tarmac as she pursues the car, trying not to hit the other cars around them. Neptune hangs on, feeling like he is being thrown back and forth in the car. “We can’t let her get away with those pictures!” Winter tells them, with a real sense of urgency in her voice as she pursues Nebula, Weiss looks at her sister with a bewildered expression. She has so many questions on her mind at this very moment – _what is she talking about? What could possibly be on those pictures to be so important? Has she not even noticed that Neptune and I are with her and nearly got killed a second ago?_

_This isn’t the time, let’s catch that traitor._

The car dodges past one of the cars, and she looks back at them as she takes out a grenade as she drives. Nebula slams her foot down onto the throttle, driving as fast as she can, accelerating at some speed. He holds the grenade in her hand and smirks as she engages it, throwing it backwards out the window. The grenade flickers red as it bounces towards them, Neptune’s eyes widen. “Grenade!” He calls out, picking his rifle up, and he opens the door, holding onto it as he holds his rifle in one hand, aiming it directly towards the grenade as it rolls towards them. He fires, a bolt of blue dust focused down into a shell, impacting the explosive device and exploding upon contact. Flames accompanied with shrapnel and smoke burst from the spherical shell that was released from her car, and she continues to drive as fast as she can.

“Looks like she doesn’t wanna make this easy.” Winter scoffs as she drives faster, Weiss looks at the speedometer and her eyes widen at the speed that they are driving at. Weiss has always been bad passenger in cars; she has more anxiety around that than anything else.

“Uh, Winter, at this rate we’re gonna be in a high speed collision.” Weiss warns, holding onto the side.

“Yeah, I heard those can be bad for you.” Winter replies sarcastically, then Weiss hears the excited cheers from Neptune as he holds on. He on the other hand is loving it, holding onto the side of a car and shooting at grenades that she is throwing from her car to take them down.

“This is so awesome!” Neptune cheers with joy and she rolls her eyes, Winter looks at her sister with a chuckle.

“Well – at least someone’s having fun.” Winter comments as she continues to drive as fast as she can. Nebula looks back and she grits her teeth with anger, still seeing the Schnees and the Vasillias behind her in their car. Nebula grabs her radio and she turns it on.

“Guys! I need help!” Nebula calls, completely unaware that the rest of her team are dead. She only hears static coming from the other side and then she groans with anger, until a distorted voice appears over the radio, speaking directly to her.

“Agent Violette, what is the issue?” The metallic distorted voice questions, the same one that was heard speaking to the Spy...it’s the Trinity Marshall. Her eyes widen when she hears his voice, her voice trembling with fear, and then she answers as she realises that Neptune has begun to open fire at her now, not the grenades she was throwing to deter them.

“I’m in pursuit; your Mercs didn’t kill them!” Nebula exclaims as she drives as best as she can through the traffic. There is silence from the other end for a couple moments, until the Trinity Marshall responds to her.

“Understood, reinforcements in the area have been informed.” The Trinity Marshall assures, and then the radio feed is cut off. She looks at it and then throws it into the passenger seat next to her, keeping her eyes on the road. Winter grits her teeth, squeezing the steering wheel hard as she pursues, until suddenly...one of the buildings explodes. The gates to the building are blown off as a group of Armoured Acolytes of Lien Trucks burst from them, soldiers inside, one of them has a mounted machine gun that could utterly shred their car to pieces. Winter groans with frustration when she sees the colour scheme on the trucks as they drive towards them, smashing cars out of the way and into other lanes, creating accidents. One of the cars smashes into another so hard that the front is sheered clean off by the other, tyres squealing as they spin and flip across the road. Chunks of metal broken off, tumbling across the road.

“Of course there are more of them!” Winter yells with anger, as if she is playing a video game as well as she strikes the horn of the car.

“Of course there are! It’s Vacuo!” Weiss exclaims to her as they keep on chasing after Nebula. Neptune jumps back into the car when he notices the trucks charging towards them, sliding across the seats. He smashes one of the windows of the car and he aims through the gap that he has made.

“Hey! This is a rental!” Winter shouts and he looks at her with a perplexed expression.

“You stole it!” Neptune argues.

“I borrowed it; I fully intend to give it back!” Winter replies.

“To be honest, I highly doubt this car will be in the best condition after this. We don’t tend to have the best track record.” Weiss remembers, thinking back to Mistral and how they lost three cars in a matter of moments. All while Yang was driving as well, so that’s saying something. The truck narrowly misses them, drifting round and then chasing after them from behind. Neptune aims at the truck behind them and he pulls the trigger, firing a round towards it. The blue bullet ricochet’s off the armour plating as they continue to pursue them.

“Damn it! Those trucks are too armoured!” Neptune calls back, after his damage assessment he just experienced. The soldiers fire their guns at them as well from the safety of their armoured truck. Neptune leans out the window and shouts at them. “Go away!” Weiss rolls her eyes and then she opens her door, holding onto it as she points Myrtenaster at the car, forming a Glyph underneath the suspension. Weiss yells, swinging her sword upwards and the glyph blasts energy straight into the suspension. The suspension snaps underneath the body of the truck, causing the huge armoured vehicle to take off into the air and flip, crashing down onto its roof, scraping across the ground and smashing into the concrete barrier. Neptune looks at her and he smiles, utterly smitten to her. “I love you.” He claims and she winks.

“Save the flirting for later, please?” Winter groans, chasing after Nebula, she is still being protected by the other trucks, they must have been in waiting anyway. Nebula looks back at them and then at a construction site to their left. It appears to be the construction of a supermarket, lots of vehicles and cranes still working away even at night to build it. Nebula grins and then turns sharply, bouncing across the road and then smashing through a wooden barrier to stop people from driving in.

Not very well as it appears.

Weiss watches her and the trucks heading into that area. “She isn’t going into the construction site, is she?” Weiss asks, and then Winter turns as well, chasing her into the area. Weiss sighs with annoyance at her persistence. “Oh gods...” Weiss groans as they enter the construction site. They drive across the muddy terrain that they build upon, Nebula drifts across the off-road area, just narrowly missing a crane that has a couple of huge metal pipes attached, only just scratching the paintjob. The workers yell at them, like they are hooligans being stupid in this area.

“Hey! Get out of here, numb nuts!” The worker wails, and Neptune chuckles.

“Someone’s not very happy.” He comments, still holding on and Weiss has to look back at him, noticing something.

“Put your seatbelt on!” She orders.

“Huh?” Neptune questions.

“Do it!” She repeats, like she is his mother instead of lover.

“Okay, mom.” He sarcastically says, clipping it over his waist. A good thing too, because this terrain is not going to be very forgiving either. He looks back to see a less armoured truck with less soldiers inside, one of them stands on the roof and then jumps, slamming his blade into the roof to hang on. Neptune’s eyes widen with shock as the blade just misses his head, hooked on and he starts to shout. “Hey! Get off our car!” He yells, pushing the barrel of his rifle against the ceiling of the car. He pulls the trigger and the soldier grunts with pain as the bullet burns straight through his sternum. The body of the man slumps of the car and then tumbles into the ground, covered in mud as he lays there, bleeding into the floor.

The car begins to swerve towards them, trying to spin them out or even push them into the incomplete buildings. Winter grunts as she feels the car jolting from the impacts of the Acolytes of Lien car slamming into their rear-end. She then spots an opportunity, she smiles when she notices it, and she pushes against the side of the other car, sparks scraping off the cars as they collide. Winter looks ahead at a huge girder that is not attached to a crane yet on the ground. She waits and waits, the other two keep their heads down as the soldiers fire their Submachine Guns at them to try and kill them.

Winter pulls away swiftly; the driver of the car screams with terror as the girder skewers the whole car, lifting its wheels off the ground and protrudes out the back window. The windows shatter into thousands of shards that land in the mud and the metal body crumples up into itself. “That had to hurt!” Neptune laughs as he holds on still, the car drifts round the makeshift supermarket, chasing her inside of the building that is still underway. The workers stagger out the way of Nebula and Winter’s cars, whilst the much bigger Mercenary Trucks drive around the building for they would never be able to fit inside there. Nebula looks back at them as Neptune shoots at her tyres, but it is a hard shot to make when she moves around like that. She takes out another grenade and throws it at them.

“Leave me alone!” She yells, and Neptune manages to blow it up before it could actually kill them in the car. They drive through the fireball, and then she smashes through the window that was just set up by the workers. The guy who just finished throws his hands up in the air with anger.

“Come on, man!” He yells with defeat.

Nebula’s car lands back into the mud, and she drives up a hill, returning back to the easy-to-drive-on road surface. They shadow her from behind, keeping in pace with her car. They drive across the city, this area does not look as run down as the area they were in earlier, more modern, but still pretty small in comparison to Vale and Mistral. She keeps driving and then the other trucks keep up with them as well. Neptune looks at them and then he kicks open the door again. He keeps firing Trishula at the truck, energised projectiles just marking the doors that the soldiers inside are hiding behind.

“What kind of weapons are in this thing?” Neptune asks them, a pretty dumb question.

“What? It’s a civilian vehicle, it has a speedometer!” Winter responds.

“Of all the cars we could have taken...” He sighs, and then they see Nebula driving straight for a huge Eighteen Wheeler on the carriageway. She laughs as she throws a grenade into one of its wheels. The wheel explodes and the truck flips over, the metal bending and groaning as it flips over and crashes down into the tarmac with force. The truck scrapes across the ground, sparks bleeding as it slides towards them. Weiss pushes herself back into the chair with concern, holding the sides of the chair.

“Truck...” Weiss calls out as it gets closer. Winter does not swerve.

“I know.” Winter calmly responds, and it gets closer and closer, smashing cars out of the way, including one of the less armoured Mercenary Cars as well. The poor vehicle is practically blown to pieces, like it was made of glass. The engine of the car explodes.

“Truck!” Weiss screams with fear as they are about to have a head-on collision. Then Winter turns, just narrowly missing the truck as the horn blares past them.

“I know!” Winter shouts as well, copying her sister. Weiss squeaks with shock at how close Winter left that, that could have been one nasty accident, as if it weren’t already. She then hears Neptune laughing with pure joy at this epic chase they are having. She looks back at him with a confused look.

“You’re enjoying this?” She questions.

“Oh yeah, this is too good!” He cheers.

That’s Neptune Vasillias, the man who could find something fun in pretty much anything.

Weiss sighs and she looks forward again. “Of course I’m the most mature person here.” She sighs. Winter keeps up with Nebula who keeps on driving as fast as she can, and then one of the Armoured Trucks gets closer and closer. Neptune stares at it and his eyebrows furrow when he stares at it.

“I’ve had enough of that truck.” He says with annoyance, he opens the door yet again and then transforms Trishula back into Trident Form. He jumps out of the car and Weiss has to double take when she realises he is no longer in the car with them.

“Neptune! What are you thinking, you dunce?” Weiss exclaims angrily after noticing him slamming the three blades of Trishula into the bonnet. They just puncture the hull of the truck and he holds on, nearly falling off the side as he hangs on. The door then opens as he swings past it, the soldier inside goes to shoot him but Neptune kicks both feet into the door. The door closes onto the soldier so hard that it knocks him out, and he falls into the road, getting hit by multiple cars.

“Ouch!” Neptune exclaims. The Huntsman throws himself back onto the car and he channels electricity through his entire body and into his weapon, sending volts bursting into the car and overloading the battery of the car. The battery explodes and then the truck flips over whilst he is on it. He throws himself off the truck, then lands on another one as the vehicle lands and rolls off into the road, smashing into a building. The windows of the building shatter and the wreck of the truck is left behind. The last vehicle has a soldier that tries to throw a grenade at their car.

He catches the grenade and then throws it into the soldier’s lap. Neptune stands there and sticks his thumb up at the soldier with a smirk, and Winter drives close to him as he jumps for them. He grabs onto the roof of the car just in time, Winter pulls away from the truck. The soldier looks up at the others with defeat in his face. “That’s not fair.” He mumbles. The grenade explodes inside the truck, and since it is so thickly built up with armour, the explosion is muffled to a faint bang inside. The flash ends the soldiers inside and it slows to a halt. Neptune clambers back inside and he closes the door.

“Did you know that was gonna work?” Weiss asks him.

“Nope!” Neptune responds and Winter laughs.

“I knew I liked you for a reason, Neptune.” Winter laughs, now it is just them and Nebula. She gets closer and closer to her car. She is now driving on the wrong road, and hence another truck tries to swerve out of the way. The huge truck smashes into the barrier and is thrown up in the air, crashing down towards them. Weiss turns to see that and she screams with shock.

“Truck!” She screams again.

“Again?” Winter questions as she manages to swerve out of the huge vehicle’s way. Nebula, however did not do so has well, clipping the side of the truck so bad that one of the wheels has been broken off. The car swerves out of control, into oncoming traffic in the other lane. Nebula screams as the windscreen shatters and the car is thrown straight into a park. The car flips and then lands on its roof, smoke pours from the bonnet as it lies there, along with a lot of fuel spilling from the filler cap. They saw the whole crash, it would be impressive if she even survived that, and they pull up near the area where she crashed.

Her door launches off as she kicks it open, and she rolls out of her car. She presses her hand to her side, blood leaking out and her head is pounding with pain. Nebula picks up her Crossbow and weakly stands back up, wheezing with pain. She also connects an earpiece to the Trinity Marshall. “I’ve crashed in the city; I’m at a Restaurant called Myriad...get me some damn backup.” She demands with a strained voice, limping towards the restaurant, still got the pictures on her person.

Winter opens her car door, and then looks at the state of the car. She looks at Weiss after examining it. “See? Like nothing happened.” Winter says as she looks at it, Weiss however does not see what she sees. Weiss sees a lot of paint scraped off, bullet holes and shattered windows. Alongside some dents.

“Well...by our standards, that is pretty good.” Neptune says, resting Trishula on his shoulder. They both leave the scratched up and muddy car, and they approach the crash site of Nebula’s car, fire dances upon the burst open bonnet where the vehicle had crashed. Smoke rising high in the sky after the incident, broken glass scattered all over the place. Winter crouches down when she spots the trail of blood leaving the wreckage of her car. She then turns to the others who are with her. Weiss plants her hand on her hip as she looks at the crash.

“She was injured, bleeding heavily. She couldn’t have gone very far.” Winter says to them, standing up and walking across the way, where the trail of blood takes them. Weiss follows her sister, keeping her eyes on the area, they both know that she is not about to go down without a fight. All three have their weapons drawn; Weiss stays pretty close to Neptune. They know that she could have reinforcements on their way to find her. They pass by tables with people happily eating and drinking, they did not seem to even notice the crash not far from where they are.

Winter looks at the crimson stains and she looks forward, her eyes focus onto Nebula as she tries to get away from them. She limps past one of the tables and they all aim their weapon at her, Neptune transforms Trishula into its Rifle Form. He looks through the iron sights at her as she tries to get away. “Stop, Nebula! It’s over; you’ve got nowhere left to run.” Weiss shouts, the people sat at their tables gasp when they see the Hunters stood there, weapons at the ready.

Nebula stops and she scoffs, looking at one of the waitresses, a pretty woman with long pink hair. She turns around and then lunges for her. “Hey, sweetheart! Wanna give me a hand?” Nebula asks her, grabbing her and using her as a meat shield. The three of them act a lot more careful now, for she has now turned this into a hostage situation. “What’s your name, sweetheart?” Nebula asks her with a smirk.

“Sky-Skyler...” She stammers, she has a soft and kind voice, feeling her push the blade against her throat. She is not afraid to cut her jugular open and spray her blood all over the floor in front of them. And Skyler can sense that from the way she is speaking, all confident despite having nowhere left to run.

“Skyler? What a pretty name...” Nebula whispers to her with a smirk. “So Skyler, you’re my new partner in crime, why don’t you tell those three over there that you wanna live?” Nebula requests softly, terrifying Skyler to her core. Skyler slowly looks at the three Hunters across from her, still aiming at Nebula, despite the hostage being there.

“Please...” Skyler whimpers fearfully. Weiss grits her teeth with anger when she stares at her; she hates it when innocent civilians get caught into the crossfire like this. But she then calms down, and aims to resolve this peacefully.

“We’re gonna get you out of here, Skyler.” Weiss promises.

“Oh yeah? You really think it will be as simple as using some loving words to save her life?” Nebula questions with a sinister smirk, unlike the others she is the most unhinged of Team N.D.G.O, the others were just following her orders. And now they are dead because of her as well, all because of working for the Trinity Marshall. She pushes the blade of her Transformable Crossbow closer to her neck, actually starting to cut the skin and draw blood as well. Skyler begins to sob, tears stream from her terrified eyes, and there is nothing that any of the civilians can do to save her from Nebula. “All you had to do was walk away...now it gets ugly.” Nebula states with squinted angry eyes and gritted teeth.

“Please...I have a son.” Skyler stammers fearfully, and Nebula smirks when she hears Skyler mention a son. She looks directly at Neptune for what she says next.

“A son? Oh, that is just so precious...how old is he?” Nebula asks her with that cunning smirk.

“Tw-Twelve...” Skyler responds, voice breaking.

“Oh, they are just the cutest little things, aren’t they? Children...I hope he gets to see you again, Skyler, I’ve heard that it’s just awful when children lose a parent. Scars them for life.” She says, staring directly at Neptune and he scowls at her, gritting his teeth with anger when she mentions his parents like that.

“I’m gonna kill you, Nebula.” Weiss threatens. But then Neptune looks at her, and sooths her.

“It’s okay, Weiss. We’ll handle this – the usual way.” Neptune promises as he aims at Nebula.

“You want Skyler’s baby boy to live without his mommy, Neptune?” Nebula scoffs, then she pushes it further, ready to slit her throat at a moment’s notice. “Weapons on the ground, all of you. Otherwise I will paint the floor red with her blood.” Nebula threatens. Neptune chuckles at her when he says that, and Winter looks behind Nebula and she slowly begins to form one of her Beowulves. She could do it faster, but she cannot do that without giving herself away.

“Is that all you’ve got for us, Neb?” Neptune questions and she raises a brow.

“What?” Nebula questions.

“You really think a hostage is gonna save you? How many lives do you think we sacrificed to save Ruby? To stop Salem on the Volcanic Chain Isles? I can tell you exactly how many. Six hundred and fifty seven lives. Three hundred and twenty three Faunus, three hundred and twenty four human lives. All sacrificed, alongside an Atlesian Ship as well.” Neptune explains and she narrows her eyes as she stares at him. “So go ahead, if you think that’s gonna stop us.” He scoffs, she then takes the blade away from Skyler’s throat and transforms. The pieces shift and connect into the form of her Crossbow, loading a fresh bolt into the chamber to fire at them.

“You’re bluffing.” Nebula states, not buying his speech.

“You think?” Neptune questions.

“Yeah.” Nebula adds with a firm nod. He then sees the Beowulf is fully formed and he smiles.

“Yeah I guess I am.” He sighs, and the Beowulf charges, grabbing Nebula and throwing her into one of the pools. She yells, until there is a splash. Skyler falls to the deck with a scream, running to the others. The Beowulf fades away, it was only a temporary one at best.

Suddenly Nebula leaps from the water and she holds her sword in her hand, and then what appears to be some form of cosmic energy passes through her arm. Like the dust from a nebula, her semblance seems to be some form of dust attack. The dust ignites into flames and her eyes glow bright as she emerges from the water. The dust also lifts the water up, she is essentially a form of elemental. The water rises around her and she stands tall, her wound healed now that her Aura has fully regenerated.

“Everyone get out of here!” Winter shouts, and everyone screams, fleeing from their tables to escape. Nebula roars as she points at them, the water blasts straight for the three Hunters, knocking them over and then pulling them towards her. She rushes towards Neptune and slashes towards him in the water that carried him. He manages to transform Trishula just in time, her blade scrapes across the body of his weapon, and then he kicks her in the chest. He falls from the water, his hair soaked, just like Weiss and Winter. He rolls back just in time as she slams down towards him, lodging her blade into the ground. She spins round and stops the blade of Myrtenaster from even touching her. Sparks burst from the impact, and then she blasts flames from her hand as the dust ignites around her. Weiss forms a Glyph to protect herself from the flames that were just formed, but Nebula kicks her in the head and sends her tumbling back. She senses Winter approaching and then blasts wind from her hand, knocking Winter backwards.

Neptune stands back up and looks at Weiss. “What the hell? Is she able to manifest Dust?” Neptune questions, but when Weiss takes a closer look, it is not dust, it is a field of energy that can transform into one of the three elements at a time. Water, Fire and Wind.

“No...her semblance is the Elements, like Dew has, but she can use all of them.” Weiss explains, and Nebula turns to them with her sword in her hand, pacing back and forth with a mad look in her eyes. She points the long blade of her sword straight at them as she walks back and forth.

“Come at me, Schnees!” Nebula challenges with a roar, channelling her semblance across her body. Weiss looks at Neptune and then he nods, he charges his electrical energy across his body and then blasts it straight at her, and she gets hit in the chest. The lightning crackles across her body and she grunts, smashing into the ground. Winter sprints directly at Nebula, jumping and spinning round as she slashes down at her. Nebula lifts her blade upwards and stops the attack, creating one powerful shockwave in the attack. Winter grabs Nebula by her collar and with all her might, she swings round and throws her into a statue. The statue cracks and she falls from it with a grunt, pushing her hands into the ground as she lands. She immediately blasts fire from her hand towards her, and Winter moves swiftly to avoid the attack.

Weiss darts towards her and she forms a Glyph that can protect her from the flames, a barrier that she pushes against the flames with. The fire wraps around her sphere of energy, and then she slams Myrtenaster into her chest. The impact is a powerful bang, causing her to stagger back. She then twirls round and slashes her across the aura, flickers of purple flashing from her body as she fights her. Neptune jumps and thrusts forward with Trishula in Trident Form, going for the impale. Until Nebula coats her blade with flames and spins round, fire trailing from it as she attacks them. Neptune is launched back and then Nebula jumps high in the air, slamming both feet down into his chest. She immediately goes to stab Weiss in the belly, but Winter jumps and stops her blade with both of hers. Winter kicks her in the chest in order to get her away from her baby sister, and she slashes constantly towards Nebula, cutting her aura down in multiple swings. Nebula jumps back and then shifts her sword into Crossbow Form, aiming it directly at them and firing. The bolt travels straight towards Winter and she swings towards it.

Her blade slices clean through the bolt, cutting it in half and both halves fly off in opposite directions. She forms a glyph behind her feet as she jumps and launches like a rocket towards Nebula. She slashes towards her with a yell, and Nebula grunts, knocked off her feet from the attack. She is not faring well, until she stands back up, frost forms on her arm and she blasts a blizzard into Winter. Winter yelps, the icy cold is not something that is alien to her, but the impact of all that compacted ice still hurts. She turns and deflects Weiss’ blade as she goes to attack her, backing up as she continues to make her strikes, over and over again. Sparks burst from the impacts of two blades smashing against one another. Nebula growls, reaching forth and grabbing Weiss by her long tail of white hair. She swings the yelling girl around and slams her head into the same statue she was thrown into. Her aura protected her, but that still hurt.

She turns as Neptune tackles her to the ground and he stamps down on her wrist. “Stop, Nebula! This does not have to end in bloodshed!” He shouts and she scoffs.

“It always ends that way!” She shouts, wrapping her legs around his neck as she pulls him off her body and then smashes him into the ground. She instantly goes to stab him with her sword, but he blasts lightning into her chest, and she falls into the water. She screams with agony as the electricity cooks her and they can see her skeleton in the flashes in her body. Her body spasms as he electrocutes her over and over again.

Her aura is completely diminished after that, and she stumbles from the water and steam trails from her body. She falls to one knee with pain and keeps moving towards Weiss. Weiss stands firm, pointing Myrtenaster at her. “Stop.” Weiss orders and she immediately aims her Crossbow at Weiss’ head. She knows she will die either way, and she goes to take the shot.

“No!” She howls. Weiss darts towards her, narrowly avoiding the bolt and she strikes Nebula and she flies into the sky. Weiss uses her glyph beneath her feet to shoot up with her and she floats above her. She pulls her arm back and then forms another glyph above her. She pushes against it and falls down towards her. She yells with anger and anguish as the blade of Myrtenaster plunges into her stomach, blood squirting from the puncture. She continues to yell with anguish as she carries them both towards the ground, and Weiss slams her into the wooden deck with all her might. The wood around them cracks with the almighty impact, and Nebula groans with pain, still alive, but dying now. Blood pours from the wound that Weiss inflicted and she pulls the blade from her stomach.

“Damn it, Nebula...why did you do it? Why couldn’t you just let us take you alive?” Weiss questions with anger, and Nebula just spits blood onto the floor. She looks straight at Weiss as Winter approaches them. Nebula scoffs at Weiss as she looks up at her.

“You would never understand, Princess...” Nebula snarls with what sounds like envy in her voice.

“Try me.” Weiss says, and Nebula slowly scowls at Weiss who stands there with her weapon in her hand. She can see her own blood dripping from the tip of her sword and she scoffs, looking straight into her large blue eyes.

“You were born...in the King’s Bedroom of Schnee Manor, been given everything you ever wanted...had all the money...all the food...everything you ever asked for...you had.” Nebula weakly says with disgust in her voice, and Weiss looks away, since she does not even understand the half of it. Everything Weiss was ever given, always had some sort of hook for her father’s long term plan for his own victory. “But have you ever had to experience what it is like to be _hungry_?” Nebula questions through gritted teeth. Winter approaches Nebula and crouches down, searching through her pockets for the picture, then finds it in her breast pocket. Winter sighs with relief.

“Thank the gods...” Winter sighs as she stands up and walks away, not even giving Nebula a second look. Neptune stands up and he walks over to Weiss, looking down at her as she lays there.

“You can’t win...” Nebula whispers and they look at her.

“Who says we can’t?” Neptune scoffs with a shrug.

“The Trinity Marshall? He has more power than you could even realise...and he will take your heads as trophies.” Nebula promises with a laugh.

“Who is he?” Weiss questions and she smirks, and pulls out her scroll, letting it slide towards them on the floor. Weiss looks at it and then at her.

“Ask...him yourself.” She scoffs as she looks at them.

Weiss crouches down and picks it up, looking at it. The bloodstain of her fingerprint is upon the screen as she holds it and then she looks at her. “This didn’t have to end this way, Nebula.” Weiss says with a sad tone of voice, and Nebula scoffs.

“Of course it was going to...the business of a Huntress and Huntsman never ends in a bed...it ends in a battlefield.” Nebula explains and Weiss scoffs when she says that.

“Is that why you betrayed us? Killed the Headmaster?” Weiss presumes, guessing that she or one of them was the murderer. Nebula laughs and shakes her head when she suggests something so stupid.

“You think I’d sell out Headmaster Theodore? Go to hell, the man was insane, sure...but he was our leader. Gave use pieces of crap a place to live, and the Trinity Marshall gave us damn good intel that saved countless lives here at Vacuo. So if the Marshall would need some certain individuals to disappear every now and then as payment? Sure, why not? Not like anybody would miss those guys.” Nebula explains, revealing that she was not the murderer after all...and her reasons for what she did as well.

“Huntresses and Huntsmen don’t blow up buildings filled with innocent people, hold innocents hostage to save their own skin!” Weiss argues with anger towards Nebula. Nebula scoffs at Weiss when she says that.

“Sure we do. We do the dirty jobs so then politicians don’t have to, they might now agree with all of our methods most of the time, but they never look too closely. Eases their consciences at night.” Nebula explains, and sounding very wise in what she says as well. Her eyes then narrow when she glares at Weiss.

“Besides...you’re a Schnee...you know what your family has done?” She states with anger in her eyes. Weiss walks over to her and crouches down beside her.

“I know what my father has done, same with my company. But it doesn’t matter.” Weiss states, since she wants to keep her mind on the more important thing at hand. _Why the Acolytes of Lien are back in full strength, and where the Knights of Grimm have vanished to?_

“I think it does.” Nebula states with wide eyes. “You wanna judge me? Look in the mirror sweetie...enslaving Faunus to work in Dust Mines that could explode at any moment? Stealing shares and profits from other businesses? Killing shareholders who ask questions? And you’re one of them?” Nebula lists and scoffs. “Don’t you dare judge me...” Nebula states. Her voice becomes weaker as she fights to stay conscious, to stay alive to get one more message out there to Weiss.

“Don’t...you...judge...” She weakly says, before her voice fades away and her eyes close, head lumping down to the side...her heart beat coming to an end. Weiss closes her eyes mournfully at the death of Nebula Violette...

...but she brought it upon herself.

“I’m sorry.” Weiss softly says as she stands up, still holding her scroll in her hand. She walks away from her body and Neptune walks with her.

“Hey, don’t let what she said go to your head.” Neptune gently says to her as he touches her hand kindly.

“I – I know...but she wasn’t wrong.” She says, and Neptune stops as he watches her walk over to an area to set that down. She opens the scroll and sees the contact pending.

T.M

The Trinity Marshall, he must be expecting a report from Nebula...now they can give him a proper surprise. She sets the scroll down and then answers the pending call, stepping back. Winter stands there with her arms crossed and Neptune stands right beside his girlfriend. They wait and wait for a response.

Then the call is answered, a holographic live feed of the man behind the name forms before them...their eyes widen at the revelation as he stands there.

He has gray-white hair and a pale complexion. He has a large gray moustache, and his eyes are a cold blue colour. He is seen wearing a pure white double-breasted jacket with a red handkerchief in the breast pocket, underneath which he wears a blue shirt and vest and a gray-white tie, printed with the same emblem on his shoes. He has a silver-coloured ring on his right hand. He holds a small glass of whiskey in his hand and he smiles when he sees her, the ice cubes clink against one another as he moves the glass. “Weiss...” Jacques Schnee greets with his smirk, and Weiss steps back with disbelief at this.

“You...” Weiss gasps with shock and he chuckles, Winter’s eyes widen as well.

“Shocked? I don’t blame you, it has been fun playing as the Trinity Marshall for a while now.” Jacques Schnee says to her, looking proud as always, and then the shock fades and is replaced with hatred for the man. Weiss clenches her hand into a fist as she stares at him where he stands. “But...I guess that time is over.” Jacques says with a smirk and Neptune’s eye twitches with anger. He has heard about the things he did to her in her childhood, the abuse, the humiliation...all for his own gain. Enough for him to despise the man for what he did to his beloved girlfriend.

“What hell are you up to, father?” Weiss questions, and he looks at her, his smile visible through his moustache.

“My dear, I am doing what I have always done.” He says to her.

“Oh yeah? And what was that?” She questions, and then he looks directly at her.

“Control.” He states.

He is still on this quest to control the Faunus and the Grimm by the looks of things, which must mean that Merlot is still a part of this game as well.

“How long have you been playing this role for?” Winter scoffs and then he looks at her.

“Oh for quite some time, you would be surprised of how much you can gain with the help of some mercenaries. They are able to accomplish many things, spy on other business, acquire resources that the company needs...” He lists as he walks around the area.

“Assassinate Headmasters?” Neptune questions and then he looks at her.

“Ah...I see your boyfriend seems to have grown up a little bit, my dear.” Jacques says as he looks at Neptune, and he grits his teeth with anger as he speaks to him. The hologram walks away from where the scroll lays, but the projection continues to carry. He walks around Neptune and looks at him, looking at how he has grown up, Neptune watches him as he circles him.

“Answer us. The death of the Vacuo Headmaster – you laced that bounty on his head, didn’t you?” Weiss questions with a stern look and then he stops, the hologram walking through Neptune. He walks towards Weiss and looks straight down at her with his glass in his hand. He takes a swig before answering.

“Oh, how I would love to take the responsibility for that. But my partnership invoked that he was more Self-Destructive than to bother having an assassination take place.” He explains, and reveals that whoever did it could not have done it on his orders. Weiss scoffs, not believing it.

“Oh yeah? Then how do you explain that attack? Those mercenaries slaughtered innocent civilians in droves to get to us.” Weiss states, and then he looks at her.

“Sacrifices must be made for the greater good, you of all people should know that after what happened on those islands, Weiss.” Jacques explains.

“That was different, they weren’t innocents. They signed up and knew what was waiting ahead of them on those islands. They killed hundreds of innocents.” Winter states with anger, thinking of the huge explosion.

“Don’t you get it, old man? They are your daughters, not some puppets for you to control.” Neptune snarls as he stands behind him.

“A nice way to think of it, Neptune Vasillias...but a naive one. As I said, people have better use than you imagine. Take the Faunus for example, I have put them to work mining countless shards of dust for our business. The one that gave you a warm home to live in.” He states as he looks at his two daughters that stand there. “Some people have worth, others do not and can be sacrificed with no real consequences.” He explains and Weiss scoffs as she shakes her head.

“You were always cruel but this is very new for you.” Weiss states as she stares at him.

“Cruel has always been a matter of perspective, Weiss. Is a Lion cruel for killing a Gazelle?” He asks her and she stares at him with narrowed eyes. “No, it is doing what it does for survival.”

“But killing innocents? What kind of survival is that?” Winter questions.

“To capture you, of course...” He says.

“If you didn’t kill the Headmaster, then how the hell did you know we would come? Seemed like the perfect bait.” Neptune says, with his arms crossed.

“I have eyes and ears everywhere in Vacuo, son. Do you really think it would go unnoticed that the Headmaster was killed? Once he was killed, I knew you would come to investigate it.” Jacques reveals, meaning he is definitely not the one behind it. The man is a cheat and a liar, but he does sound very serious about what he says here, for it makes perfect sense.

Weiss walks towards the hologram of him that stands there and she stares straight into his holographic eyes. “I will stop you.” Weiss assures and he smiles.

“There is a change coming, Weiss...one that is coming very soon, and I intend to be a part of it. Enjoy your time together while possible, Weiss and Neptune, for you won’t have it forever.” He says.

Jacques Schnee walks away and the hologram dissipates away, and the call comes to a close, leaving them there, looking at where he just left them.

The Trinity Marshall’s identity is revealed.

Jacques Schnee has returned from hiding.


	16. Consequences

**Qrow**

“What now?” Raven asks him as they walk through the woods of Vale, they have returned to the huge structure where they found Ozpin. It looks exactly the same, nothing has really changed on it. Taiyang crouches down, examining the area whilst Raven walks with her brother. None of them know about what Ruby did to Dew at this moment, otherwise they would have teleported themselves there.

“We figure out where she went, the Spring Maiden left us this mark.” Qrow explains, planting his hand on his hip. Taiyang stands up and looks at Raven after he notices something in the stone. Something rather peculiar, and yet familiar when he sees it.

“Hey, guys. I think I’ve got something.” Taiyang tells them.

“What’ve you got?” Raven asks him, she jogs over to him and stands beside him. She and Qrow both look at the print on the ground. It is a large hoof print, very similar to that of the Nuckelavee, it is massive. It managed to actually crack the stone ground that it trod across. It leads off into the woods, one hoof at a time, and it is next to the Spring Maiden’s insignia on the stone. The Wreath of Flowers.

“I don’t know about you, but that was not there when we got Ozpin.” Taiyang points out, looking straight at it. And he is right, there was no other signs of anybody here other than the Spring Maiden’s insignia on the stone brick only a couple feet away from it. This was very recent, perhaps an hour ago at the most. Raven crouches down and slides her hand across the mark to see just for certain. The ground is still soft, and warm from a hoof moving across it. She turns to them with her calculation of how old these prints must be.

“This must be forty minutes old, max.” Raven estimates with a shrug.

“Those...things?” Qrow asks her, and she nods.

“The Riders.” Taiyang calls them, until they know their real title, that is the one he has chosen for them. Raven stands up, looking down at the mark on the ground.

“How do you know that they can track you through the usage of your teleports?” Qrow asks her, and she holds her Odachi up as she lets the sunlight gleam across it.

“Everywhere I teleported to, they would show up there only moments later. They can sense it somehow, and they kill anything in their path.” Raven explains, remembering the inhuman screeches that came from them, the burning hot eyes that stared her down as they pursued her. She seems pretty shook up from it all.

“How many of your bandits did you lose?” Taiyang asks her, crossing his arms as he leans against the stones behind him. She sighs, touching her head as she thinks back to that day.

“I opened a portal to Vale, on that clue we were following...it was fine for a while...” She explains as she remembers. “There were ten of us, I was the only one to get out alive when they appeared. The air turned cold when they arrived, and they wiped them out. Cut them all down, I could hear their screams as they were taken. They did not just kill them, they wounded them and stole them. I don’t know where they are now...it’s easier to think that they’re dead.” Raven explains, sounding more shaken when she speaks on it. Raven does not get easily shaken by things, but these things have scared her deeply.

“How did you get out?” Qrow asks her, and she looks at him.

“Our gift was my saviour. I shifted into my Raven Form and I flew away from them, leaving them to die...that was when I found that tavern and I sent the message. I knew we had to talk, after I was given that picture.” She explains. Taiyang holds his hand, then caresses her cheek to calm her down, for these _Riders_ really have her scared.

And as they should have them all scared.

“Well...it looks like they are hunting the Spring Maiden down as well. It’s possible they could have thought that your portal was her.” Taiyang points out and the Branwen Twins look at him with a surprised expression.

“How so?” Qrow asks him.

“Well, remember what Kragen told us a couple years ago? The Maidens all have an ability to open portals like you can with your sword, they just do it with magic. What if she has been using her portals to move around, and they have been relying on that to find her?” Taiyang explains as he looks at the two of them. His theory is correct, the Maidens are capable of opening portals due to the feats of magic that they are given. But the big question still remains.

“Why are they hunting them?” Qrow wonders, and that leaves them pondering, until when Raven walks along, her heart nearly stops when she sees the print in the soil. She gasps, having to crouch down to get a better look at it. They both stand beside her, and their eyes widen as well.

The ground is charred from the constant contact of fire being pressed against the soil. The grass reduced to ashes, and the trees around it have been burned, leaving a path, until they all vanish completely. “Fury.” Qrow confirms after identifying that boot print, just like his feet. Fury is essentially the body of an ancient knight that is constantly aflame and made from molten metal and pumice. His mouth is the grill of the ancient knight helmet, all jagged and molten.

He is definitely up to something, which means the others must be returning back to the world as well. “They just vanished, all of the tracks end there.” Raven explains as she points the long red blade of the Odachi towards the distance where all of the tracks just vanish off the face of Remnant.

“Well, if she did teleport...where did she go?” Taiyang sighs, and Qrow thinks and thinks. They have to be smart about this, Remnant is a big place. But if she wants to be found by the good people, then it must be somewhere that she recognised. She was at one place that they have reclaimed...

“What about Mistral? If she’s looking for us, going to the places that are being repaired is a good place to go. And with the amount of Huntsmen and Huntresses in the Kingdom, helping the repairs...” Qrow suggests, thinking of the idea in his head as he goes. Raven rubs the back of her head, and her eyes widen when she thinks on that.

“Sienna Khan...” She gasps when the idea comes to fruition in her head.

“What about her?” Taiyang questions, raised brow as he looks at her.

“Sienna has a large force of soldiers there, and lots of spies that can get us the information. She could give us a clue, she did become an Information Broker after all.” Raven explains. Sienna Khan did indeed choose to become an Information Broker alongside leading the White Fang, she gets information from her many sources to help keep the New White Fang alive and well, and she handles the negotiations with Humanity. Human-Faunus Relations are still getting better, Mistral and Vale tend to be more accepting after everything they did to help, more so Mistral since they helped destroy Beacon. But Atlas still has massive pull against them, and peace is slowly growing, apart from the Albain Brothers’ Cause creating havoc everywhere they go.

“And the White Fang are stationed there, in the lower regions of the Mountains. Only the city centre was destroyed, the other areas were practically untouched when the Kingdom fell.” Taiyang agrees, and they both turn to Qrow.

“How do you propose we get there in time? We can’t fly there, Taiyang can’t transform.” Qrow explains.

Raven sighs and looks at her sword. “If she teleported there...and the Riders followed there, we would have heard about it. And even if they did get there and we heard nothing, then we would have to help stop them.” Raven explains, sounding very hesitant to do it though. Especially what happened last time she used her portals.

“Are you sure about this?” Taiyang asks her.

“I don’t think we have a choice.” Raven sighs, scratching the back of her head.

“Okay...do it.” Qrow agrees with a firm nod, and she slashes her sword to the side, the red portal forms and they enter it, it closes behind them both.

**Oscar**

Ruby is sat down on a bench, emotionlessly cleaning Dew’s claret from the sharp blade of Crescent Rose. She does not even look bothered by what just happened, the callous murder that she just committed. Yang stands beside Oscar as they both look at her, worry flowing in their eyes. Yang’s hands are shaking as they stand there, staring at the girl. “She just...killed her...butchered her...” Yang stammers fearfully, unable to look away from Ruby. She remembers the girl that she used to be, the one that would swallow an entire plate of cookies faster than she could even blink, Yang was always amazed at how Ruby never got chubby from the amount of cookies she ate.

But what she has become? Tyrian has left a worse mark than they could have feared, because only he would gave committed a crime as horrifically bloody as that. She has wiped the blood off her face, but Dew’s blood is still splattered onto her neck and her outfit in places. Oscar turns and looks at Yang with concerned eyes. “It must be the affects of her P.T.S.D.” He suggests, looking at her, hoping that what she did was not down to her doing it with the full intention of doing so.

“I don’t know, Oscar...I told her that we could knock Dew out, capture her...but...” Yang explains, she is struggling to simply speak at the horror that she witnessed. There was so much blood, Dew could not even scream from how fast it happened. Oscar turns to the two bodies that have been zipped up into some body bags. Sun and Blake are on their way, they have been informed of what happened here.

“This isn’t good...a lot of people saw what happened here.” Oscar states. He turns and looks at some of the people that are stood outside of the building with Scrolls in their hands. Some of them recorded what happened, it is likely already on the net. Yang looks at them too, she can sense the dread in the air. They do not know that they were on the enemy’s side, and they are on the good. All they have seen is a young girl butcher another huntress in cold blood when she could have been captured.

“We need to be careful, Oscar.” Yang says to him, crossing her arms as she leans against the wall, turning back to Ruby where she sits. Continuing to care for her blade, and he looks at her as well.

“I’m gonna talk to her.” He says, and he walks towards her. Yang catches his wrist, stopping him in his tracks, he turns and looks at her.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Yang asks him, her voice trembling as she speaks. Oscar raises his eyebrow and stares at her with disbelief.

“Are you scared of her?” Oscar asks her, and Yang stammers, letting go of him and crossing her arms again.

“I...” She nervously says, and then he scoffs at her fear of her own sister.

“She’s your sister.” Oscar says to Yang.

“I know she is – I’m not scared of _her_ , I’m scared of what’s _inside_ of her. Because that...that was not my sister that did that.” Yang clarifies, and he looks at her again. He looks at Yang and he nods, walking towards Ruby. Oscar approaches her and then gently touches her shoulder, she jolts when she feels the warm presence of his hand upon her. She turns with a clenched fist, staring up at him, and he holds his hand towards her to calm her.

“It’s okay...” Oscar promises, sitting down beside her. She relaxes and opens her fist back up, returning to look down at her blade. Not only has she shown no emotion after killing Dew like that, she has also said nothing, nothing since she yelled – _Damn You! You traitors!_ She has remained dead silent since then, and he holds the hand that holds the blood soaked cloth. Her blade is as clean as it will ever get, and she does release the cloth when he goes for it. He takes the cloth to her bucket and then squeezes the blood out from it, and soaks it with fresh water. “Come here.” He whispers affectionately, gently dabbing her neck where the blood still stains her. He kindly wipes the blood from her neck to clean her up, she does not even move or speak while he does it. He sighs, looking at her. “Will you please say something?” He asks her, and Ruby looks at him with a scoff that follows after their eyes meet.

“What do you want me to say, Oscar?” She asks him, the first thing she has said since. Clearly she knows that she killed her, so perhaps it was an effect of something that clouded her vision, not possessing her to do it out of her control. She definitely chose to kill Dew the way she did, if it was just a stab it would be understandable...but Ruby does not ever butcher people the way she did.

“What happened?” Oscar asks her softly, still holding her hand as he cleans the blood off her neck. She grabs his wrist, not tight or aggressively, just to stop him so then he focuses and listens to her.

“I...” She nervously says, he can feel her trembling as she tries to speak up about what happened. “I didn’t...I don’t know. It all went red...I just felt the urge to just...kill her.” Ruby explains, feeling very guilty for what she did. She knows what she did, and she knows that she cannot undo it.

But in some way, this does make Oscar feel a lot better about the situation, knowing that it actually was not her. At least he knows that this is a problem – problems can be solved. Most of the time, anyway. “Well, thank you for telling me that. I can see that you’re – struggling with this.” He says to her, but Ruby shakes her head, releasing his hand and she lets him clean the blood from her neck and her clothes.

Yang stands there, watching and she turns when she hears Blake and Sun walking over to her from behind. She turns and looks at them, Sun looks ahead at Ruby and then at Yang. “What happened?” Sun asks her. Yang steps aside and they look at the two body bags, the ones that contain Dew and Octavia.

“Couldn’t capture them either?” Blake asks her.

“Well, Oscar accidentally killed Octavia. He hit her and her aura broke, she landed and broke her neck on the fall.” Yang explains, and Blake flinches at the sight of that. A tragic way to die, from simply an accident. She may have been their enemy, but she was still a young woman.

“And Dew?” Sun asks.

Yang shudders when she thinks back, remembering how Ruby dashed towards her, cutting her arm off with ease and slicing both of her legs off in one swing. “Ruby...killed her.” Yang says, and Sun looks confused.

“Why are you so shook up? Weiss said she killed Nebula, Oscar killed Octavia. What’s so bad about her?” Sun asks her, and Yang shakes her head.

“It’s not Dew that worries me. It’s Ruby...we were going to capture her, but she...butchered Dew. Cut her pieces...” Yang explains, shocked, and their eyes widen. Blake gasps, looking at Ruby with confusion and then at Yang.

“Is it her P.T.S.D?” She asks and she shrugs.

“I dunno...in a weird way...I hope so...then we know it wasn’t her.” Yang states, she sighs and looks at Sun again. “What happened to Gwen?” Yang asks him with a raised eyebrow. He looks at Blake and he rubs his shoulder nervously.

“We managed to incapacitate her, we were trying to get answers from her...but...” Sun explains.

“Neo was there, she shot her in the head before she could tell us who the Trinity Marshall is.” Blake explains, completely unaware that Weiss has found out who he is. It is Jacques Schnee.

“Neo?” Yang asks fearfully. “You’re sure?”

“Pink and Brown hair, could recognise her a mile away. It was her.” Sun confirms.

“Crap...that makes the situation a little more complicated.” She sighs.

Whilst they converse, Ruby speaks to Oscar about their situation.

“What happened – happened...nothing we can do to change that.” Ruby explains and Oscar sits there and he chuckles.

“Well...maybe I could...” He suggests. She looks at him with a confused expression, then he holds his palm clock up before her. Her eye widens and she looks at him with a curious expression.

“You think you can...change the past?” She asks him and he shrugs his shoulders.

“I dunno, but I’m curious to find out.” He says.

He has been learning how to travel through time, originally he would have to time it with luck, but the clock he has built into his right gauntlet helps him stop at a certain time. It also has the date built into it as well, changing constantly. It helps him decide when he wants to travel to, either forwards in time or backwards. He holds her hand, since he has also learned how to take her with him. If he holds someone when using his abilities, he can let them walk with him in his realm.

He is about to do it...until he sees something that shocks him. His eyes widen with disbelief. Even Ozpin catches onto it as well. “Oscar...be on your guard.” He warns, but they both notice it there. Ruby looks confused and she follows his eyes to see what he is looking at.

Sat on the throne where the Headmaster once sat is a tiny Green Hummingbird.

The very same one he saw back in Arkhonex, the Volcanic Chain Isles, and even Jaune saw the Hummingbird in Vale on their search for Pyrrha. It is undoubtedly the same one, and it looks directly at him. It takes off and starts to flutter away, and Oscar stands up as he walks after it. Ruby gets up to follow him. “Oscar? What is it?” She asks him, following him into the room in the side. There is an office inside, where that Hummingbird flew off to.

“That was the same bird, I’ve seen it a couple times now.” Oscar explains, looking around.

“What? Why is that so surprising? It’s just a bird.” Ruby states, shrugging her shoulders.

“Look where we are, Ruby. How many Hummingbirds do you see in a desert?” Oscar asks her, and he has a very good point as well.

“Okay, that’s weird, sure...but what makes the bird so impor-” Ruby asks, until the tones of her voice stretch out over a paused moment in time. The fabric of time suddenly freezes with an almighty bang and he can still hear the tone of her voice playing endlessly before him. That was not him that did that, either. He looks around and then goes to unfreeze her, an ability he has learned to use.

But then...

“Don’t.” The distorted, metallic voice demands. He stops and slowly takes his hand away from his dear girlfriend. He slowly turns around, seeing him stood in that room.

The Entity of Time.

The man made of cogs and metal, glowing green light emanating from within the armour itself. The cogs do not move until he moves himself, each rotating around as he walks around, holding his staff in his armoured hand as he walks, his sinister green eyes focused on him as he stands at the end of his desk. Oscar has not seen this being since he was taken by him to Arkhonex, this is the first time they have met since then. “I wish to speak to you alone.” Time states, stood there with his staff in his hand. Oscar walks towards him and he crosses his arms.

“Alright...what do you want to talk about?” Oscar asks him, looking right at it. Time looks at him, then at the chairs. He grabs one, shards of broken time fracturing upon contact with the chair in the stuttered moment in time itself. He pulls the chair out from the table and he sits down in it, leaning his staff against the table. He gestures to the chair for Oscar.

“Take a seat.” He offers, and Oscar does so. He pulls the chair from the table and sits down opposite to Time. Time looks at Oscar’s makeshift device on his hand, the gauntlet that he and Ruby made together. “I see you have taken inspiration from my own craftsmanship?” He says as he holds up his own one. Far more intricate than the one that Oscar has made, his is only a metal gauntlet with a clock and Vault-Style number system on it. The time is not ticking on his hand. Oscar lifts his hand, looking at the clock and then at him.

“It’s pretty helpful.” He admits.

“Indeed, helps us Travellers learn how to control our abilities, target a certain time that we wish to travel to.” Time explains, gesturing to him as he explains. He then reaches over and holds him by his wrist, not aggressively, just enough so then he can observe it. He chuckles behind the cogs that his mouth has been made from. The head, it represents a human beings head, but the cogs move just like a human face was. He smiles when he looks at the clock. “Impressive...for a first attempt. You will improve as time goes on.” He assures and Oscar squints his eyes as he looks at him.

“I haven’t seen you since you took me to Arkhonex...what are you gonna do this time? Take me there again to make sure something happens?” Oscar questions, and Time chuckles at the idea of doing that.

“Tempting offer, but no. The course of events has already been set in motion, there is no stopping it.” He explains.

“Of course it can be.” Oscar states with a shrug. “If you go to the past, you can change so many things. If I went back in time now, and I warned Summer and Qrow that Death would be there and his bad luck would get her killed, they wouldn’t have gone.” Oscar explains, offering his theory on how he thinks Time works. But he is not this Traveller...he seems to have been doing this for a very long time. To the point where he must know how it works like the back of his hand.

Time sighs, leaning back into the chair as he sits there, the glowing green eyes look down at the floor and he sighs. Breath emerges from the mouth made of cogs, and then he looks back at the boy. “I’ve been to the past...to the future...I have been travelling through time my entire life. I was born at the Shivering Dominion, where it would all end.” Time explains, and he sighs, scratching the cogs on the back of his neck. “I saw my parents, everything around me frozen in time forever. Never dying, just left in that moment. I could not understand it, and I still do not. That is what I strive to learn.” He explains, and Oscar listens very carefully to what he has to say.

It has become very clear that he must be delivering some form of warning to Oscar about how Time works. So he listens to this warning carefully. “I’ve tried to change things, undo mistakes I made, others made, tried to stop the wars from happening. Tried to kill Dictators that would kill millions of lives.” He lists as he thinks about them all. “I thought the same thing as you, at first...I thought that time was malleable.” He sighs, but he shakes his head. “But it doesn’t work that way, everything I ever try to do always comes back to the same event that happens in the first place. Time is simply one closed loop, whatever happens is always meant to happen.” He explains, Oscar listens to his voice and he can hear the truth behind his voice.

Oscar sits there, stuttering as he tries to think on what he is speaking about. Shards like glass of frozen time float around them as they converse, whereas Ruby is still stood there, unknowingly frozen in a single moment of time. “B-But surely that some things can be changed. Like what if I went to Nicholas Schnee? Warned him about what Jacques would do to the company?” Oscar asks him, but he shakes his head.

“Time is a fixed loop, if you went there, nothing would change. It would simply create the very same events that would have you lead up to this very moment.” Time explains, looking right at him as he speaks. “And no matter what we do, the Shivering Dominion will come.” Time assures, sounding very certain of his statements as well. Oscar shudders whenever he mentions that place – the Shivering Dominion – the world encased in ice, where time has ceased to continue forever. Even the Grimm were running scared when the end was coming, running with Humans and the Faunus.

“No. I don’t believe you, you’re wrong.” Oscar denies, shaking his head with disbelief at the whole lecture that Time is giving him. The Traveller stares at Oscar and he sighs through cogged lips.

“I can assure you, that I know this to be true. My memory...it is a blur, so many events merging into one at times...” He explains, waving his hand around as he thinks about it with a sigh. “Except for one moment...one I shall never forget.” He explains, and then looks at him in his hazel coloured eyes. “When I was first ever sent back, I did not choose to, it happened by accident. Essentially a wish I made, I was sent all the way back to the time of Arkhonex. When I was there, I was alone, and I was walking around on my own.” He explains, reminiscing what happened, and Oscar listens intently.

“There was this – vagrant, I think – he did not belong there. He was lost, just like me, and I saw him fall off a building...to his death.” Time explains, and Oscar’s eyes widen when he explains. “It shocked me...terrified me to my core, and it was the first thing I wanted to change when I grew up...learned how to use my gifts. As soon as I arrived back at that time, I saw myself...I did not see me...but I saw myself walking down that path. I tried to change it, tried to stop him from committing suicide.” Time explains.

Time sighs, looking right at Oscar. “When I got to him on the roof – my presence startled him, he jolted and fell off the roof. And landed right in front of me, just as before. I thought I could save him...but I was the one that caused him to fall all along, I just never saw myself there.” Time explains, and Oscar gasps with shock. His description of what happened has perfectly explained what he means by Time being a Closed Loop. “You cannot change the past, trust me I have tried countless times. I tried to save him so many times. I jumped to save him once, still couldn’t. He fell through me instead, I tried to stop time around him so I could save him...the bubble burst because it cannot happen.” Time defines, and Oscar looks down at the table, feeling so weak despite the power he wields. “Do you understand, Oscar? The past _cannot_ be changed. But the present can be _guided_ where necessary.” Time states, and Oscar looks at him as he says that.

Time wants to help him, to make sure that he will do the right thing. “You talk to me...like you want to help me...so why did you stop Kragen from getting to that Visionary Book in Vacuo five years ago?” Oscar questions, leaning forward towards Time as he looks at him, clenching his hand into a fist. Time looks down at the table, then looks back at him.

“Because you needed that information for me to get you to that time for everything to happen the way it does.” He says.

“Then what about the Soothsayer?” Oscar questions, the air becoming cold when he mentions Vir Nominis Umbra like that. Time’s eyes flit back and forth as he searches for an answer.

“I have been trying to understand him my whole life – his existence is extremely important. The outcome of his motives is unknown.” Time states, and Oscar squints his eyes at him as he stares.

“Whose side are you on?” Oscar questions.

“I told you – I am on the side of Time. It must run its course, I have tried to find a way to stop the Dominion from coming my whole life...” Time explains. “It cannot be stopped, all I can afford to do now...is make sure that it gets there.” Time states. Oscar scoffs at his answer.

“So what? You’ve just given up?” Oscar questions and Time stands up, picking his staff back up. He spins it through his mechanical fingers, the spherical glowing orb built upon the head glows bright with energy trailing from it.

“I tried – and I failed. Now I serve.” He says, turning and walking away from him. Oscar stands up, staring at him as he is about to leave.

“Who are you?” He calls, and Time stops, turning to look at him.

“You will learn my true name some day...I can promise you that.” He assures.

Suddenly the crack of time erupts again, the shards connect back together, and Time has vanished. The Green Hummingbird hovers where he was stood, flying away from him and Ruby. He hears Ruby in the distance. “-tant?” Ruby finishes as time resumes, she looks around with a confused look on her face. One moment Oscar was stood right in front of her, and then he vanished instantaneously. “Oscar?” She calls out, Oscar watches the Hummingbird as it flies away.

Time _is_ the Hummingbird...after all this time.

He sighs, and then walks out of the study, and she sees him and sighs with relief. She walks towards him and puts her hand on her hip. “What just happened?” Ruby questions with confusion. Oscar opens his palm, seeing the feather of the Hummingbird, somehow in his hand. He holds it close, sighing.

“He showed himself again.” Oscar tells her.

“Who did?” Ruby asks.

“Time.” He answers.

“That guy made of clockwork?” Ruby questions.

“Yeah, he must have heard our conversation about going back and stopping you from killing Dew. He told me it wasn’t possible.” Oscar says to her and she looks quite upset. But he clenches his hand into a fist. “But I intend to prove him wrong.” He assures, whether or not his theory is right...is yet to be seen.

“Wait...what about the birdie?” Ruby asks him curiously. Oscar smiles and he holds her hand, placing the tiny green feather into her palm. She holds it and looks at him.

“It was him.” He answers.

 

**Pyrrha**

The doors to her office open and Glynda’s eyes widen with joy. She stands up with a gasp, seeing Pyrrha with Jaune. Jaune stands close to her as the two of them walk towards her, she wears her Onyx Phantom Painted Armour still, unable to change that since her old ones have been burned to dust in her old home that the Mistraalians destroyed. But Glynda is just happy to see her again, and not with orange eyes. “Pyrrha!” Glynda happily says with joy as she stands up, a bright smile on her face as she approaches. Pyrrha stands there, and she sees something...a memory that flashes before her eyes.

She sees the same office, the daytime sky turned black as night. The whole place has been blown apart, the distant screeches of the Grimm Dragon echo in the distance. She can feel the residual energy of the cold autumn air upon her skin that she experienced that night. Like flashes of lightning, she sees her grinning face, drawing the bow back. “Do you believe in destiny?” She hears herself asking in the past as it echoes endlessly.

“Yes.” Cinder answered, then as soon as the bow fires, her mind returns to the present. She jolts when she remembers, and Glynda notices. But she does not choose to comment on it, she can most likely understand the reaction of seeing this office again. Since she did get killed inside of it nearly six years ago at this point. Glynda walks towards Pyrrha and gently embraces her, Pyrrha’s eyes widen with confusion, since some of her memories that surround the Headmaster’s Assistant were mainly of intimidation. She was kind, but not one to mess around with if you annoyed her. Of course, Glynda was always very fond of Pyrrha, she has always been a precious little thing, and would always respect others no matter who they are. Enough for Glynda to have never yelled at her, unlike Nora. But Glynda is just happy to see Pyrrha again, and Jaune smiles when he sees Pyrrha slowly hugging her as well.

Glynda looks at Jaune with a smile. “Who would have thought this day would come?” Glynda says happily, remembering when she spoke ill of Jaune when she and Ozpin observed them in the Emerald Forest on their Initiation Day. She turns and walks back to her table, and the pair follow her. Pyrrha still walks slowly, acting as vulnerable as ever. After the horrors she experienced in the mysterious Charred Forest, anybody would be cautious of every step that they took. “So, I have lots of questions on my mind, but I don’t wish to ask about most of them. I feel like you would not want to answer, so to start with – how have you been?” Glynda asks her with a smile, and Pyrrha touches her long red hair gently.

“I...I am still trying to remember who I am...” Pyrrha shyly says, and she looks at Jaune for clarification on what that means.

“Her mind is damaged, her memories are all still in there. She just needs to piece everything back together.” Jaune explains, gesturing to the side of his own head as he describes the state of her mind. Glynda’s eyes turn to Pyrrha’s, kindness clearly seeming to glow within her irises as she looks at her.

“How much do you remember, dear?” Glynda asks her, she stammers as she thinks on it, scratching the back of her head. She still has not tied her hair into the ponytail that she always used to have, she still does not believe she is Pyrrha yet. Her hair is along and wavy, she looks beautiful when she lets her hair down like that.

“Well...I don’t remember much of my childhood...but I remember a lot from the school, but there are still a lot of holes.” She explains, and how warm it feels to Glynda that she remembers her time at Beacon more than her own childhood. But even then, it makes her feel for the poor girl. Clearly she must have had a rather lonely childhood if Beacon was the most defining part, apart from her death of course.

“What about the Dance?” Glynda asks her, and Pyrrha struggles, rubbing her head as she tries to remember it. One of the happiest memories she has, but it is clear that the bad ones have plagued her mind so much that she is struggling to remember some of the good things that happened.

“I...” She struggles, and Jaune kindly places his hand on her shoulder, she looks at him when he does it.

“It’s okay, it’ll come back to you eventually.” He assures.

“Was it important?” She asks Glynda, the Professor’s eyes turn to Jaune and she sighs.

“It was the happiest I’ve ever seen you.” Glynda says to her, and Pyrrha looks almost guilty for being unable to remember that one. She looks right at Jaune, but he smiles. He does not blame her for her memory loss, it would be cruel for him to do that, he is just happy to see her again. “But, as you may have noticed, Beacon is still being rebuilt. Most of it is fixed, and in a couple months time the school will officially be back in session for everyone. Some students are returning...not many though.” She sighs as she thinks on it.

“Why did they...burn posters of me?” Pyrrha asks with confusion, very clear that she remembers that very well from when she went to Mistral after escaping the Volcanic Chain Isles. Glynda was not there for that, however, and she looks at Jaune, and he sighs. He was there, he remembers the Fall of Mistral very well, the way that Watts and Fury turned the city against itself was almost masterful. They should be applauded for their work.

“Arthur Watts and Fury. They used your fame and turned the people of Mistral against each other, creating ideas that you were a monster. None of it was true, he was just feeding lies with the rage that Fury fed them as well. It led to the destruction of the whole city.” Jaune explains and Pyrrha gasps with horror. She clearly does not remember any of this, which must mean then that it could not have possibly been her that was the Onyx Phantom at that time. It could have only been Neo that was the one, she must have created an illusion to Ruby when she _stopped_ her bullet in its path.

Because she vanished as soon as the bullet continued to fly off, must have used it as a way to escape Ruby at the time. “We will offer any help you need, Pyrrha. I promise you, it is an honour to have you back home with us.” Glynda says to her with a smile. Jaune smiles and nods, the two of them turn and leave Glynda in peace as they enter the elevator. The doors close and it proceeds to move down Beacon Tower. Pyrrha stands there inside of the Elevator, holding her arm shyly, not even looking at Jaune. He looks at her and he sighs, touching her hand.

“It’s okay. You’re safe here, he can’t touch you.” Jaune promises, guessing that it is Vir Nominis Umbra that is on her mind. Who else could it be? He did torture her for months and months on end until she broke. Her answer gives him the chills.

“Nowhere is safe from him.” She assures, as the elevator continues to move down the tower.

 

**Weiss**

Winter stands there, looking over the pictures she recovered from Nebula. Some Huntsmen arrived, and they do recognise them. It seems that they did not betray the school like they did, as Brawnz from Team B.R.N.Z walks over to her with a report. Roy and Nolan are carrying the body bag that contains Nebula off to safety where she can be dealt with. “What happened?” Brawnz asks her with a concerned voice.

“They were working for the Trinity Marshall, they didn’t kill the Headmaster...but tried to kill my sister and I.” Weiss explains, and Brawnz sighs, scratching the back of his neck as he thinks about them.

“I can’t believe it...N.D.G.O...I had a crush on all of them for ages, I never thought they’d...” He sighs as he stands there, and Weiss looks at her sister who is so focused on those pictures that she was hunting Nebula down for. They know that it is based around the Knights, and the others need to see it. But she still has not said anything to Weiss about what happened, has not checked if she is okay or not. Weiss sighs, looking at Brawnz.

“Neither did we, I thought they were trustworthy. Stupid of me, huh?” She scoffs. Brawnz gently pats her back.

“Don’t worry, we’ll handle this.” He assures, walking over to the crime scene to figure out what to do next. Weiss sighs, walking towards her sister and she stands beside her. Weiss plants her hand on her hip and glares at her sister. Winter looks at her with a confused expression at the angered look on her face.

“What?” Winter asks.

“You chased after Nebula without a second look.” Weiss points out and she sighs.

“Oh come on, Weiss. If a couple of Mercenaries were gonna kill you, you would be a failure to our name.” Winter sarcastically says and Weiss shakes her head. Winter stops and looks at her.

“Is that it?” She scoffs.

“Is what it?” Winter replies.

“I haven’t seen you in nearly a year, Winter. There’s time to talk.” Weiss says to her, and Winter sighs.

“About what?” Winter questions.

“Where have you been? You disappeared after helping Qrow and the others search for the Spring Maiden and I haven’t heard from you even through scroll in that long. What were you doing that whole time?” Weiss questions. Weiss crosses her arms as she asks her big sister all these questions, and Winter groans, pressing some of her fingers to the side of her head, like a princess would.

“Weiss...” Winter softly says.

“Oh, let me guess – _classified_?” She questions, and Winter sharply looks at her sister.

“Now you hold on a second, I never told you some of the things I did when you were younger because it would have made you terrified of me. Don’t you dare try and think I give a damn about Atlesian or Political Security. They are the reasons for our suffering in our lives.” Winter explains, since she could tell that Weiss was gonna try and claim that Winter only cares about her career in the military. But her statement just then has proved that Winter has always cared for her sister, and every secret was for her benefit.

“Well, I’m not a kid anymore. So tell me.” Weiss demands and Winter chuckles.

“You never change, always so demanding.” Winter chuckles, holding the pictures in her hand. She holds the pictures out to Weiss, and she takes them gently and politely. Weiss turns it around, her large blue eyes widen with shock from what she sees. The sight of Fury scares her, and that she spoke to Loss literally moments before...it is proving that they are still around. And they are up to something.

“Fury...” Weiss softly says from recognition. Winter looks at Neptune and gestures to him to walk over. The fact she is letting him in on this as well before the others are here is amazing as well. It really shows how much she has accepted him as her boyfriend now. He jogs over and Weiss shows him the picture.

“Oh goddamn it...I was hoping to never see him again.” He sighs, remembering Berserk Fury at the end of the battle. He was one tough monstrosity to take down.

“When was this taken?” Weiss asks her sister.

“Around four days ago, an Atlesian Spy managed to track his movements down. Those pictures were taken moments before Fury killed him. They are up to something, and I don’t know what that is. But we need to get everyone together to see this. And eventually, we need to go find Kragen and the Silver Eyed Warriors.” Winter explains.

“If anyone knows the Knights the best, it’s Kragen.” Neptune agrees.

Weiss lowers the pictures, unable to get that conversation she had with Loss out of her mind. The fact that she only came there to talk with Weiss instead of fight was something that showed how unique she is compared to the other three. She still has control over her abilities, the curse that keeps their souls bound to this world has not fully clouded her vision. But it forces her to kill. She sighs, then decides to reveal this fact. “I...spoke to her.” Weiss quietly tells them, not wanting to accidentally involve Team B.R.N.Z. They may say they are on their side, but so did Team N.D.G.O and they are all now going to be buried into the dunes.

“You spoke to who?” Winter asks her and she sighs again.

“Starla Schnee.” She answers, and they both step back with shock. They get the sense of sorrow within them, but they do not see her. Nobody is aware that she is there, though. The Knight of Loss stands behind a wall with her hands held together. The tears constantly streaming from her eyes as she stands there, so close as she listens to the descendants of her family name.

“She was there? When?” Winter asks fearfully.

“Just when you went back inside, Neptune.” Weiss informs, looking at her boyfriend, and he remembers when he left her on the balcony for a moment. Nobody knew that Loss was there as well, she must have just formed then.

“She was there the whole time?” Neptune asks with shock. And Starla touches her long white hair as she listens to them speak, she seems to deeply care for them all. Wanting them to be happy, like some Guardian Angel, but her curse will force her to fight them, whether she likes it or not.

“No, I think she just appeared when you left to talk to me.” Weiss assures and he sighs with relief. The last thing he wants is to be suspicious of a Knight always being there when he does not expect it.

“What did she talk to you about? Did she attack you?” Winter asks, becoming a defensive older sister again. Weiss shakes her head.

“No, she didn’t want to. She only wanted to talk to me.” Weiss confirms, surprising both of them.

“A Knight...wanted to... _talk_?” Neptune questions, not sounding as convinced.

“Well it was all she did...she isn’t like the others. She even said that she is unique, her curse does not turn her into a monster like it did the others. But whenever we see her fight, it is not out of choice. It is like the curse forces her to, I don’t think she wants any of this...its possible the others are the same.” Weiss explains.

“Yeah, the way Fear fights and talks...I don’t know about that.” Neptune says.

“I think his curse makes him that way. But she...she gave me a warning.” Weiss explains, catching their attention.

“Warning? What did she say?” Winter asks curiously.

“Starla told me – _Something terrible is coming Weiss, something that will kill many lives here...get out of here while you still can._ And she told me to never lie, never betray... _you._ ” Weiss explains, looking at her precious boyfriend.

“That lies bring only pain.” Weiss concludes, remembering it all very well. Neptune smiles and he walks close to her, letting her wrap her arms around him. Starla stands there, and she closes her eyes with a smile of what looks like happiness. A tear streams down her cheek, and she transforms into her Mourning Bird Form, fluttering gently away from the scene. But Winter is stuck onto the warning, that something terrible is coming and will kill many.

“What do you think she meant?” Winter asks her.

“I don’t know...but I think the Acolytes and my father might have something to do with it.” Weiss states her theory.

All Starla can hope for, is that they can stop it, and hopefully free the four of them from the curse that binds them to Remnant. So then no more lives are taken by them when they truly do not wish for it.

Not at all.

 

**Qrow**

The red portal closes behind them as they emerge. Qrow looks around as they return to Mistral, and it is no longer completely abandoned. The Mountainous City is now crawling with people, all conversing. Construction Crews working away to repair the buildings and Haven Academy is slowly bring rebuilt where it once stood after plummeting down into the depths of the mountains themselves. The destruction to this place was catastrophic, it really was. Some civilians stop what they are doing and they look at the three Hunters with shock in their eyes when they see them stood there, appearing out of a Portal. “Well, it doesn’t look like they followed her here.” Taiyang shrugs. Qrow sighs and he turns to the lower parts of the city.

“Come on, follow me.” Qrow tells them, starting to walk down the thousands of steps through the mountains to find where Sienna Khan’s Base of Operations has been built. People walk past them and Taiyang chuckles when he looks at this place.

“Incredible.” He says, getting their attention as they walk past the many people here.

“What is?” Raven asks him.

“Only five years ago, this Kingdom was practically wiped off the map. Civilians fled for miles, thousands were killed here. So much destruction.” Taiyang explains, and he sees a young couple walking past, the mother holding a tiny baby in her arms. He smiles when he sees all the life around him. “And here they are.” He says with amazement.

“Well, I guess anything can be rebuilt, given time and money.” Raven states as they follow Qrow down the steps.

“Imagine if the Arkhoni could have done the same?” Taiyang says, with a chuckle in his statement. How they could wish to see their cities in full strength back then, the envy that they feel for Oscar and how he can see what it used to be like in those times. The tallest towers, cities that stretched for miles, and none required walls or natural defences, because they learned how to control the Grimm for their own purposes.

Until they couldn’t.

And now they are just a reminder of how small mankind truly is compared to the Brother of Darkness’ Creations. They walk down the steps towards a large door in one of the mountains, a pair of White Fang stand at the entrance with rifles in their hands. They do not wear the masks anymore, unless they want to. They wear armour and have their hoods pulled up, the mark of the White Fang is blue and white instead of red and white. One of the guards holds his hand out, he is an Elk Faunus from the antlers that stick from his head. “Halt, state your business.” He demands.

“We’re here to talk to Sienna Khan. Tell her Qrow, Raven and Taiyang are here.” Qrow says and the soldier does so through his radio to her.

“Ma’am, I have a Qrow, Raven and Taiyang here to speak to you.” He reports.

“Let them through, I will grant them an audience.” Sienna accepts, and the soldier nods, standing down and opening the door for them. The three of them enter and they walk down the steps to the large room that stands before them. There are many more ways to other areas, but the largest room is a huge hall with torches lit on the wall, the flags of the Fang hanging above. There are four White Fang Honour Guards stood behind her.

They see the middle aged Tiger Faunus sat in her throne, her leg crossed and her large eyes looking at them. She has orange eyes, dark complexion and wild black, chin length hair with an asymmetrical bob style. Her Faunus trait manifests as an extra pair of ears, and her body is adorned with numerous tattoos resembling tiger stripes. She wears golden earrings on all four of her ears, as well as a small red jewel on her forehead.

She is seen dressed with a form fitting black dress with light green accents on the rims of the outfit; the dress left most of her back open, has two long splits on the side which reveals a pair of black shorts, a shorter split in the front and a small squared keyhole. Over the dress she wears a back revealing red cape with gold accents, as well as a green waist cincher with red rims that has a black belt over it, which fastens a green pouch on her right hip. Aside from that, she wears black stockings in conjunction with green sandals that has red laces which are tied to her calves, as well as a black elbow length fingerless glove on her right hand.

Sienna smiles when she sees the three humans approaching, an expression she would not normally express towards humans in the past. But so much has changed, relations between Humans and Faunus are indeed improving, especially in Mistral for they have been a huge help in restoring the Kingdom to its former glory. Things are improving in Vale, but Atlas is a big issue, whereas Vacuo has never really taken sides in any agenda. The three of them crouch and bow their heads to her, despite she would never ask them to, for they have played a big part in helping the image of the Faunus improve, despite the Splinter Group led by the Albain Brothers. “A pleasure to see the three of you again.” Sienna kindly says.

Qrow looks up and the three of them rise. “The same to you, it seems things at Mistral have been going smoothly?” He presumes, after seeing how much of the damage has been repaired.

“Indeed, our people have become very respected and trusted here. Although the Albain Brothers have been a spot of bother for a while now. I heard that Adam is still at Beacon, interrogating Mazen?” She asks them.

“Yeah, he’s still there.” Qrow confirms, they did not see him their personally. But they still know about it anyway.

“So, what is it that has brought you here?” Sienna asks them, taking a seat again.

Qrow looks at his team and then at her. He takes the picture of the Spring Maiden’s Wreath of Flowers and he walks towards her with it. “We have been following the Spring Maiden’s trail for a while now, and we know this is her symbol. We think she is being hunted, and wants us to find her eventually. We need to find her, have any of your spies seen anything?” Qrow asks her, and she looks at the Wreath of Flowers.

“I have seen this symbol, but not recently. Although there are a number of sources around here that could help, but not in the city.” She warns, handing the picture back to him. Raven raises her brow.

“What do you mean?” She asks.

“Have you heard of the Witches of Mistral?” Sienna asks them, the title catches their attention and their eyes widen when they hear the name.

“The Witches?” Taiyang asks, walking with Raven as they approach her. She nods and she stands up, walking with them towards one of the rooms. Inside is a large map, specifically of Mistral. There are lots of areas marked and she points at one in particular.

_The Restless Marshlands_

“There’s a Swamp, not too far from here. It’s very dangerous, known to house lots of Grimm there. But in the centre of it all, are three Witches. They have been there longer than the Kingdom’s Creation, apparently. Folklore says that they are immortal beings that will help those in need, as long as they help them in return.”  Sienna explains, showing them where it is.

“We’re looking for a myth, you mean?” Raven questions.

“After everything we’ve seen? You expect this to be but a simple Myth?” She scoffs, and Raven tilts her head, having to agree with her logic in that.

“Can they be trusted?” Taiyang asks.

“They are ancient, and respect only their land. As long as you are just as respectful, they should be the ones to honour you in return. But a word to the wise? Do not trust them.” She advises.

Qrow nods, and they step outside of the room, she walks past and returns to her throne. “If I were you, I’d get moving.” She says.

“Good idea, the quicker we find these witches, the better.” Qrow agrees with a nod.

 

**Glynda**

She sits there in the office, until she hears the sensors of Beacon going off on her computer. Her eyes widen when she sees it, and she turns around in her chair. Her eyes narrow, a full scale force of Atlesian Airships and Bullheads are coming straight for them, and this was without warning as well. Usually they would send a message for it in the first place. This is no check-up on how things are going, this is not good for anyone. Outside of her office, Jaune looks through the windows. He sees the Bullheads landing down in the courtyard, Atlesian Soldiers and Knights jump down from the ship and they begin to search the area.

One of the soldiers holds up a student, and he holds his hands above his head fearfully. One of the soldiers holds a picture and his eyes widen. “Have you seen these people?” The soldier demands, and on the paper are photographs of Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc. Both with the word _Wanted_ written in red above. They are paying a hefty bounty for their capture as well, it is in the millions.

The Student, however, has not seen them today and he shakes his head. Kassius stands outside, watching them as they start to search around, Airships scanning the area and one of them walks towards him. He slowly clenches his cybernetic hand into a fist the closer he gets. “Have you seen these two?” The soldier asks as he holds the picture towards him. Kassius scoffs.

“This is just great.” Hyde sarcastically says in his head.

“No.” Kassius answers, swiftly knocking the soldier out in one swift punch. He retreats to cover, dragging the soldier behind so then he does not get spotted by the others. He starts to run back to where Jaune and Pyrrha are in their apartment. He sees Nora and Ren running that way as well.

Adam emerges from the cells, looking around as hears the Atlesian Vessels fly around to find them. He keeps his hand near the hilt of Wilt and Blush. Mazen looks at him from his cell. “See how they treat us...you know I’m right.” Mazen says. Adam slightly turns his head back at him, and then ignores him. But even he is getting the feeling that he might be right as well.

Glynda waits as one of the Bullheads lands outside of the Tower, and the cogs rotate faster and faster as the elevator gets closer to the top. Then the doors open, and she sees President Thaddeus Brimstone stood before her with his hands behind his back. She looks at him with a purely surprised expression when he enters. “President Brimstone, I must say I am surprised to see you here uninformed.” Glynda says to him as he walks inside, and he starts to touch the things inside of her office. He picks up a picture of her and Ozpin and he rubs the dust off the photograph. Glynda is respectful, but if there is one thing she cannot stand is when someone shows no respect towards her belongings. “So...to what do I owe –” Glynda does not even finish her sentence when he interrupts her.

“Cut the crap, sweetheart.” Thaddeus demands, his statement actually shocks her, her eyes widen and she raises her brow. She can be kind, but push her over the edge, and you will regret it.

Doesn’t matter if you are the President of Remnant or not.

She leans back into the chair and stares at him as he walks around the room. “Well, I must say it is nice what you have been doing here. Helping Penny Polendina repair her memory like this.” He says, Penny is outside as well. She looks around shyly as people she does not know are interrogating the students to find the two of them. She turns and sees Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck walking towards her.

“What’s going on?” She asks shyly.

“This isn’t right, you need to keep them safe.” Port tells her, and they speak to some of the soldiers to keep them distracted.

Thaddeus stands before her and he straightens his tie, looking down at her, quite sinisterly as well. But she is not intimidated by him in the slightest. He also has no idea that she has her scroll on her lap underneath the table. She texts Jaune an important message. _They’re coming for Pyrrha, get out of here._ “So, deary, I have been given some rather worrying information.” Thaddeus begins and Glynda can see straight through his bull.

Jaune receives the text message and he turns to Pyrrha, staying low to the ground. Then Kassius, Ren and Nora appear. “Come on!” They whisper, guiding them out of there. Adam hears his scroll vibrate and he has received a voice mail from Doctor Oobleck.

“Be ready to fight.” He tells him, and Adam smiles. He turns to his soldiers.

“You heard the man.” Adam says. The soldiers nod and ready their weapons as well.

Glynda watches his every move and she scoffs. “I’ve no idea of what you’re talking about.” Glynda tells him with a pair of pretty furious eyes.

“You see, I don’t believe that. You have always had a weak heart for you students, and I am beginning to believe that you are working against the higher cause to protect a fugitive.” Thaddeus explains.

“And just what would you want with her?” Glynda questions, looking up at him as he stands before her. Thaddeus smiles and chuckles.

“You’re trying to protect your students...that’s admirable. But I am trying to protect the world, from a terrorist who killed hundreds.” He states. “We have already had a taste of what that’s like and we are not going to tolerate a second one.” He says, sounding like he has blamed what happened to Mistral on her completely and not on the Knights of Grimm.

“What? You’re blaming Pyrrha for Mistral? That was the Knights of Grimm! You helped us in the battle!” She argues with disgust and he scoffs.

“Ah yes – these _Knights of Grimm_ – mere fairy tales that some children named some monstrous Creatures of Grimm. Ah I have dismissed that claim.” He says, and the disbelief blows through her at how he can seriously believe that statement. He really does not want to believe that they exist, the five years of not appearing has damaged people’s beliefs and he has become a full-of-himself idiot.

“Are you serious?” Glynda scoffs with disbelief.

“Very much so. Now, there is a version of this conversation, where my forces will take the suspects and leave. Nobody shall be harmed, and life as you know it, will go on.” Thaddeus assures as he stands there, and she narrows her eyes with anger towards him. “You have no idea of what you’re involved with here.” He says, then Glynda stands up from her chair to meet his eyes face to face with fury burning from her eyes.

“Really?” She calmly asks him as she takes off her glasses. “So what’s the other version of this conversation? Where you and your corrupt soldiers gun down innocent children?” She asks him, leaning closer as she whispers threateningly towards him, not about to betray her students. “Or are you gonna man up and do it yourself?” She questions, and Thaddeus smiles.

“What’s your preference?” He asks her, she scoffs and shakes her head.

“Try it.” She challenges.

“There will, be consequences.” He warns.

“Oh I’m sure there will be.” She responds. He glares at her.

“I’m going to ask you this once.” Thaddeus states.

“Where is Pyrrha Nikos?”

Oobleck’s thermos extends, fire belching from the other end and Port draws his Blunderbuss on the soldiers. Adam draws his blade, and they start the battle to help them flee.

“I don’t think so.” Glynda states when he sees the combat starting.

Nobody is selling her out.

No one.

She was taken once, not again.


	17. Atlesian Corruption

**Neo**

The silent girl sits on the floor with her legs crossed. Her long pink and brown hair gently caressing her shoulders. She holds her Umbrella in her hands, upgraded over the years, and she wears similar clothes to what her lover once wore. A pink and brown trench coat and an orange scarf around her neck. She has a scar across her cheek as well, something that they never noticed on her, like a knife was carved against her face by somebody. She touches her pink and brown skinny jeans and then her boots that she wears, made from leather. She also wears white gloves as well.

Neo looks directly at the projector in front of her that activates, light bursting out from the lens before them. The light forms a live image before her, but she does not stand. She was not expecting to see him, rather to see Jacques Schnee instead. But she sees his fashioned moustache and long white hair. His cybernetic eye looks at her and he puts his arms behind his back. It is Merlot, another foe that they have not seen since. “Hello, Neopolitan. I thought it would be just to check on you.” Merlot says to her, still carrying that proud accent of his. Neo looks at him, and then she just looks back down at the dusty floor in this dark room. He walks around the room, the projector turns so then his image can walk around. He observes the living conditions and then looks at her. “Why would you live here? Somebody as pretty as you deserves a nice place to sleep.” Merlot points out; Neo just gives him a cold look before staring at the floor again.

He crosses his arms again, looking down at the woman who can say so much with just a simple look with her big eyes. “I know you can’t speak, my dear...but the big question that rattles around in my head – is why?” He asks her, and she just looks at him again. He scratches the side of his head and sighs. “Do you just choose to not speak?” Merlot asks her with a shrug and she scoffs.

Neo shakes her head at him. Then he begins to contemplate further on why she does not speak. “Is it that you can’t speak, not that you don’t?” He asks her. Then Neo nods, still looking down at the floor. She takes her Umbrella and draws the long blade from it, and starts to scrape something into the floor. Slowly and carefully, the hand of an artist is very clear about her. Before she became an Assassin. “Did you lose it?” He asks her, and she nods as an answer. He is slowly beginning to understand her pain.

He steps closer and looks at what it is that she is drawing. He does not recognise it, but it means everything to Neo. “What is that supposed to mean?” He asks her. The symbol represents a pair of triangular eyes and a laughing mouth, like that of a Jack O’ Lantern. Jagged laughing teeth, it looks menacing to others...but not to her. She closes her eyes as a tear trickles from her eye, and she touches her heart as she exhales.

The symbol is the one that Torchwick always wore.

As she sits there, she falls into memory...

 

Six years prior...

The sun has fallen and the Fractured Moon floats above them. The screeches of Nevermores can be heard in the distance, and the water bursts as the young girl clambers out. She gasps for air, her hair drenched in water and it drips off her body. She carries her soaked through Umbrella with her and she coughs on the floor. She wipes the water off her face and rolls onto her back, looking over at the distance. The Dragon circles Beacon as it attacks the people. Dropping Grimm into the city. She then looks for the Atlesian Vessel, and her eyes widen with horror when she sees the fire bursting from the hull as it begins to fall down to the planet. She reaches into her outfit to find her Scroll, and she reaches her contact.

_Roman! Did you get off in time?_

She sends the message, watching the huge ship fall and she notices Ruby jumping from the vessel, using the recoil of Crescent Rose to soften her fall. She bounces up and down in the air as she falls, and lands somewhere nearby the school, escaping the crashing vessel. Her eyes are wide with worry, waiting for a response from Roman. She watches the text message feed intently, waiting for him to respond.

But nothing.

She sends another message.

_Roman? Come on, stop messing around!_

Still nothing, her heart pounds with grief after seeing the ship crashing into the city of Vale. The ship explodes into a cloud of fire, the blast echoes across the landscape. Chunks of metal engulfed with fire thrown into the air and crashing into the city below. Smoke rising into the night sky, polluting it all.

_Roman..._

She finally texted, and still no reply. She falls to her knees, broken and sobs towards the floor. She slams her fist into the floor as she weeps over the loss of her beloved. Her tears fall and hit the floor as she continues to cry and cry over his death. She pushes her hands through her hair, falling onto her back again as she sobs. Neo curls up into a ball as she cries where she landed, no Grimm around her, but her sadness would surely bring some there eventually. Neo stands back up, pushing the streams of tears from her face, and she turned and walked away.

She walked for months, never stopping. Her hair grew longer and longer as she walked for miles. Uncertain of where her life would take her, waiting to find some form of purpose again. Or to get revenge on the girl that took the love of her life away from her. Despite everything that Vir Nominis Umbra had did to her, he still loved her, looked after her. Cared of her, he never abandoned her. Neo walks across the roads of Vale, leading onto the streets of Mistral eventually after taking a boat there.

She hears the faint rustle in the woods, and a Beowulf leaps out towards her. She does not even look at the creature when it goes to attack her. She just slashes it’s head off with the blade she uses inside of her Umbrella. She just keeps walking and walking, waiting to either die, or to be taken in for some other purpose.

She was completely unaware that she was being watched the whole time. The Undead Bat of Fear flies and then transforms back into his Knight Form. He rolls across the ground, then presses his hand against the tree as he watches her marching onwards with seemingly no end in sight. He narrows his golden eyes as he watches her, holding Formido Falcem in his hand. Even his presence does not even effect her, she does not feel a thing anymore, she just wants her pain to end unless if she could still be of use.

She walks and walks...

But then Neo stopped.

She stopped and her eyes look around at the bushes that surround her. All she had to hear was the sound of a twig, and she could hear their voices muttering around her. She knows that she is outnumbered by hiding Bandits, so she slowly sets her Umbrella down on the floor and backs up. The mercenaries emerge from the bushes with guns aimed at her and machetes held in their hands. One of them has a missing eye and does not even seem bothered to cover the horrific scar that was left behind. Neo kneels down and puts her hands behind her head, knowing she has been beat. The Bandits surround her, and Fear watches from the woods as they surround her.

He holds his Scythe tight, but something refrains him from stopping them form harming her. She is taken, a bag sinks over her head and they pick her up, loading her onto a truck with many other young girls like her. They appear to be Human Traffickers, or maybe worse.

Some time passes after her capture, and she has bruises and scratches on her. She feels the pain but cannot scream, cruel people torturing her day and night for their own sick pleasures. One of them grabs her by her hair and pulls back with force. He holds her head back and creepily strokes her neck, feeling her skin. He holds a knife in his hand and slowly cuts across her cheek, creating that scar that she has on her face to this day. They have done worse things to her, especially the man with one eye, and even that has not seemed to affect her in the slightest. Some of the worst things imaginable...even rape...she feels nothing anymore. She just wants to end, or to get revenge.

Nothing more.

Finally the men leave her be, for she never screams when they torture her and go to the softer girls. One of them has left a pot of red soup for them to eat, not the best looking though. Ice cold and the food looks fly-eaten. She touches her hair and sits back against the wall. A younger girl with short raven black hair looks at her. She has violet coloured eyes and is a very beautiful looking woman. She tilts her head when she looks at Neo, she has been treated badly as well by these thugs, both of their clothes have been ruined and torn in places. She sits in the corner, and Neo does not even look at her. Until her voice emerges from the woman. “How...can you not feel anything from what they do to us?” The woman asks her with a trembled voice, and she just looks at her. Neo just signs to her, to show that she cannot speak. She moves her hands in a way to show that she can’t talk, by opening and closing her hand and then shaking her head as she does it. “You want me to shut up?” The woman questions with confusion.

Neo sighs with frustration, then points at herself then does it. “You can’t speak?” The woman asks for clarification, and she nods to her statement. She then looks back at the floor again. The woman touches a scar on her neck that she felt and she sighs. “My name is Yenna...what’s yours?” She asks, and Neo may not know how important that is...but Qrow would. And so would Kragen, because that is the name of the Spring Maiden. And it seems to be very clear that Neo had met her once, a very long time ago. But her long hair has been cut shorter than it used to be, it may have grown back since then. She even has the Wreath of Flowers symbol tattooed on her right shoulder. Neo looks at her then picks up a stone and scrapes into the floor.

_Neo._

“Neo? That’s a nice name.” Yenna says to Neo with a smile. Neo smiles and then sits in the corner, looking at her, before looking down at the floor again. She tilts her head when she sees that Neo has pink and brown eyes. “You’ve got pretty eyes...heterochromia iridum, right?” She asks, even naming the condition correctly as well. This is definitely Yenna, the current Spring Maiden. And Neo met her when they were captured by Bandits as well. Neo nods at her and she smiles at Neo, she is a very kind person, and it seems that most of the original Maidens tended to be very kind.

But dangerous at the same time.

Neo turns to her and she begins to use her sign language to see if she can understand her. “Do you know sign?” She asks her, moving her hands around to speak this way. Yenna smiles and nods.

“Yes, I know about Sign Language.” Yenna answers, and Neo begins to motion towards her again.

“How did you get here?” Neo asks her curiously. Yenna chuckles when she thinks about that and scratches the back of her head awkwardly.

“Isn’t that a funny story? I’m a gifted person, and I was fooled into thinking that one of the bandits needed my help with creating a cure. I thought I would help, didn’t realise he and his band were only interested in me for my good looks.” Yenna explains with a sarcastic smile, touching her short black hair. Neo smiles as she cannot laugh anymore, but can still express humour in her face. “But I’ve had my fair share of Bandits in my time...haven’t always had the most romantic relationships. Some of them have been, not all though.” She sighs, it seems clear that Yenna is not very affected by the conditions she is in either, but she still expresses some form of pain from what the men do to her. Yenna looks at her and sighs. “What about you, Neo?” She asks her and Neo looks down at the floor.

She signs towards her to answer. “Bad decisions...lost boyfriend...didn’t know where to go or what to do. They took me on the road.” Neo answers through sign language, and luckily Yenna seems to understand very well. She looks at her sadly, after hearing she lost her boyfriend.

“I’m very sorry, Neo.” Yenna says to her, and Neo just looks down at the floor. Yenna leans onto her back and sighs, closing her eyes. “Best get some shut-eye, as much as you can before they decide to play with us some more.” Yenna sighs, the two of them do not seem afraid. Yenna is powerful enough to stop them, but it seems she does not enjoy in taking lives, even if they harm her. And Neo has just lost the will to live. Neo sighs, leaning up against the cold stone wall of the Trafficker’s Den.

In her head, she can still speak, but can never get the words out. “Sleep isn’t what I need...some peace...that’s what I’d like.” She says in her head with a sigh. She closes her eyes, and then hears some footsteps approaching from her left. She turns and her eyes widen with disbelief of who she sees stood in the shadows as he emerges. His hands held together and his brown eyes looking straight at her.

“Neopolitan...remember me?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her with a smirk. She cannot say his name, but she can think it in her head.

“The Soothsayer...” She stammers in her mind and he chuckles, clearly hearing her thoughts just as he heard Oscar’s thousands of years ago when he last saw him.

“Vir Nominis Umbra, also known as the Soothsayer, or the Man of Shadows. I helped you and Torchwick rise to power.” He explains, remembering the bar that he first met the man at.

“And stole my voice.” Neo says in her mind.

“Ah yes, seems you do remember. Ever so sorry for what happened to your voice, merely a price that had to be paid for what you degenerate of a boyfriend wanted.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains as he approaches her, and Neo grits her teeth with anger, grabbing the bars of the cage with rage. She expects that to wake her up, but she has noticed something rather peculiar. The soup is not rippling from the air or even the footfalls of the man that approaches. She cannot even feel the wind.

Time has stopped, and yet it is not fractured like it is for Time and Oscar.

He is literally able to pause it like a child can pause a movie. “It seems like we meet again, and not a moment too soon, either. I have been listening to what these savages have been talking about after they have been playing with their products that they should be selling, not beating and using for their own pleasures...” He explains, looking down at the smaller girl. “...I heard that you and the other girl here are just no fun to them. Neither of your moan or scream like the others do, so they want to hang the two of you. Nooses await you both.” He explains, then looks down at the shoddy soup on the other side of the cell. He crouches down and touches the soup with his hand and sips some of it. “That is, if this slop doesn’t kill you first.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells her, completely unaffected by the poison that has been laced into it as well.

Neo has quickly realised that she can speak to him through her head and he can hear her. She sighs and speaks in her head. “Hadn’t tried it yet.” Neo answers, still staring at Vir Nominis Umbra with hatred. She partially blames him for the death of Torchwick, concerned that the pact he accidentally made with the Soothsayer could have marked him for death. Vir Nominis Umbra looks at the soup and he squints his eyes when he looks upon it.

“Doesn’t look particularly appetizing, such as the cell and conditions you have been trapped in tonight.” He points out as he looks around at the disgusting environment. Flies everywhere and in one of the cells is a half-naked, dead woman that they have beaten and violated to death. These Traffickers are monsters, and should be put down. “You know – I can grant you exit of this place...of course you do wish to leave, do you not?” He asks her with a smile, and she carefully answers his question, remembering what happened last time.

“What the hell could you do to get me out?” Neo asks him with a confused expression.

“Come now, sweetheart. Your lack of voice must be enough proof that I am capable of more than you can imagine. I must say, the years have been kind to you.” He compliments, looking at her very attractive face, and she looks away from him, as he looks at her where he is crouched down. He picks up the wooden spoon the soup harbours, letting it spin through his fingers as he sits there. He then stands up as he looks down at her. “I shall help you, my dear, but first I must be certain that you will return the favour.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, causing Neo to stand up and look at him. She is smaller than he is, having to look up to see his eyes.

“Of course...can’t get something for nothing.” Neo sighs in her head as she rests against the bars, looking at him. He holds the spoon in his fingers and then looks back at her.

“Precisely, as you are aware...I am simply a Humble Merchant.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, still smirking away as he looks at her. “So – would you like my help?” He asks her. Neo sighs, since she does not have much else choice than to agree with the being that took her voice from her.

“Yes...” She sighs, worried about her answer as well. Vir Nominis Umbra smiles.

“It’s a deal, you shall be free from this place shortly, and once you are, come find me at the crossroads before Kuroyuri. There we shall meet, and discuss your end of the bargain.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, walking backwards, never breaking eye contact. He then raises his hand up and snaps his fingers. As soon as he does, Neo feels the cold breeze blow up against her body where the clothes have been tattered and torn from her tortures.

She stands there, closing her eyes with worry of making a deal with the monster that essentially ruined her future as a singer. For that was all she ever wanted to be, with the beautiful voice she could once speak with. Then she hears something, the men outside start to rile up against something. “Hey! Who are you? Get out of here, Merchant!” One of the men shouts.

“Gods!” One of them screams, and suddenly there is a howl of never ending demonic screeches that erupt from outside of their prison. Yenna gasps, waking up when she hears the sounds. The men wail with agony and terror as they are being torn apart slowly and painfully outside. One of them tries to get inside of the prison, but he trips over. “No! Please!” He screams at the top of his lungs. Suddenly he is pulled back and they hear his screams and the howls of every other person never ending, until all are silenced in once moment.

But not as if they were killed...

More like they were taken.

Neo and Yenna stand there, and they see the lock on their door rusting away, then snapping off, allowing them to leave. The two women step out from their prison, and then they step outside into the night, wide eyed at what lies before them.

Blood everywhere, the buildings have been destroyed from something in its attack that occurred instantly after their meeting. And yet all this blood has been left behind, it sounded like they were all still alive. And they are all now gone. Yenna looks extremely afraid, her arms and legs are rattling with fear. “I don’t like this...I’ve seen this before...we cannot stay here.” Yenna nervously says, and Neo looks at her. She sighs and points in the direction where Vir Nominis Umbra told her that they would meet. “You’re not gonna come with me?” Yenna asks her, and Neo shakes her head. Yenna sighs sadly.

“Well...stay safe.” Yenna asks of her, and Neo nods to her, turning to walk away. She walks towards one of the buildings where she hears the groans of a man inside. One of them has been left behind. He has his legs and arms cut off, blood everywhere and he splutters on the floor. He turns and his eye widens. It is the same one that has been raping her for the past few days now, the one who has enjoyed himself over her. She crouches down with a kind smile as she looks at him and he is terrified of her.

Neo grabs him by his hair and pulls him close, just like he would do to her. Her eyes narrow and she picks up a sharp piece of glass. She slowly pushes it into his jugular and he gasps for air and tries to scream with agony as the shard slowly cuts his throat open. Blood pours from his neck and onto his body. Neo stands up, and leaves him there to suffer.

Neo has gotten her revenge, and she sees some clothes inside as well, ones she can use to replace her tattered ones she used to wear. She takes her current clothes off, stripping herself naked and then putting the new ones on. She zips the trench coat over the new shirt she has slipped on over her naked body. She then buttons her jeans up and puts the boots on. She flicks her hair behind her head, and sees her Umbrella is there as well. She picks it up and looks at it, a smile appears on her face when she sees it.

She is finally free from these animals.

More time passes as she travels, but now with a location – from the most unlikely of sources as well. She continues to walk onwards as she looks around, and eventually arrives at the Crossroads that Team R.N.J.R would later find. She looks around as she approaches, and then hears a whistling that forms, to a familiar tune.

_"A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,"_

_"His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,"_

_"Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye."_

_"Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,"_

_"His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,"_

_"Anger through truth, loss through acceptance."_

_"For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,"_

_"Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,"_

_"The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,"_

_"Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter..."_

The same tune that has always appeared whenever Vir Nominis Umbra was nearby, his tune that he has created. The whistling appears from one of the trees and she looks up, seeing him sat on the branch with his legs posed as he looks down at her. “I figured you’d come sooner or later.” Vir Nominis Umbra says to her and she scoffs.

“I guess you really are a Soothsayer.” She says in her head as she looks at him, the only person that can actually hear her real voice now is the one that took it from her in the first place. The irony in that is strong.

“It matters little who I am, what matters is that you are here right now. Free as a birdie.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, and a Crow forms on his shoulder. The crow caws as it looks around and then it flies away. She watches the bird fly off and she looks at him with curiosity. “So, your escape? I made it possible, your previous riches and power you and your beloved had? I also made that possible as well, so you feel you owe me.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, and it is a deal she can find hard to refuse, apart from one small detail.

“Why take my voice, though?” She asks him.

“Well he never made it clear in what way he wanted you to be happy. He should have made it clear you wanted to be a singer, perhaps I would have had you get shot or something.” Umbra explains with a casual shrug.

“Why me?” Neo questions to him telepathically, still not fully understanding why she was the one that was punished.

“I have learned many things from my wish-granting capabilities. The more pathetic or rotten the wishes are, there must be consequences. He made it very clear he loved you, so I’m afraid I had to make the cost be very heavy on him. What is heavier than nearly losing a loved one?” He asks her with a sinister smirk and she glares at him, then crosses her arms. “But – enough about that. Tell me, how was your journey?” He asks her with a smile.

Only one thing has been on Neo’s mind since she escaped. “Was that you that did all that? What happened to the bandits?” Neo asks him, pointing back in the direction she came with confusion. Vir Nominis Umbra looks at her and she sees a flicker of red in his brown eyes and his voice becomes partially demonic, similar to the haunting sound she heard that lead to their wails.

He only answers with this statement. “They can only wish they could die now.” He answers, and it gives her the chills. He has taken them to the Charred Forest, where they shall be tortured for eternity, never ending pain and suffering. Where they could only wish they could be killed. He speaks again, but his voice no longer sounds a demonic, returning to normal as do his brown eyes. “You know, I find it funny how all these scumbags and such like to torture, murder, pillage and rape – and yet they were taught the valuable lessons of what would happen to all those that have sinned. You really must explain that to me, one day.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, clenching his hand into a fist as he holds his hands up as he lists them.

“What are you?” Neo asks him, and he chuckles.

“One day you will know...but not yet.” He states as he looks down at her.

“Thank you for the help...but I’m surprised you didn’t choose a more simple way of help. Like unlocking the door? Or teleporting me elsewhere?” Neo asks with confusion.

“Simplicity itself is utterly boring. I prefer getting my hands dirty at times, it’s great having others do things for you...but sometimes I enjoy tasting the blood myself.” He explains with a mad smirk on his face. Even he is scarier than anything that Neo has seen, and she has seen some scary stuff in her life. “Besides – do you like simple things? I mean you fell for a rotten scoundrel.” He explains with a chuckle, and she furrows her brow, grits her teeth and points at him.

“Don’t call him that!” She shouts with anger in her head, even trying to yell herself. But she only begins to cough with pain, her larynx is still destroyed and cannot speak. Trying to shout in itself could rupture the scar again. He smirks as he watches her in pain, but when she looks at him, his face returns to being pretty neutral.

“Well, anyway we have not come here to discuss the past. We have come here to discuss an individual of interest to us both...” Vir Nominis Umbra explains and she spits a tiny bit of blood from her throat. She then speaks to him telepathically as usual instead of trying to shout like she did earlier.

“And who might that be?” Neo asks him. Vir Nominis Umbra jumps down from the tree, landing before her and he walks towards her, clasping his hands together as he always does.

“She has wronged you as well – her name is Ruby Rose.” Vir Nominis Umbra answers and her eyes narrow with anger at the mere mention of the name. But at the same time, curiosity forms in her mind as well.

“What interest is she to you?” Neo asks her. Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he stands there and he speaks on.

“She is dangerous, those who follow her see her as some sort of goddess. Her gifts would apparently make her unbelievably powerful, but one thing is very clear. I know what that girl is, she is a threat to this world. You saw how callously she killed Roman Torchwick, and I promise she will do it again. The girl is a monster in human flesh, and I am sure that you would relish in getting some revenge...wouldn’t you?” He asks her with a smirk.

“She took him from me...whatever else she is matters not. But I am not fighting for Cinder’s cause any longer, she is the reason he is dead.” Neo explains with squinted eyes.

“And I do not expect you to – one thing that has become very clear to me is that Cinder is changing after the death of Beacon’s Champion – Pyrrha Nikos...she is weak.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains as he walks around Neo.

“What could she have done to wrong you?” Neo questions curiously. He chuckles, a smirk never leaving his face.

“She is a Silver Eyed Warrior, her kind are a blight on this world. I would happily watch their kind be reduced to ashes. Salem and her crew have been a good help in killing them all, but it seems that this one is more dangerous than the rest. I cannot understand why, though...” He explains as he thinks on her. Neo scoffs, not sounding interested in helping him out in the slightest. She sighs, though, since she knows she owes him and he is the last thing she wants to get on the bad side of. She heard what happened to the bandits, she would not like to join them.

“So...what would I get out of helping you kill her?” Neo asks him and he smiles.

“Whatever wishes you desire...surfeit, the ability to charm every man...or woman...on the planet? To go without food or drink for the rest of your days? Infinite youth?” He lists, and then he reaches into his pouch. “Or...” He cleverly says as he pulls a vial with a blue potion inside, shaking it before her. “Have the voice of a nightingale once more? Achieve your longest dreams?” He asks her with a smile, and she looks at it with wide eyes...but then her eyes become teary when she sees it.

“What...what about Roman? I want him back...” She sniffles. She was expecting him to say no, but he didn’t.

“Maybe you can have both? If you help me kill Ruby Rose and stop her, I will grant you and your beloved all. Both remain young for the rest of your days, never need food or drink, but can still appreciate the taste. To sing once more, and love each other once more...” Vir Nominis Umbra advertises before her. She closes her eyes and imagines a house with a picket fence, he and her sharing a bed and happily asleep with a baby.

She opens her eyes.

And has made a decision.

“Okay...I’ll help you.” She decides.

“Excellent...” Vir Nominis Umbra says. “Go to the point in the mountains due east from here, you shall find a ship hidden inside alongside a man called Darren Ortega. Speak with him and he will let you in. I look forward to doing business with you...Neopolitan.” He says, walking away from her. She looks away from him and as she looks back, the flock of crows fly away from the scene.

 

In the present day...

She sits there, her scar has faded away and the memories have just been added to her pile. Now in league with the same being that took her voice, for a second chance to have the love of her life back in her arms, and her singing voice back as well.

**Jaune**

Ren slightly pushes the door to their dormitory open with his hand, Stormflower held up to be ready to shoot at any soldiers that they come across. They do not wish to kill, aiming to incapacitate the soldiers, for they did assist them five years ago on those islands. He looks back at the others and he nods, stepping out into the hall, looking at the old Team R.W.B.Y Dormitory just parallel to where they were staying. Nora rolls into the hallway with Magnhild in its Grenade Launcher form; they can hear the chaos outside of the other Huntsmen keeping the Atlesians occupied whilst they attempt to make an escape. Pyrrha and Jaune step out next, their weapons drawn, both holding their shields upwards to deflect any bullets that could come flying out. Kassius emerges last, holding Lash Equinox in both hands, the two blades pointed down both halls and the barrels of Vulcan Nox are pointed that way as well. He looks back and forth as the five of them stand there. “Why are they coming for you? I thought we had a deal...” Jaune whispers with annoyance.

“I was the Onyx Phantom; I must still have a bounty on my head.” Pyrrha whispers to them, they begin to head down the hallway to find the stairs. Not into the centre of the school, however, the other side. Hopefully there are less Atlesians down this path.

“No you don’t understand, Pyrrha. We made a deal with President Brimstone; he knew that the Knights of Grimm were responsible for what happened at Mistral. But it looks like he has broken that promise, and he wants you to be taken into custody.” Nora explains, looking at Pyrrha as they check their corners and the other dorms. All of them have windows; the Atlesians could easily rappel through the windows and attack them from there.

“Maybe I should just turn myself in; I don’t want people to get hurt because of me.” She shyly says as she walks with them, and Jaune looks at her with a shocked expression.

“I don’t think so, I just got you back! I’m not losing you again.” Jaune states, and it makes her feel flattered but also concerned at the same time. She does not want anyone to get hurt because of her past mistakes. This Hallway brings back some memories to Pyrrha, being late to class on one occasion...or two...or maybe every single one...but her mind is still jumbled from the torture that Vir Nominis Umbra inflicted upon her soul.

They can hear the distant explosions from the battle outside, of Huntsmen versus Atlesian Military, the Bullheads are hovering around. “Huntsmen! Stand down or we will be authorised to use lethal rounds!” The Atlesian pilot orders as he hovers above them. Port stands there and sarcastically ponders over his request.

“Let me think about it, nope!” Port responds, shooting directly at the Bullhead, it moves out of the way to avoid his gunfire.

“You will not take our students for a crime they did not commit!” Oobleck yells with rage, blasting flames towards the soldiers ahead of him. He spins his Thermos Staff swiftly in order to deflect the incoming storm of bullets coming towards him. Whilst Glynda is still trapped in her office with Thaddeus. He may not have a gun, but if she even lays a finger on him, it could become a capital offense. Ren and Nora step up to the corner, their firearms at the ready, and Ren closes his eyes as he listens carefully. He can hear the sound of footsteps marching up the steps, but they do not sound like those of humans. They are mechanical and rhythmic, they are Atlesian Knights. One of the Knights steps up the stairs and turns, seeing them stood there and it aims its rifle at them.

“Pyrrha Nikos! Stand down, turn yourself in!” The Atlesian Knight orders with an emotionless computerised voice. The rifle is ready to fire and they look at each other.

“Nah.” Kassius says, nodding to them. Ren steps out and throws Stormflower straight into the head of the Atlesian Knight. The visor shatters into a hundred tiny pieces, sparks bursting from its skull. It staggers back from the impact and he runs towards it. He jumps, running across the wall as he grabs the lodged Stormflower and tears it from the head of the robot. He rips it straight out and points both at another Knight beneath him. He pulls the triggers back all the way, unleashing green projectiles towards the Synthetic. The voice of the machine malfunctions as he blows it to pieces. The left arm is blown to little chunks of metal; sparks and belches of flames erupt from the arm. Then he sends a huge crater into its chest, chunks of smouldering metal fall onto the floor, the robot falls onto the ground with a loud thud.

Ren lands gracefully, and Nora slides down the steps on the metal railing, hopping off beside him. They both check the next level of the building, they would rather jump out of the building and make their way out that way, but the soldiers would expect that. They have Bullheads patrolling the skies to find them; they need to track her down. Now at the ground floor, the five approach the doors, and they take cover when they spot some Atlesian Soldiers running towards somebody.

Suddenly a bunch of swords are launched directly at them, knocking the soldiers off their feet as she launches them at them. Penny stands outside with her eyes peeled as she searches for them, and then Kassius opens the door, moving carefully as he keeps his eyes peeled. Penny squeaks and bounces when she sees them. “You’re okay!” She gasps with relief.

Pyrrha approaches and she freezes in her tracks, her eyes widen with shock as a memory comes flashing back to her. He jolts back, remembering the thousands of swords that she saw above Penny, the sight of her being ripped apart from her own cables due to Pyrrha’s polarity. Her hands begin to shake, Jaune hears the rattling of her sword and shield, and he has to look at her with concern. She stammers as she think about what she did, all those bad memories charging back to her. Jaune gently taps her shoulder, Pyrrha turns and gazes at him with wide eyes. He knows what is on her mind, just seeing Penny again, brought some of them back.

“It’s okay...” He whispers to her and she looks at Penny again with confusion.

“H-How?” She stammers.

“Long story, I’ll tell you later.” He assures, since even he is not fully certain of how she was rebuilt and given the same memories. Even without her memory drive.

“Penny! Do you know what’s happening? How bad is the situation?” Kassius asks her when he sees her. She nervously scratches the back of her head, looking back at Port and Oobleck, distracting the Atlesians. Port actually looks like he is enjoying himself as well as he fights. One of the soldiers fires a grenade at Oobleck and it explodes. He is thrown back but still lands on his feet. The soldiers all aim their rifles at the Doctor.

“Professor! Put the weapon down!” The soldier demands. He looks at them, his glasses have slid down and then he slowly pushes them back up his nose to where they should be.

“Doctor.” He corrects, confusing the soldiers for a second. He blasts flames and jumps directly at the soldiers. He spins through the air in a pirouette, creating one powerful explosion upon impact.

“They’re coming for Pyrrha Nikos!” She answers.

“Yeah, we figured that!” Nora shouts back to her as she fires a grenade into a piloted drone that flies towards them. The pink explosion blows the robot to smithereens. They all step back from the blast and they look around as the Atlesians continue to search for her. They see Adam and the other White Fang soldiers fighting them off, he deflects the bullets with his sword to stop them from advancing any further. He slashes across the chest of one of the soldiers and he keeps advancing, but the Atlesians are desperate.

“We need to get her out of here.” Jaune says to Penny looking around. Penny turns and sees the landed Bullhead not far from there.

“Over there! If you take that Bullhead you can get her out of here! We can keep you safe!” Penny assures, she uses the blast from her energy beam to throw herself towards the soldiers.

“Thanks Penny!” Kassius calls to her and she gives them an adorable smile.

 

**Glynda**

Thaddeus stands before her with angered eyes, watching the battle beneath them. He can see Port and Oobleck beneath as they fight their soldiers, keeping them occupied whilst Pyrrha and Jaune get the hell out of there before they could locate them. He spots Adam rolling out of the way of a bullet that travelled towards him and he deflects the bullets with the red blade of Wilt and Blush. His White Fang take cover and they fire their weapons at the Atlesians ahead of them. He growls with anger and turns to Glynda. “This has gone on long enough, Glynda. Where is Pyrrha Nikos?” He demands.

“You really think I was gonna just tell you where my student is? You have no warrant, you are essentially being terrorists right now!” She argues, pointing at him as he stands there. Thaddeus scoffs and he looks around at the room, then at her.

“That’s a lot coming from you.” He coldly says, and she raises her brow.

“I beg your pardon?” She questions, staring straight back.

“You think I didn’t know? I know that Ozpin was uncovered and you have him hidden here somewhere. The man is essentially a criminal for the offenses he made when leading this school, many students died because of him.” Thaddeus explains, but this seems to only piss her off. She glares right into his eyes.

“How dare you...Ozpin had no idea that the Attack on Beacon was coming, none of us did. How could you lay all that on him instead of Salem?” She questions.

“Oh there’s another one. The Grimm Human Lady that is in charge of the monsters? What a load of crap.” He scoffs and she seems repulsed by his stupidity.

“Don’t you get it? This is what they wanted! They wanted you to believe they were just myths! Then they can return when your guard is down!” Glynda shouts with anger, his response infuriates her even further.

“Or perhaps this was all part of your plan to take over...” He theorises and she cannot possibly fathom how he can come up with these ideas.

“I always thought you were pathetic...corrupt...but I never wanted to be right.” She sighs.

His eyes then turn to the window and he walks towards it, a smile grows on his face as he touches his earpiece. He can see Pyrrha and Jaune from up there. “All forces, Targets are heading towards the South Platform.” He reports and her eyes widen, she draws her crop on him, causing him to look at her.

“Call that off.” She demands.

But he has another idea. “You’d dare threaten the President? That is a Capital Offense!” He shouts.

“And sentencing a young girl to death isn’t?” She questions with rage.

“That is no young girl anymore! She is a terrorist!” He shouts.

“She was brainwashed!” She argues.

“I think it is you that has been brainwashed, Ozpin was always good at things like that. You damned Valerians never listen, it was better when Vale and Beacon were destroyed. You never helped with the world like we did.” He explains and her eye twitches with anger as she stares at him.

He walks back towards the elevator, like the coward he is. The doors close and Glynda grits her teeth with anger.

 

**Jaune**

Jaune slams his shield into the chest of one of the soldiers, causing him to stagger back and Kassius kicks the soldier in the head so hard that the visor shatters. He looks back at Adam as he fights them off with his soldiers, deflecting bullets with his sword, fighting with only one arm. The man is impressive, how he has learned how to only fight with one arm. Ironic as well, considering what he did to Yang as well. One of the White Fang militants gets shot in the chest and he yells with pain, falling to the floor with blood squirting out from his chest.

Oobleck slams his staff into the ground, until suddenly a pair of Paladins fall from the sky and pin the two Huntsmen down. One of them fires a rod into Penny’s back. She screams with pain as volts are charged into her body, causing her to fall to her knees, stunned. Not deactivated, but enough for them to capture her. The Paladins surround the White Fang and they point their weapons at them. “It’s over, Faunus!” The Atlesians shout.

“Try it.” He snarls, ready to fight them off if he has to. “Sienna Khan needs us, you arrest us? You answer to her.” Adam warns with a smirk, and she is not one that somebody would like to get on the bad side of.

Thaddeus walks outside and looks at the Faunus. “Let the animals go, but if they shoot or try to stop us from taking the rest? Gun ‘em down.” He orders, the White Fang glare at them with anger. They may have the safety of Mistral, but Atlas will never stop treating them poorly. Adam stands there...and he cannot get the thought of what Mazen said out of his head.

_No...They are all liars. Just you wait, Adam. Say you beat the Knights of Grimm together, you stop all of these monstrous beings that want us all dead...what do you think Humanity will do then? Move on?_

_No...They won't. They will just go back to doing what they do best, thinking for themselves and killing those that are different to what they are._

He is not wrong...Atlas are the perfect example of everything that is wrong with Humanity.

They were so close...

They run towards the Bullhead that is ready for them. Closer and closer, until a missile shoots towards it and it explodes. The fireball engulfs the vehicle, the wings break off and it topples off the cliff and to the ground with a bang. They stagger back with shock, and they look up when they see the Atlesian Ship breaking through the clouds. A group of Paladins drop from the ship and they land down around them, aiming their weapons at them. The pilot inside of the leader orders them. “Stand down, now.” He orders, aiming the guns at them, and they turn when Thaddeus approaches.

Pyrrha looks at him with worried eyes and she sighs. She is the first to surrender her weapons and they all look at her with confusion. “Nobody else should have to die for me.” She sighs, looking down at the floor.

“Ah, the creature has some honour at least.” Thaddeus scoffs at her, calling Pyrrha a _creature_. Jaune lunges for him but Kassius stops him by grabbing his hood. Jaune glares at Thaddeus with gritted teeth,

“You rat...you helped us...” He snarls with anger.

“During a time of war, now this is peace. And all enemies must be punished for what they did.” He says as he looks at her.

“You will regret this.” Jaune snarls and he chuckles.

“I doubt it, son. You were always a failure in school, you failed to save your girlfriend and she turned to the side of the monsters. I highly doubt you could make me regret a thing.” He says with a smile and Kassius chuckles.

“All big and strong now with your Paladins around us, huh?” Kassius chuckles when he looks up at them.

“Take these traitorous scumbags to the ship. I want them to face justice.” He orders, walking away from them. Jaune snarls with anger as he watches the President walking away from them.

They were so close...

So close to getting them out.

Pyrrha and Jaune feel the cuffs being attached, and then they are taken away towards the Dropship that lands. They have also taken Oobleck, Port and Penny. Whereas the White Fang have been let go due to the allowances the Mistraalians have granted them.

They can only hope that they have allies in Atlas to help them.


	18. The Restless Marshlands

**Qrow**

He steps onto the muck, feeling the deep soggy mud around his boot as he steps forth. Qrow looks around, smelling the stench of the bog around him, fog seems to pulsate from the trees that surround the three of them. Taiyang coughs from the horrific smell; the putrid scent of dead flesh surrounds them constantly. Like there is some sort of boiling cauldron that is never ceasing to boil the remains of humans and animals. Whatever is happening here cannot be good, the three of them feel the urge to ready themselves. Taiyang engages his semblance, his fists glow internally to punch his way through anything that stands in his path. Qrow and Raven draw their swords, eyes peeled; the faint sounds of creatures unknown to them can be heard. They cannot see any sort of hut, anything to expect to find these Witches at. There are just trees and swampy ponds around them, thick fog before them as well. “I don’t like this.” Raven whispers as they walk through the bog, their feet sinking into the mud.

Taiyang looks at the ground, bones of both humans and creatures sticking out from the mud as they walk through. Qrow steps onto a skull hidden in the mud, it crunches and collapses under the weight of his foot. He lifts his foot to see the chunks of bone stuck to the underside of his boot. “Just stay sharp, anything could be in here.” He tells them, walking onward. The faint screeches of reptiles and birds can be heard, a large monitor lizard climbs on one of the trees. It flicks its tongue out, tasting the air and watching them. They’ve no idea that the lizard’s eyes now glow bright orange as something observes them through its eyes.

Raven looks around with Taiyang at her side, her Odachi held outwards if she ever finds the need to use it against whatever could be lurking around in these woods. Taiyang gently bumps her arm to get her attention, and she looks at him. “Are you alright?” Taiyang asks her, and Raven smiles and nods.

“Yeah...I just...feel a bit vulnerable right now.” She answers and Taiyang chuckles, she narrows her eyes suspiciously. “What? What’s so funny?” She questions, and Qrow starts to chuckle as well, they both give each other a fist-bump as well when they think of it. She rolls her eyes as she walks with them. “Alright – what is it?” She sighs, wondering what she said.

“This is just like that mission we had years ago, remember? Us mucking through a swamp to find those kids that went missing?” Taiyang asks her and Qrow laughs.

“And you fell into the swamp, ruined your clothes and you wouldn’t quit complaining the whole way there.” Qrow remembers, shaking his head. She gasps, her eyes widening when he brings that up.

“Are you seriously gonna keep bringing that up for the rest of my life?” She inquires, planting her hand on her hip, raising her brow.

“Yep.” Qrow instantly answers and she groans like a little girl, or just like how her daughter would in fact. She keeps moving with them, looking around the bog. Qrow presses his hand against one of the trees, feeling the soft bark crunching down into itself from how rotten it has become. This place is not fairing very well over the years. Qrow steps forward, but then he extends his arm back to them, stopping in his tracks. Taiyang and Raven’s eyes widen with confusion of why he has stopped them. He listens carefully, because he heard something in the fog.

“What is it?” Taiyang whispers to Qrow.

“There’s something out there in the fog.” He tells them. They listen carefully, the sound of something being dragged is very apparent. Like a shovel being dragged through the soil, getting louder and louder, closer and closer. The footfalls be heavy, like that of some sort of Giant or Troll. They get ready for a fight for what approaches from the fog, senses focused as the entity reveals itself.

A large humanoid individual steps forth from the shadows, a hood pulled over its head with a massive rusted Shovel being dragged by its hands. The clothes are moth-eaten and ripped in places, made from what looks like human skin woven together with Spider’s Webbing. The being has a face, a large mouth, once a human one but the mouth has been cut round the cheeks to create a never ending smile. It also has glowing orange eyes as it stares at them, raspy breath. Its legs are wrapped in the same make-shift clothing, the skin it has on its body is all different though. Built from different skins from different people, even creatures. Where it has been wounded, it has been replaced with reptilian skin in places, others human, others Deer. Most likely more that they do not even recognise. The creature snarls at them as it stands there, it does not attack; it stands in front of their way.

Qrow looks at it, with what looks like recognition, the others do not though. “What the hell is that thing?” Raven questions, and Qrow lowers his sword as it stands there, surprising them.

“It’s an Undertaker.” Qrow tells them, surprising them further when he knows what this creature is. “I’ve seen ones like this before when I was looking for the Fall Maiden for Oz. I think Amber managed to create one, but it was not as old as this one.” He explains when he sees it.

“What does it do? Is it dangerous?” Taiyang asks him, still got his fists raised. Qrow turns and looks at them with a frustrated look.

“Stand down; these guys only attack those who challenge it. We just have to talk to him.” Qrow explains, looking back at the Undertaker as it looks at him with those glowing orange eyes. Raven looks at Taiyang with a worried expression, he sighs and the orange glowing inside his fists fades eventually, lowering them. Raven lowers her sword, then sheathes it. Qrow does the same, attaching it to his belt as he looks at the Undertaker. The Undertaker finally speaks to them, to Qrow specifically.

“What is it that you seek?” The Undertaker questions, its voice is very deep and almost monstrous. It sounds like it has many voices overlapping at once, quite demonic sounding, but unlike most of the creatures they have encountered, this one clearly carries sentience.

“The three of us wish for an audience with the Three Witches.” Qrow says to the Undertaker. It remains quiet for a while, holding the shovel that it can fight very effectively with. It has old stains of blood on the blade, most likely what has created the rust on it. The Undertaker reaches to its hood, pulling it back. Revealing the stitches that weave the different pieces of skin together. The Undertaker must have been created by the Witches as a guardian, to protect them and their swamp from any intruders. But clearly it does ask before it attacks.

“On what topic?” The Undertaker asks him, the voice does not match the smile that has been cut into the head of the creature. It towers above them, nearly eight feet tall, and it could easily kill them with that weapon that it carries. The nails are long, digging into the Shovel’s Metal Handle. Yellow rotten skin around its hands.

“We are searching for the Spring Maiden, we have reason to believe that she could have passed through here.” Qrow tells the Undertaker, and Raven looks at Qrow with a confused expression. That information is not really something to tell people on the fly. But they do not question him on what he says; the Undertaker is talking to him after all. The Undertaker waits as it stands there, then it speaks again.

“Come.” The Undertaker says to them, turning and dragging the shovel’s blade behind its huge body as it walks ahead of them. Qrow sighs with relief and nods to them. They follow the creature that is clearly forged from Magic through the swamp, difficult to miss it as it walks. Raven walks up to her brother’s side and looks at him with confusion.

“Why did you tell it that? What if they are working for the Knights?” Raven whispers to him, hoping the Undertaker does not hear. It does not respond, but that does not mean it did not hear. Qrow looks at her and he sighs.

“I know who they are; I’ve met these Witches before.” Qrow reveals, and her eyes widen when he reveals this fact. Taiyang looks at him with confusion alongside some suspicion as well.

“Why did you not say so when Sienna said we should talk to them? Hell why have you never brought this up before?” Taiyang questions and he sighs as he walks behind the Undertaker.

“I was following some leads on Amber, it lead me to Mistral at one point. And I found the Witches, after I was badly injured in a fight. I was dying, the Undertaker found me in the swamp, infected and half-dead. He took me to the Witches and they saved me, pretty much brought me back to life.” Qrow explains, remembering the battle he had.

“What were you fighting?” Raven asks him. He turns to her and pulls his shirt back slightly to reveal a big scar where his heart is. Nobody has ever seen this scar before; it is a very new one, before his fling with Winter ever happened. He lets his shirt return to where it was and then he answers.

“Amber’s Undertaker, it was young, not as experienced. Still nearly killed me though. They can be destroyed, but it takes a lot. When I fought it, it stabbed me with its shovel, nearly punctured my heart and nearly killed me. I finished it off before I collapsed, and I passed out in the swamp. I must have contracted countless diseases in there, but as I said. The Undertaker found me and took me to them, where they fixed me up.” Qrow explains, they both look at the Undertaker as it walks.

“Is that why it didn’t attack us on sight?” Raven asks him.

“Maybe, or perhaps he is just different to the one I fought. It challenged me as soon as I saw it.” Qrow explains as he walks with them, still remembering how that fight went. He closes his eyes as he remembers the fight.

He was wandering through the swamps at night, crows and animals squawking in the night as he continued to follow the trail. He has already had to fight plenty of Grimm to get to this area, until he came across Amber’s Undertaker. It rushed out from the trees towards him, creating a haunting howl as it swung the Shovel straight at him. He ducked down and just dodged the blade as it cut one of the trees down. It span it through its fingers and stabbed it down into the soil where he was stood. Qrow leapt and rolled out of the way just in time, slashing across its back. Smoke leaked from the body, along with old blood that fills the body. They fought for hours, cutting into one another, breaking Qrow’s Aura. But the final blow was when the Undertaker jabbed the blade of the shovel directly into Qrow’s chest, nearly lifting him off the floor, blood dripping off the shovel and into the mud. Qrow groaned with pain, hearing the demonic breath from the creation.

Qrow grit his teeth, and yelled with all his might, driving the blade of his sword directly through the ribcage of the Undertaker. Inside of the ribs is a magical heart stone that glowed bright orange, cinders and flames burst from the wounds inflicted. The Undertaker howls with agony, a shockwave created from destroying the stone. I ripped the Shovel from his chest, blood spraying out, and Qrow fell to one knee. The Undertaker he fought staggered back, before falling onto its back with a bang. The creation was dead, and he was about to die. He was on his knees, shuddering from the cold, hypothermia hit him as well as infection and blood loss. He then fell face-first into the mud.

As he laid there, the Undertaker discovered him, picked him up and slung him onto its shoulder, and carried him away into the fog. And now he is returning for their aid once again, but this time he is conscious for it. The Undertaker continues to march onwards ahead of them, breathing heavily through its large mouth created by the Witches. Taiyang bumps his shoulder when they watch the Undertaker after what he just told them. “What if this one turns on us?” Taiyang asks him, and Qrow sighs with a shaky breath. He clearly is afraid of the Undertakers, since a young one nearly killed him.

“If this one turns on us? We’re pretty screwed.” He admits.

“What? We outnumber it.” Raven states, pointing out their advantage.

“It doesn’t work that way. Undertakers are built from dead things; they do not feel pain as we do. They do not fear anything, and will fight until they have been blown to bits. And I nearly got killed by an inexperienced one that was completed only days prior to me meeting it. This one has likely been around for hundreds of years.” Qrow explains as it continues to walk ahead of them through the fog. The Undertaker senses something as it walks, and from the fog a Creep Grimm leaps out at the Undertaker with a roar. The Undertaker hardly even reacts, just swings the Shovel with one arm and cuts the Creep in half. The Creature of Grimm bursts into black smoke, disappearing from this world. “If he turns on us? We’ll be dead faster than we can say – _oh crap!_ ” Qrow concludes, so they have been left with only one option.

Follow the Undertaker...

...and pray it does not turn on them.

Raven sighs and then looks at him, since there is another point that bounces around in her mind. “Wait...so if you met them before...what are they like?” Raven asks him curiously.

“They’re ancient but they don’t look it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are from the same time as Kragen is.” Qrow explains.

“Arkhoni?” He asks with raised eyebrows.

“Exactly, I’m just guessing that their key to Immortality is through Dark Magic, opposed to using the Relics to alter aging.” Qrow explains, he clearly remembers the three Witches well.

“Can we trust them?” Raven asks, and he chuckles.

“Only a fool would trust them. Just make sure that you don’t disrespect the land or the animals in it in any way. The Grimm can be killed, but harm the nature in any way? They will make you regret it.” He warns, and they feel even more careful from where they tread now. If they get so angry over the smallest damage to their natural world...then they must be extremely careful.

“Wait...why did they help you?” Taiyang asks him curiously, if they cannot be trusted then why did they bother?

“They’re opportunists; they will take any chance they can to get a Huntsman to do something for them instead of getting their hands dirty. So I would expect them to want something in return for our information.” Qrow warns and Raven sighs, rubbing the back of her head with her hand.

“This is crazy.” She whispers.

“Just stay calm and remain respectful. They do not mind curiosity, but do not insult their land or their creations.” He advises.

The Undertaker walks further and further with them, the sound of the shovel scraping across the mud never seems to end, until it turns into the sound of metal scraping upon stone. Sparks erupt from the contact of the blade against the rough solid surface, golden firefly like particles bursting out from the friction created as it walks onwards. The fog begins to thin as they follow it, the sounds of monsters echo endlessly in this swamp, from Banshees to Beowulves and to Wraiths. But here, there are no Grimm, just animals. Squirrels perched on trees, squeaking at them, and snakes that slither through the grass between their feet. All manners of life, all working together at this mysterious barn that is in the middle of the swamp.

The Barn is very worn down, bits of wood broken off over time and erosion. It seems that this was once a farm, buildings sunken into the mud over time where animals have made their home. Moss forming and flourishing upon the wood. The smell of putrid flesh is strong around these parts, and Taiyang groans with repulsion from the stench that never seems to fade from the area. They can hear the sounds of endless whispers echoing through the swamp from this point of epicentre that the Undertaker has taken them to. The trees seem to whisper to them, but they cannot decipher what it is that the trees are in fact saying. Their voices are damaged as they whisper, just like the condition that they all appear to be in.

They all look around at the place, animals and life is trying to flourish here but it struggles immensely. Vines creeping up across the bodies of the trees, turning pale from the lack of life that could flourish here. Raven walks past a tiny baby rabbit that looks at her adorably and she smiles at the little thing, stroking its head. The three of them stand there, and the Undertaker stops by the door. It slams the end of its Shovel down into the ground as it stares at them. The three quickly look at the Undertaker, its orange eyes focusing on the trio. “The Witches will see you now.” The Undertaker allows, opening the broken door with its rotten hand, the nails scraping against the wood. It walks inside and they follow it inside.

Candles are lit, and they can smell the stench inside. There is the unmistakable sound of female moaning inside, like that of pleasure as they sit there in their places. Qrow walks in first, seeing them again after all these years. The hut has countless herbs inside, and a large cauldron at the very centre of the room. Steam rises from the bubbling substances in the tub, fire burning underneath it. The three Witches are there before them, and one of them looks directly at Qrow. “Our Handsome Knight has returned!” One of them squeaks when she sees him.

They are not how the others imagined them to look, for instead of looking like old hags, they are in fact very beautiful looking young women. One of them lays down in a seductive pose on a bear carpet, her elbow rested on the fur and her hand on her head. She has large glowing blue serpentine eyes, and she wears the most revealing clothes of all. Silk covering her breasts and her waist, and that is mostly it. She has many tattoos on her body as she looks at them, a heart shaped head, admiring the two men that stand before her. Her nose is quite snubbed in shape, and small ears as well. She has long silver coloured hair that sits across her shoulders, and carries a very strong English Sounding accent, as her other sisters do. However hers is the most seductive of the three, lingering and higher pitched than theirs. All have relatively harsh tones though. She is definitely the youngest of the trio; the one in the middle is sat by a cauldron with a large wooden spoon in her hand.

The Witch with the spoon has the shortest hair, brown hair and a scar on her head from some kind of warrior that must have challenged her. She has smaller glowing orange saurian eyes, and they glow just as much as her other sisters. She wears a set of robes around her body, revealing her belly button and her collarbone but covers everything else, opposed to her youngest sister. Her nose is rather bulbously shaped. She also wears a straw made hat on her head, with shells and insects that crawl around the hat. The youngest sister is around the same age as Ruby, whereas this one is around the age of Yang now. Or at least she looks that way. “We wondered when you would return...” She says, a deeper voice but still just as harsh. However hers is less seductive as her younger sister, she paces back and forth with alchemic substances dripping from the spoon.

Finally the oldest of the sisters, around the age of Winter Schnee, she is the tallest of the three with a crooked long nose, like that of a scavenging Vulture. Her robes wrap around her whole body, revealing nothing for she is clearly most mature of the three. Her hair is long, tied into a long braided tail, and is very purplish as well. She holds a staff in her hand that she walks with, and lupine shaped green eyes that glow fiercely. She too has tattoos on her sleeveless arms; it can be assumed that the Witch with the Spoon has similar tattoos as well. They seem to flicker when she walks, as if magic flows within them. She has a cunning smirk on her face as she looks at them, then she speaks. “How we have missed you, handsome man.” She says, her voice harsh and grit, and yet still seductive as the others are. All three look young, not like the hags that they imagined that they would discover in this terrible place.

Taiyang looks at them and then at the Undertaker, its eyes no longer glow and it just stands there, as if it has just shut down. He then looks at the Witch with the Spoon and her eyes are no longer glowing as bright, she must have been seeing through the Undertaker. “It’s been a while.” Qrow says to them, and the three of them cackle when he says that.

“Indeed it has.” The eldest of the three states, planting her hands on her hips. Raven steps forward when she looks at them.

“You’re the witches?” She asks them, still struggling to believe how young they look.

“Of course, what did you expect to see?” The Spoon Holder asks.

“I dunno...but definitely not some young women that could be passed for models.” Raven explains, making it sound more like a compliment luckily. The Seductive one giggles.

“Oh how sweet of you, dear girl. I’m afraid though we must have disappointed you on our appearance. Do you see our Broomsticks? Merely village superstition.” The Seductive one explains to her.

“Do you envy us?” The eldest asks, her arms held out before them as the three of them have been presented before them. Qrow turns to them and he introduces the three Witches to his two friends.

“Meet the Enchantress, The Sorceress and the Alchemist. In that order.” Qrow introduces, and the three Witches bow their heads charismatically to them.

“Interesting company you keep, dear Qrow.” The Sorceress says, looking at Taiyang, the three of them seem to be fixated on him and Qrow. Not so much on Raven, seems that they are only into guys than girls.

“Good looking too...where have you been hiding, boy?” The Enchantress asks him as she looks directly at him. She then begins to sensually slide her fingers across her bare leg as she looks at him, her eyes glow as she looks at him, and actually begins to draw him in, but Qrow puts his hand out to stop him. “Go ahead...touch me blonde haired one...where it pleases you most...” She whispers seductively with a sinisterly attractive smile on her face, seems her name is not just for creating magical enchantments, but her personality and looks are as well.

“That’s not what we came here for.” Qrow tells her.

“Of course it isn’t, you’re a Huntsman...it’s always business with you lot.” The Alchemist sighs, wiping the sweat from her brow. Taiyang shakes it off and Raven looks at him with almost disappointment of how she managed to tempt him like that. He feels the magic wearing off him and he even feels guilty for letting her charms take hold over him. Raven turns to the Undertaker and she walks towards it, looking at the webbing that has been used to fuse the creature’s body parts together.

“Is it just my imagination, or is this thing woven together with Spider’s Silk?” Raven asks them curiously, turning the three Witches that are before them. The candles continue to burn almost endlessly.

“Unaware of how useful webbing can be? Tis one of the strongest structures on earth, it can stick together as easily as it cannot be broken. The perfect usage for rebuilding the bodies of any kind of creature.” The Sorceress explains, looking directly at them as she explains how they built the Undertaker in this way. A horrific usage of Spider Webbing, but they seem to know their stuff in creating things in ways that would normally subvert science.

“Poor Undertaker, we do the best we could to keep him in one piece...but time is a cruel one to him. So we must use whatever we can deem useful for him.” The Enchantress explains, looking at the Undertaker as he stands there, like he has been shut down.

“What if the parts cannot be woven into him?” Raven asks curiously, looking at bits of Alligator and then parts of what look like Cow Hide.

“Then it shall be unravelled, and a new piece will be used to replace it.” The Alchemist answers. Taiyang looks around the swamp and he has a question from merely curiosity for the three Witches that exist before him.

“Are you cursed? Are you bound to the swamp against your will?” Taiyang asks, very carefully in case of accidentally insulting them on their home.

“Ooh! He’s curious!” The Alchemist exclaims with a cunning smile on her face, putting the spoon back into the cauldron where she was mixing the substances together to create something.

“We don’t fall victim to curses, young boy – we _cast_ them.” The Sorceress clarifies, giving Taiyang the chills when she says that. He does not wish to k now what kind of curses they can lay upon people. The Enchantress giggles when her sister says that, flicking her hair behind her head as she gazes at the two men before her. Qrow sighs, deciding to get onto the subject at hand now that introductions have been settled with. He walks over to the three of them, then the Undertaker’s eyes suddenly reactivate, it slams the Shovel down into the floor hard as a threat to not step any further. He stops in his tracks and sighs, looking at the three again.

“We’re looking for the Spring Maiden; I know you know what she looks like. We have reason to believe she travelled through the swamp. Have you seen her?” Qrow explains to them, revealing the real reason for why they are here. That is, of course, they did not already know. They seemed pretty ready to see them.

“Ooh...he’s impatient as he is handsome.” The Enchantress coos as she looks at him seductively. The Sorceress cackles quietly and turns to her youngest sister.

“Perhaps he only likes black haired gals?” The Sorceress suggests and he narrows his eyes towards them, since that is definitely not the case.

“The Spring Maiden, it is my duty to locate her for her past lover. I will respect that pledge.” Qrow states towards them and the Alchemist smirks as she laughs at his statement.

“If she’s shapely, what does it matter? Though if the omens are correct, a certain white haired maid has caught your eye...has she not?” The Alchemist states, her orange eyes seeming to burn right into his head as she stares at him. Like the eyes of a Hyena, and she does seem to cackle like one as well.

“It matters to me.” Qrow replies, ignoring their statement of his feelings for Winter Schnee.

“I believe we hit a nerve, his emotions are bubbling like the potions in this here cauldron.” The Alchemist says, sliding her fingers across the round edge of the cauldron’s surface, smiling at him as she walks. There is nothing friendly about their demeanour, far more sinister the way she smiles, keeping her eyes focused on them as they stand before them.

“It’s clear you’ve met her. Tell us everything.” Taiyang requests and the Sorceress raises her brows with surprise at him.

“That was blunt. Well perhaps it’s for the best. Tell me, have the three of you got bravery instilled in your breast? Do you fear getting your hands dirty?” The Sorceress questions and the three look at one another and he chuckles.

“We’ve seen our fair share.” Qrow assures.

“Good, for you will need it.” The Sorceress states.

“Oh...hard times are upon us, brave warriors – the land is being soaked in pollution from nearby monsters...a dark power has consumed the Creatures of Grimm, making them attack anything on site.” The Enchantress explains, sounding in pain as she touches her sternum as she speaks. “A distasteful factory has been pumping chemicals into our forest, the animals are struggling to eat...struggling to live.” She continues, as a snake slithers up to her and she feels it moving across her near-naked body, feeling pleasured by its presence.

“The Factory was being run by those you call the White Fang, a fanatical splinter group from the ones you know well.” The Alchemist explains, something that Qrow remembers quite well too.

“The Albains...” Qrow says quietly as he remembers the brothers.

“The mystical Grimm, they wiped out the White Fang, but the factory is still pumping chemicals into our lands...Destroy the factory and the monsters that allow this plague that harms our land, and we shall be ever so grateful. And shall tell you everything we know of the Spring Maiden.” The Sorceress tells them, creating their bargain for the information that they know about Yenna. Qrow nods to the others and they nod back. They can agree to do this, and they can pray that their word means all.

“We’ll handle it, and we’ll return when it is destroyed.” Qrow assures. The Sorceress smiles.

“We are grateful.” The Sorceress says. The Undertaker steps forward and looks at them, and they are guided out from the Barn the Witches reside inside. The Undertaker stands outside of the Barn, and the three of them walk away from the hut.

“Well...this should be interesting.” Taiyang says with a sigh.

“Come on, let’s get this over with.” Qrow says, and the three of them continue through the swamp.

 

**Jaune**

Jaune’s eyes move down to the steel cuffs that have been connected around his wrists. He turns to his side and he sees Kassius next to him as well, his have been designed very differently. His have got magnetic strips inside that have essentially shut his cybernetic arm down, he cannot move it at all. Nora and Ren are in the same position as Jaune with their hands restrained in handcuffs. Jaune looks back at the other area of the Dropship that they are being taken away inside of. There is a high security area with non-ferrous metal restraining the poor young woman, her eyes are closed and she looks heart-broken that people see her as this much of a monster. Even though she beat the Onyx Phantom, she is not that monster anymore...but Brimstone does not seem to see it that way.

Jaune looks out the window, seeing the glaciers over the sea where they get closer and closer to the city of Atlas. Kassius looks out, feeling the cold air through the glass and he chuckles. “Bet Weiss and Winter are glad they’re not with us.” Kassius says as he sees the city of Atlas ahead of them. Nora scoffs when she sees the pompous place, so many rich people there...it’s like she can sense the pathetic population of this kingdom already.

“This is where Weiss comes from?” Nora scoffs when she looks at it, then at one of the Atlesian soldiers. “Always thought you guys were utter pricks.” She says and the soldier just does not respond in the slightest, and Ren just looks at her.

“Hey...don’t start something with them. We just have to talk our way out of this.” He whispers to Nora, and she nods. She looks at her weapons that are impounded in the same ship that they are inside of.

“This is Atlas Twelve, requesting permission to dock. Transmitting Command Codes now.” The pilot speaks into the comm channel on the pilot deck. He waits a couple seconds before the Control Tower responds. They can see the huge Vessel landing down in the city, where the President has already disembarked to speak to them inside of. Then the tower responds to the pilot’s request.

“Codes Accepted, you may dock Atlas Twelve.” The Tower responds, and the ships approach the huge landing area of what appears to be a large military base. The large afterburners on the aircraft swivel round to allow the vessel that they are inside of to decelerate, and to descend towards the landing pad that they have been granted to land onto. The snow is blown away from the blast, stood by the pad is President Thaddeus Brimstone, and at his side is General Ironwood. James does not look as proud about the situation as the President does, if anything he seems to be a bit annoyed with him as well.

The doors open, and the soldiers stand the prisoners up. The push the butts of their rifles against their backs to move them forwards. Jaune staggers forward and looks back at them with narrowed eyes at the soldier. The Atlesian scoffs at the Arc Boy. “What are you gonna do, kid?” He questions with a scoff. Jaune just gives the soldier a stern look and keeps walking, seeing Pyrrha inside of what might as well be a cage as they send the floating device past them towards the building. Jaune and Kassius both walk towards the President and the General. But then the General says something to the soldiers.

“Uncuff them.” He orders, and the President looks at him with disgust but does not argue against the order.

“Sir?” The soldiers ask fearfully.

“Do it, they won’t be trouble. Will they?” He asks them, giving them an almost desperate look in his eyes. They can trust him, he is on their side after all. One of the few allies they actually have in this Kingdom. The soldiers comply, unlocking the restraints on them and letting them loosen their arms.

“What’s gonna happen to her?” Jaune demands.

“Same thing that ought to happen to you. Psychological Evaluation and Extradition.” Thaddeus answers, Nora scoffs at that answer.

“She was already an exile.” Nora points out, especially in how they found her.

“Well, there’s always the other option. I prefer it but the General here does seem to have a heart.” The President states, clearly referencing execution opposed to exile. Ironic that the man that has been seen as Heartless at times is the one that is being kind and giving Pyrrha more chances than the President is.

“So what, we gonna get lawyers?” Jaune asks with a shrug and Thaddeus laughs.

“Lawyer? That’s funny. We’ve impounded your weapons until your release, we’ll write you a receipt.” He says to them with a smirk on his face, walking ahead of them. Kassius sees one of them holding Lash Equinox and he squints his eyes when he sees them there.

“Try not to not yourself.” He advises sarcastically, walking with them as they follow the General. Ironwood pulls back slightly and whispers to them, so then Brimstone cannot hear him talking to them.

“Just so you know, I was not informed on any of this. If I was...well it would have gone a lot smoother.” He says to them, hoping to ease some of their concerns.

“Didn’t seem like a standard Military Operation.” Ren replies, agreeing with what he is saying.

“That’s because it wasn’t, my strength in Military has weakened greatly after what Jacques Schnee did. And Thaddeus has more control...I have concerns about the President. He is acting strangely suddenly, trying to debunk everything that happened as hoaxes. But we all know better than that.” Ironwood says to them as they continue to walk across the runway. They also see Oobleck, Port and Penny being taken towards the place as well. No sign of Glynda, it is possible that she is still at Beacon. Like anyone would have been able to take her, she is more powerful than anything that was thrown at her. The White Fang might still be there as well, making sure that Mazen stays where he is.

They follow the General and the President through the building, walking across a sky bridge that moves across the icy cold water rivers that are beneath them. They are very close to Schnee Manor, they can actually see it from where they are. The symbol in the ground and on the side of the building is a rather big giveaway. “You see, instead of a cell, we have given the lot of you some offices to stay inside of. We will have questions for you all, like why you are harbouring a fugitive at your school for starters.” Thaddeus explains as he walks ahead of them. The other people who’ve been taken are with them as well, Oobleck scoffs as he looks at the place.

“How do you people like it here?” Port asks them with confusion, shivering due to the icy cold that surrounds them as he walks around. The President ignores his comment and keeps on walking.

“We do not intend to go anyway, not until you let her go.” Penny says and the President stops with a chuckle turning to Penny and staring her in the eyes.

“I heard about you – the little experiment by the General...you know if I had any say in the matter we would have put a control chip in that little head of yours. You’re a machine, you do not have friends, get that through your programming.” He nastily says to Penny, upsetting her to the point she looks down at the floor. Nora gently bumps her shoulder to take her mind off what Brimstone said to her.

“Hey, don’t listen to him. He’s just jealous.” Nora says to her, hoping it will make her feel better. It doesn’t but it does make her know she does have friends, and he is wrong about that part. Jaune keeps on watching as they take Pyrrha down into a sub-level, all he ever wanted was to see her again. And now she has been taken away from him once again. They walk into the room, lots of computers are built inside of this place as well.  One of the operatives turns to him as the holographic communicator is loading a connection to someone.

“Mr President, Sienna Khan is on the line as you requested.” The operative says to him.

“Good work, patch her through.” He orders, stepping onto the plate on the floor where she can see him fully. The hologram forms the Tigress Faunus before him, she already has her arms crossed and has a pretty annoyed look on her face.

“Brimstone.” She greets, far less formally than others tend to do so. She does not even call him by the title he always likes to carry around wherever he goes. She does not take any crap from anyone, even him.

“Khan.” Brimstone responds.

“I just received the reports from Adam Taurus at Beacon. He is protecting the school with the help of Glynda after you attacked it, mind explaining what that was about?” She asks him, her eyes narrowed and he chuckles.

“Well, the school were harbouring a fugitive?” Thaddeus suggests, he even increases the pitch of his voice like he is speaking to a child.

Or a pet.

Her tigress ears curve downwards and she grits her teeth with anger from the way he speaks to her, and how he is treating the situation. He treats it like it is all a big game or nothing ever truly matters. “Fugitive? You mean Pyrrha Nikos? The girl that was killed, brought back to life and was brainwashed into serving the Knights of Grimm?” She questions with what sounds like a laugh behind her disbelief as she actually nails it on the head.

“Brainwashed by a Doctor to serve Salem, who is now dead.” Thaddeus _corrects_ as he looks at her.

“Watts?” Nora squeaks with shock at his stupidity.

“This fool is terribly misinformed.” Ren states as he looks at him, the soldier behind him hits him in the back with his gun to shut him up.

“Hey we’re not prisoners, we can easily fight back, buddy.” Kassius challenges, staring the soldier down, and his eyes flicker read.

“Come on, let me rip him to shreds.” Hyde begs, but Kassius calms him down in his head.

“We freak out on them, they kill all of us and Pyrrha. Not the best idea.” Kassius internally says to Hyde, and his alternate personality stays quiet for a couple seconds.

“Good point. Later though?” He asks.

“If he challenges us, by all means.” He agrees, looking away from the soldier.

“Who are you talking to?” The soldier asks him.

“Nobody.” He lies with a big smile on his face, making Jaune chuckle since he can guess what Hyde was asking of him.

“You’re taking the piss, right?” Sienna questions, planting her hand on her hip, raising her eyebrow. Thaddeus looks at her and he chuckles.

“It has been confirmed that the creation of the Onyx Phantom was done by the work of Doctor Arthur Watts, he has been known of achieving incredible scientific feats. Including Psychology as well, and since he was working alongside Doctor Merlot as well, it all makes perfect sense to me.” Thaddeus explains and she shakes her head.

“You were there when we lead the assault, I came to you for help. You knew the threat the Knights of Grimm were, and they are still a threat now.” He explains and he sighs, shaking his finger towards her condescendingly.

“No, the Knights of Grimm are but a myth. They were just new Creatures of Grimm we have never seen before. But now they are dead, buried in ashes like the rest of that island was.” He explains, and Sienna shakes her head with disgust at him.

“Ilia did not have to die for this.” She snarls at him, and he just looks at her. He does not even seem to care about Ilia’s death, or any of the soldiers that died on those islands.

“Is there anything else?” Thaddeus asks her with a smile. She grits her teeth and growls, ending the call abruptly and walking away from the lens of her projector. “Damned Faunus, always thinking they know how politics works.” He scoffs, walking past them, and towards his air conditioned office. Jaune growls and storms after him, and Nora and Ren follow him into the office behind him. The soldiers go to stop them, but Ironwood stops them from pursuing. He pushes the door open behind him with angered eyes as he stands behind Brimstone.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jaune shouts with rage, Thaddeus stops with a surprised expression. He turns and faces Jaune, crossing his arms before sitting down in his comfortable seat.

“I am keeping our Kingdoms from falling apart, Jaune Arc. We have just escaped one war and I do not intend for us to be dragged into another. I will not let these rumours of Knights of Grimm and this Salem thing terrorise the people into starting another war.” Thaddeus tells him, and his statements are understandable. He knows how the Grimm works and that can be respected, but his methods are wrong.

“What about that?” Ren questions, pointing back at the projector that was showing Sienna Khan moments ago. “You were treating her like a child, you hate the Faunus just as much as Jacques Schnee, don’t you?” He questions and he chuckles at him.

“Now, you see...the Faunus are an unknown. We do not know where they came from, but if there is one thing I do agree with Mr Schnee it was his ideas with the Faunus. They are a much stronger species than we are, both for military purposes and other. They can be useful resources.” Thaddeus explains, shocking them to their inner core that he would ever suggest such a horrific thing.

“Are you kidding me?” Nora questions, sounding even more disgusted with him.

“You’re just as bad as he is...” Jaune says quietly with shock.

“What would you three know about tough decisions, hmm?” He asks them, leaning forward and looking directly at them. “You really think I enjoy putting them in terrible conditions? No I don’t, I try and help them get the resources they need, make it more comfortable. They get work and we keep them safe, but the mines are dangerous. And there is too much bad blood between Humanity and the Faunus. Most of the time they just rebel against help.” Thaddeus explains to them.

“Have you ever worked the mines?” Jaune asks him with curiosity.

“What has that got to do with anything?” Thaddeus questions.

“Have you?” He repeats the question.

“No.” Thaddeus answers.

“Then why don’t you show the Faunus that you do apparently care about them?” He asks, but Thaddeus chuckles, standing up from his desk and staring straight at him.

“I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea, son.” Thaddeus says to him. “They are a resource, nothing more. I do not want their happiness, I want their manpower, nothing more.” He states, looking him dead in the eyes as he says it.

“You’re just as bad as he is.” Jaune says with a scoff.

“No...Jacques Schnee wanted power. I have that power, and I will use it to keep our Kingdoms safe from those that would dare harm us.” Thaddeus explains, and he sighs.

“Come on, Jaune. Let’s figure out how to get Pyrrha her freedom from these pricks.” Nora says, not even afraid to say what she is thinking exactly anymore. Thaddeus watches them leave but he has one last thing to say.

“Mr Arc...” He says, and Jaune turns to face him. “I appreciate everything you have done to protect the people, but don’t forget what you are. You are no Bannerman, you are no Knight, and you are no warrior.” Thaddeus lists.

“You’re a messenger. You’ve always been one, and that will never change.” He tells him and Jaune stares straight at him...the word stabs right into his heart. Nora glares at him and shakes her head.

“He’s a hero.” Nora corrects, leaving the office with Jaune and Ren, closing the door behind them.

Thaddeus is left alone to himself and he sits there, scratching his chin as he thinks away. He has no idea, that the camera in his room is watching him. Through the lens of the camera, a pair of blue eyes are watching him from another location. Miles away in a secret location, Jacques Schnee is watching him from a desk. He clasps his hands together and he smirks, leaning forward on his desk as he looks at the screen.

“Oh Thaddeus...You have no idea of what you’ve gotten yourself into.” Jacques says with a cunning smile on his face.

 

**Adam**

Adam stands there in the Prison Block that they have built to hold Mazen in case of him trying to break out, but he has yet to move anywhere yet. He holds his sword in his hand, and has Glynda stood with him. Security has been broken down severely, they now have any Huntsmen that can fight or have weapons protecting the place. And ironically, White Fang Militants as well are guarding the place. How things have changed here at Beacon, for only a few years ago they were attacking this school, now they are protecting it. Adam has his scroll up to the side of his head, speaking to Sienna Khan after her conversation with him. “He did what?” Adam questions as he paces back and forth, whilst Glynda grabs the bridge of her nose, shaking her head.

“He spoke to me like I was a child, he did not seem to even care about what happened five years ago. He has completely dismissed the Knights of Grimm ever existed!” Sienna Khan replies with anger directed at the President, they are both pacing back and forth from where they are. The Honour Guards look at each other as she paces, looking awkward as she tries to not lose her cool.

“And now they have taken Pyrrha and most of the Huntsmen capable enough to protect the school.” Adam explains, he knows that Ozpin has been recovered, and so does Sienna. They have private channels to discuss these things through.

“Atlas is becoming a problem, he is losing his edge that he used to have. He helped us stop them...I don’t understand how he can find this so easy to cover everything up. I understand he is trying to prevent panic from spreading, but the world saw the Knights of Grimm. How do you cover up that many villages being destroyed?” She questions with anger, unable to fathom it. Adam paces, but then he stops, his senses realise that Mazen is looking at him. He can hear the chuckle in his breath that he has.

“Just...keep me informed, okay? I need to talk to Mazen.” He says to her.

“I understand.” She replies.

“Stay safe, Sienna.” Adam asks of her.

“You too, Adam.” Sienna replies, and they both end the call. Adam opens the door, walking towards the cell that holds Mazen. Mazen glares at him with furious eyes hidden behind his mask.

“I told you, Adam.” Mazen quietly says, staring at him. “When the chips are down...the Humans will go after the next thing they don’t understand. The other thing that is stronger than they are.” He explains.

And Adam is starting to think he is right.

But he made a promise...

He trusts Blake’s instincts now...

But he cannot trust Atlas. They are becoming dangerous to the rest of the world.

 

**Qrow**

 They make their way through the swamps, and they set their eyes on the factory. The large towers are doing exactly what the Witches told them they would be doing, endlessly spilling black smoke into the skies of Remnant. The buildings are damaged and they see the Grimm that gnaw on the bodies of the dead White Fang Rebels, their clothes ripped and bodies torn to shreds. Blood is everywhere, stained all over the floor.

But something is different. They have never seen this before...but Team R.W.B.Y and Team J.N.P.R have...a long time ago.

The Grimm turn and they growls aggressively, mutated and completely different to what they used to be. There are large versions of the Grimm Creeps and Beowulves, and new ones as well. Green energy pulsates in their bodies, with long green crystals protruding from their bodies. The Mutated Beowulf roars at them, bellowing to the skies and they charge towards them.

“That’s new!” Qrow exclaims as he draws his sword.

But they know what they are.

Merlot’s sick experiments...

They’re back.


	19. Doctor Merlot

**Qrow**

The massive mutated Beowulf throws its arms back, roaring to the sky, the eyes glow fierce green as it howls. The green crystalline spines protrude out from its spines as it howls furiously. It twitches and glares at them, growling as it charges straight at them. The Mutant Beowulf clenches its huge clawed hands into fists, and green energy charges through its arms into the fists, slamming them straight into the soil. Suddenly glowing green spikes protrude from the ground towards them. “Whoa!” Taiyang exclaims, leaping out of the way, whilst the Branwen Sisters step aside, not as close to it as he was.

“Well this is new.” Qrow chuckles when he glares at the Mutant Grimm that are before them. There are Creeps, a couple of Beowulves and what appears to be an Ursa as well. The Ursa is one that Team R.W.B.Y did not come across on his island when they were being unleashed. The Beowulf snarls, foaming at the mouth from its almost skeletal head, arms twitching as it stares directly at them. It leaps directly at Qrow, and he jumps back, bringing his sword round to deflect the impact of those sword-like claws that it just attacked him with. The Mutant growls, slashing over and over again. Qrow gets hit in the chest from the huge hands of the Beowulf, thrown back from the impact; he slides across the floor with an audible groan. The Beowulf’s eyes glow stridently as it roars at them, staring straight at Taiyang as it charges towards him. It leaps and grapples onto him, throwing him through one of the trees. Taiyang grunts and tumbles into the sludge.

He looks up, wiping the mud off his face, staring at the Mutant Beowulf. It throws its arms back and roars with anger, these Grimm seem to be fuelled by rage, more than what usually drives them. It grits its jagged white teeth, and Taiyang clenches his hand into a fist. His hand glows orange as he stands up, and he winds his fist back as the Beowulf goes to attack him again. He strikes the Beowulf, punching it across the head with all his might. The Beowulf barks, staggering back from the impact of his fist, it feels the serum that courses through its veils trickling down from an open wound made by him. It licks the serum and it seems to infuriate the creature even more. It slashes aggressively towards him, until a red Odachi stops the claws in its tracks. Raven jumps high, kicking the Beowulf up the jaw, making it stagger back as she stands beside her lover.

Qrow pushes his hands against the mud to get back up, the mud drips from his face and his clothes. His red eyes focus on the Mutated Creeps that charge towards him. Their six glowing green eyes seem to have hot green steam trailing from their sockets. Heads like Rhinos and the beast roars at him, rolling directly at him. The Creep spins round to hit Qrow with its spiky tail. Qrow jumps over the tail, swinging his sword round to sever the tail from its body. The green serum pours out from its body, the creature howls with pain, and then he slashes across its head. The Creep collapses to the ground, and he thinks that it is dead. Until he hears the sound of the body beginning to explode, but he does not know that these Grimm are capable of exploding like this. He looks at it, the body is writhing around as it cracks and erodes, glowing green light emits from the fissures in its body. The light glows brighter and brighter from the body, and Qrow’s eyes widen. He jumps out of the way to avoid the coming detonation of the Grimm. The corpse of the Creep bursts into green flames, chunks of Grimm are thrown everywhere from the pulse that is set off. Qrow lands on the ground, observing the damage that thing’s death did. “That’s not normal.” He says to himself after realising that these mutated Grimm are highly volatile when killed.

Qrow hears more of them roaring, charging towards him with their heads held down. He narrows his eyes when he sees them, holding the blade of his sword forward. He spins the sword through his fingers and runs at them to kill them.

Taiyang uppercuts the Beowulf with his glowing fists, bone fragments are thrown into the air as it staggers away. The Mutated Monster roars at him, swinging directly at him, the claws cut through the air like knives through butter. Taiyang ducks down and rolls with the attack of the creature. The Beowulf goes to plunge its claws down onto his back, but Raven slashes across the creature’s wrist, cutting clean through the armour and severing the hand from its arm. The Beowulf roars with pain, smoke and green serum pouring from its stump. The Beowulf then growls, gritting its teeth tight as it spins round to slash at them once more with its other arm. Raven yells, lifting the blade to guard herself against the creature. Taiyang jumps up behind the beast, punching down into the back of its head to make it stumble. Raven takes her chance, spinning her Odachi skilfully through her fingers, and plunges the long blade into the chest of the Beowulf. It groans with pain, and reaches for her to kill her, until she quickly removes the blade from its ribs, and swings it across its neck, beheading it skilfully.

The body also begins to crack and erode; this is something that has changed with the Mutated Grimm. The versions Team R.W.B.Y and Team J.N.P.R met on Merlot’s Island and in Vale were not all explosive, only the weaker Mutant Creeps were explosive when they died. Now however...it looks like that the serum has made them all explosive when they get killed. Taiyang sees the body coming apart and his eyes widen, and he instinctively rushes to his girlfriend and grabs her, they both fall into the mud away from the exploding Grimm. The Beowulf roars as it explodes, a bright green fireball erupts from its body, and Taiyang shields Raven’s head from the blast. Neither is hurt, but it shows how much their relationship has repaired over the years. “What the hell is wrong with these Grimm? I’ve never seen these before.” Raven says, standing up as she sees Qrow fighting the Creeps that have chosen to have some fun with him. Taiyang however remains quiet with a look of recognition on them; perhaps it has something to do with Yang and Ruby telling him about Merlot...

...or has he got history with the Doctor?

One of the Creeps jumps at Qrow, biting onto the blade of his sword. It growls like a dig as its teeth scrape across the metal of the blade, and Qrow brings his sword up and transforms the blade into its Scythe Form. A bunch of them begin to circle around him. He throws the current Creep from his sword and he spins round, severing all their heads in one attack. All of them are killed, and they all begin to explode. He realises and leaps out of the epicentre before they all erupted into green flames. The explosion is almighty, making the ground shake, and one of the other Beowulves growls with anger, seeing Qrow and it charges at him through the dissipating green flames and smoke. The Beowulf leaps towards him with a terrifying roar, arm extended back to slash him across the chest.

Qrow smirks at the Grimm as it jumps at him, and he points the tip of his sword at the creature. The blade folds downwards, and the barrels of the shotguns built into the Scythe fire towards the Beowulf. The shell fragments impact the chest of the Beowulf and it is thrown back. The creature snarls with anger, scraping its claws into the ground to slow itself down before attacking again. It stands back up and runs at them again, these Grimm do not seem to have any sort of intelligence. They do not plot their next moves in their head, they just attack without question, which gets them killed, or can end up killing a less experienced Huntsman.

Taiyang and Raven approach to fight, and something catches Raven’s eye. She cannot help but notice that these things are attacking the place, the Ursa is still destroying the factory itself. Something is not right, why would they be sent here to stop the creatures of Grimm from destroying a factory that pollutes their swamp? Her eyes narrow and then she looks very carefully, she sees something...could have been mistaken for a tree.

But the Elk Skull on its shoulders disproves this theory.

There is a Leshen commanding these Grimm, but it is not the Lord of the Wood, it has both antlers and is clearly much younger than the Lord is. Her eyes widen and she gasps. “Guys! We’ve got a Leshen!” She calls to them, and Qrow slashes across the face of the Beowulf that just challenged him. The Beowulf crashes into the old boxes left behind at this place. The Beowulf rolls across the ground, tearing the soil up. Qrow turns to her.

“I’m a little busy!” Qrow yells, holding the sword forwards to stop the claws of the Mutated Grimm from getting closer. These Grimm are far stronger than normal Beowulves, and much bigger as well. Qrow kicks the Beowulf in the leg to force it onto one knee. He points his sword at the feet of the Beowulf and fires the shotguns into the ground. The explosive impact makes the Beowulf stumble. Qrow roars with rage, swinging round and beheading the Beowulf. It still stood up; he kicks the body back before it could explode on him. The body falls back and explodes; he pushes his shoulder towards the blast to shield his face. Bits of green serum land on him but nothing serious.

The Leshen stands there, and slowly looks over its shoulder at them. The burning sockets glare directly at them. They have no idea that their foe is seeing through the eyes of this Leshen. Salem stands there at her camo in Vacuo, the Seer floats before her, showing her what the Leshen sees. She grits her teeth with anger when she sees Qrow there and she clenches her hands into a fist, her long white hair blows in the wind, sand stuck to her skin as she observes. “Qrow...” Salem snarls with rage.

Qrow stares at the Leshen, now that he can actually talk to them, and the Mutated Ursa turns around to face them. The Ursa growls with anger, stood there and it lands on all fours. The Ursa growls faintly and then roars at them, its lip hanging down as it roars. The Leshen slowly lifts its arm up and points the sharp jagged wooden finger towards the three Huntsmen that stand there. The Leshen has just commanded this mutated Ursa to challenge them; it runs at them with a roar.

They all get ready as it attacks. “Bets on how hard this’ll be?” Taiyang asks them curiously, Qrow chuckles.

“Can’t be as tough as a Kraken.” Qrow says, remembering the Cruel Sea that they had to voyage through to get to the Islands in the first place.

“You fought a Kraken?” He questions with shock.

“I’ll tell ya later.” Qrow promises. The Mutant Ursa roars, swinging its massive clawed paw towards them, and they all duck down, just narrowly avoiding them claws from hitting them. Qrow rolls under the arm of the monster and slices up its back. It looks just like an Ursa Major, but the spines have been replaced with glowing green spikes. And they appear to be like a Porcupine’s Quills; it growls and tenses its muscles. The spikes shoot out from the Ursa’s back and they just miss Qrow. He jumps in the air and cuts one of the spikes in half, it shatters into tiny pieces and he fires his shotgun at the Ursa.

Taiyang jumps up at the Ursa and punches it in the face, it grunts and staggers back. Ever punch he delivers; his semblance becomes increasingly stronger and stronger, like Yang’s but the other way around. He punches and punches the Ursa in the chest, quickly and aggressively, and his fists seem to glow brighter the more he punches the Ursa in its furry hide. He then punches the Ursa up the jaw, and the impact is almost explosive. The Ursa staggers back and growls with rage, running at Taiyang specifically, slamming him down with its huge hand. The claws pin him down to the muddy floor, saliva drools from the mouth of the Grimm Bear. It growls and lifts its other paw to slash him, but Raven jumps onto the back of the Ursa, stabbing her sword through its back. The Ursa howls with pain, releasing him enough for Taiyang to punch the Ursa in the chin.

It staggers back and she holds onto the Ursa as its staggers. Qrow runs at the Ursa and slices his sword across its belly, the cracks begin to form but it keeps on fighting. Taiyang slams both fists into the back of the Ursa’s leg to bring it down to one knee. Raven leaps off after pulling her sword out from its back. She lands before the Ursa and drives the sword straight through its ribs.

This was the final nail in the coffin for the Ursa. The Ursa roars with pain as it begins to explode, arm by arm, chunk by chunk. It is a large combination of explosions that result in one cataclysmic blast that blows some of the buildings apart. One of the coolant towers collapses from the explosion, tonnes of concrete plummeting down and shattering beneath where it held itself high. The Leshen stands there and walks through the smoke as the Ursa is killed.

The Leshen scrapes its claws against one another to sharpen them. The Leshen snarls when it sees them and they stand back up. This is not a mutated Grimm; it must have come here because of the Factory as well, though. It must have figured out how to control these Grimm, despite the Serum being involved in them. Merlot still has not mastered one hundred percent control over the Grimm through that Serum he manufactured. Qrow stares at the Leshen as it walks towards them, roots tunnelling through the floor as it walks.

“Get ready; this guy won’t go down without a fight.” Qrow tells them as he holds his sword to his side.

“He’s not the Lord of the Wood, we can take him down.” Taiyang says to them as well, and Qrow turns to his sister.

“Raven, you still got your fire blade in there?” He asks her and she smiles. She sheathes her sword and switches the red blade to her fire dust based blade. She draws the blade, flames roar across it and smoke trails from it. The Leshen stands there, waiting for them to make the first move. It might be a Young Leshen, but it is still intelligent. This one has likely lived for maybe a century at least; the Lord of the Wood has existed for other a thousand years. Most likely existed long before the Arkhoni did. The Leshen walks towards them, and they run towards the Leshen.

It swings its huge clawed hand straight at them, and Taiyang slides under the hand that just swung towards him. The Leshen turns round and plunges the claws down towards him. He rolls out of the way, and the Leshen’s claws get lodged into the muddy ground. It growls with frustration whilst it attempts to free itself. Qrow slashes its back, the wooden hide creaks and shatters in places, and the Leshen rips its hand from the soil. It spins round and smashes its fist into Qrow, knocking him down onto the ground.

Leshens are prone to fire, since there are mostly made from wood. Raven sprints towards the Leshen and strikes, the line of fire sticks to the bark and the Leshen staggers back, smoke rising from the fire that ignites across its body. The Leshen groans with pain as it stands before them, but it does not writhe around to put the flames out. Smoke forms around it and the caws of many crows emerge, as they swarm around the being, and it vanishes. The three of them stand back to back as a creepy fog begins to form. Leshens are capable of doing these things, they have simply never fought the Lord of the Wood in the environment it is suited to best, woodlands and marshlands. They all listen very carefully; the unmistakably sound of creaking wood surrounds them, as if all the trees are moving towards them at once. Qrow’s eyes widen and he spins round, holding his sword upwards to stop the claws from hitting any of them. The large blade holds the wooden claws of the Leshen tight and he pushes the arm back. Taiyang slams his fist into the chest of the Leshen to make it stagger back.

The Leshen stands tall and then points its finger at them. The crows manifest from the trees, all cawing at once as they form behind it. Their eyes widen and they are forced to take cover behind the buildings. Suddenly they all blast towards them, their beaks could have shredded their aura down and the Leshen would not have had any trouble in finishing them off. Qrow gets behind what remains of the collapsed Coolant Tower, Raven takes cover behind one of the buildings and Taiyang finds shelter behind some crates. The crates are blown to pieces, but they did not harm him. The crows fly away and the Leshen continues to walk, the most patient Creatures of Grimm man has ever faced. And one of the most intelligent and dangerous in the Bestiary of Grimm. They return to face the Leshen now that the crows are no longer in the vicinity, and they rush towards the creature. Raven jumps at the Leshen with the Fire Odachi held forward. She slices across its side, burning its body from the inside out again. The Leshen grunts and then grabs her by her long black hair.

Raven yelps when she feels the sharp timber hand grabbing her well kept hair with such aggression. The Leshen pulls her off the floor and swings round, throwing her into one of the Factory Buildings with force. The wall crumbles as she smashes straight through it, and she groans as she lays there, picking her Odachi back up. The Leshen is still burning, but it does not act like it is in pain like other Grimm would, it just continues to fight them. It sees Taiyang and Qrow charging towards the Leshen, and it pushes its claws into the soil, and powerful roots tunnel underneath them like worms. The roots erupt from the soil and they try to grab them. Qrow jumps up, just avoiding one of the roots, and Taiyang goes to slam his fist into the Leshen’s body.

Until one root just catches onto his ankle, pulling him hard and he falls face first onto the floor. He slams his chin onto the ground and he grunts. “Crap!” He yells with annoyance, punching the roots over and over again to break free. Qrow sprints directly at the Leshen, and the beast swings its claws right at him. He jumps at the Leshen, just missing its attack, and he grabs onto one of its large spiked antlers. He swings round the Leshen and lands on its back. The Leshen staggers around and tries to reach for him.

“Party’s over!” Qrow yells, jumping up and plunging the sword’s blade directly down into its back. The blade protrudes out of its ribcage made of wood, and the Leshen howls with pain, black smoke pours out from its chest. It stands there and he hears the sound of the wooden body cracking and creaking.

He pulls his sword from between its shoulder blades and kicks off the back of the Leshen. He lands on the ground, looking directly at where the Leshen has fallen. It remains stood upright, but its body creaks and groans. Its legs snap after the wood dies and dust spills from the legs. It falls to the ground with heavy thud, the corpse shatters into powder and the skull rolls off where it once was. Black smoke leaves where it fell, and the Leshen has been defeated. Unlike the Lord of the Wood, this one has been killed permanently.

Qrow exhales with relief now that the Leshen has been destroyed, the fog thins out and they can see clearly again. He walks over to the others, Raven walks out of the building that the Leshen threw her into, and the roots that caught Taiyang have broken. They are all exhausted after that bout, first they had to face the Mutated Grimm made by Merlot, and a Leshen after that. “Well...that was interesting.” Raven says with a chuckle in her voice. Taiyang looks at the green serum that is all over the place after those Grimm were killed.

“What were those things?” Qrow wonders when he crouches down by the goo and he touches some of it. It does not seem to be as toxic as it used to be when Merlot constructed it.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen anything like them.” Raven agrees, and Taiyang sighs.

“I have.” He answers, the sisters look at him with a confused expression. “Well – I was told about them.” He adds and they both stand up and walk over to him, listening to what he has to say.

“Who told you?” Qrow asks him, and he sits down on one of the cut down trees, on the stump. No surprise why the Leshen showed up here, the felling of trees is one sure way to enrage a Leshen in the area.

“Our daughters.” He answers, and he looks confused from how they could have known about those Grimm.

“How would they know about them?” Raven asks.

“Because this was not the first time they have been seen.” He reveals, and they both want a full explanation. He sighs and then tells the tale.

“Before the Vytal Festival, they both came to me with this story when they were on Summer Break.” Taiyang begins to explain to them. “Team R.W.B.Y and Team J.N.P.R were both on training in the Emerald Forest, it was a routine thing. Collect any artefacts that they could find, make sure the area is safe for the next set of students in the coming semester.” Taiyang explains.

“I remember, we did the same thing.” Raven agrees.

“Yeah, well during their routine mission, they found some weird containers in the forest. They pursued the trail and found more and more of these containers, their trail lead them to Mountain Glenn once more. They found more crates, and clear signs of recent mining activities down there. And those Creeps we fought? They were there as well.” Taiyang explains, remembering exactly what Ruby and Yang told him about their little adventure.

“Can’t be a coincidence.” Qrow says as he scratches the back of his head.

“Well, they found out at Forever Fall that they were Grimm that were being tested on. They met the Beowulves we fought today as well...and they saw a ship with Merlot Industries imprinted on the side of it, same as the crates they saw.” Taiyang tells the two of them, and their eyes widen slightly when they hear the name of that company.

“Merlot...” Qrow sighs when he hears the name.

“So this isn’t the first time that crazy bastard’s been running amok?” Raven assumes.

“Not in the slightest, they snuck aboard his ship and followed him back to an uncharted island. Or at least it was for us, Merlot must have hidden it. He had a secret base there, and was creating Androids that were far more advanced than anything that Atlas had made.” Taiyang explains and Qrow nods, remembering what they fought in Mistral five years ago.

“The Valerian Knights.” Qrow remembers, the two red Androids that used those spears and were very lethal in combat.

“By the looks of things his creations were not under his full control because they slaughtered his staff there and it was just him there. They tracked him down, and they fought his most prized creation, a Mutated Deathstalker. They managed to take it down eventually and Merlot set the facility to self destruct. They escaped via Bullhead and returned home, assuming Merlot was dead. Clearly he must have escaped somehow.” Taiyang concludes and the two Branwens stand there, amazed by this information. They both look surprised by this information; the fact that he has had some time to work on these Grimm...it means that there are more than just the ones that they faced today.

“So Merlot is back in the game?” Raven sighs as she stands there and crosses her arms.

“Looks that way.” Taiyang agrees.

“Of course he is...how couldn’t he keep his hands out of our business?” Qrow chuckles when he walks over to them. He picks his sword back up and rests it on his shoulder, looking out at the Marshlands, back where the three Witches are waiting for them. “Come on, let’s tell the Witches we did what they wanted and get what we need.” He says.

 

**Ruby**

Winter sets the photograph of Fury down on the table; the group have all come together after the betrayal of N.D.G.O to go over the findings that Winter brought here. It is the big reason for her being here. Ruby stands there, her eye widens when she sees the fiery form of the Knight of Fury sat upon his throne made of melting cars. Yang looks at it and then looks at Blake, her ears have bent downwards out of anger when she sees the same monster that murdered her parents and slaughtered her people at Menagerie. Her hand clenches into a fist and she grits her teeth, staring directly at the monster that is in the picture. Sun gently holds her hand to calm her down and she sighs with relief when he holds her hand like that. She looks at him with a sweet smile, thanking him for the comfort he brings. “Fury...” Ruby says, confirming it to be him. She would know better than any of them here, she saw them all the most when she was captured.

“So they are still running the show by the looks of things.” Yang states, leaning down onto the table as she looks over at the photograph that sits upon the table. She rubs her head, and she has no idea that her boyfriend has just been arrested by the Atlesian Military for crimes he did not commit.

“What the hell is he doing back here? We haven’t seen a Knight in five years.” Blake questions, with more anger behind her voice. It is almost like the effects their curse has on people when they are near can even affect those in picture form.

“We don’t know, our spy who took this picture and sent it back to Atlas Command was killed by Fury seconds afterwards.” Winter explains, and Sun shakes his head, sighing.

“They’re hiding something, that’s for certain.” He says when he thinks about what the Knight is doing out there.

“Were the others seen there? Death? Fear? Loss?” Oscar asks her.

“We don’t think so. They could have been nearby though.” Winter states with a sigh, Weiss sits there with concern on her face. She cannot stop thinking about what happened with Loss...what she said to her...about there being an evil that was coming for them. That was a warning if there ever was one, and it did not seem like she was supposed to tell them that. Loss did that out of the kindness that remains in her cursed soul.

“I spoke to Loss not long ago.” Weiss tells them, she has learned how dangerous lies can be in this world, and she has changed for the better. She no longer lies to people or hides things from them. They all look shocked by this information, apart from Winter and Neptune since she already told them.

“Loss? How long ago is this?” Sun asks her, confused of why she is only telling them about this now.

“Just before we went to the Schnee Dust Company Branch, before it was attacked. Before N.D.G.O...I needed to think about what she said to me before I told you all.” She says to them, and considering that her reasons are fully understandable, they do not do what others would do and get angry at her withholding the information.

“What did she want?” Yang asks Weiss, they all look at her to hear what she has to say. She closes her eyes, remembering her voice when she told her what she said.

“She told me that the only way we can beat them is to help them, Kragen was right about that. We need to find the Visionary Books to help them find Closure, because they do not want to do this. They are cursed, and the curse makes them do things that they would never do. Turns them against who they should be.” Weiss explains, remembering and figuring out the curse in her head as she thought it through. Curses are relatively simple and yet are complicated, the things that they bind themselves to can be the simplest things. But breaking that can prove to be a great challenge.

“Of course.” Oscar agrees, thinking back to when he was at Arkhonex and saw four of the original five Knights.

Death, Fear, Vengeance, Loss and Fury.

With Vengeance already beaten, they must figure out how to solve the curses to the other four. Although he never saw Fury, only Yang saw him when she touched the Visionary Book, and saw Death before he was corrupted. “Starla was a nurse and singer, she only wanted to make those who were sad happy. Krekras was a warrior, he wanted to save people and keep people alive. Rylen was an actor and tended to play monsters since he could make them look funny instead of scary. But Axzura...I never saw him.” Oscar explains, remembering everything he saw, whilst Vir Nominis Umbra was following him every step of the way.

“So their curse is bound to their original beliefs? The good in them was flipped upside down?” Neptune presumes from his explanation, his theory on how the curse works.

“Possibly.” Oscar agrees.

“Then we need to make them believe in their original ideals again.” Ruby realises as well, since that is how they do it. They must find a way, learn the most important moments in their lives that gave them these ideals. The points in their lives that were so important before they made their mistakes, before they became the Knights of Grimm.

“Easier said than done.” Blake states with a sigh, and she is right. “If Starla was telling the truth then we need to find more of those Visionary Books, like the one we found in the Emerald Forest, and the one you guys went searching for in Vacuo five years ago. And we’d have to pray we find the one that shows us that moment.” Blake explains, since it is a very good point as well. The books practically show the entirety of the Arkhoni History, it would be difficult to pinpoint their moments.

“That wasn’t all she said.” Weiss explains, remembering the other things that Starla brought up.

“It wasn’t?” Sun asks her.

“No, she gave me a warning.” Weiss tells them, and they become quite nervous when she says that.

“What sort of warning?” Ruby asks her.

“She said that a great evil is coming to Vacuo, that we need to leave before it does.” Weiss explains, even feeling the chills run across her body as she tells them what the Knight of Loss had spoken to her about.

“A Great Evil? The Knights of Grimm?” Oscar suggests.

“I don’t think so...she made it sound like it was more lethal than even they were. But she left before she could tell me more, I guess her curse forced her to leave. But she wanted to help us, deep down...” Weiss explains, feeling sad for Loss and the position she is stuck in.

“Sounds like she is the one we can reason with the most, the others though...” Sun says with a shrug, and Ruby thinks back to when Fury saved her from Tyrian that one time. And what Starla told her in that moment as well.

“Axzura helped me once.” She tells them all, only remembering what he did at this moment. They all look at her with a surprised expression, they could have expected that from Loss, but not Fury.

“Helped you?” Yang asks her.

“When I was in that cell, when...” She stammers, hearing the laughs and the ghost pains of the blades scraping against her skin when he tortured her endlessly. Her hand rattles and she has to hold her wrist to calm it down. “...when Tyrian would torture me – Fury grabbed him and threw him out of my cell. Starla told me that deep down, he is still in there like she is. That the real man inside, could never harm children. He only killed people he deemed as bad. If they were good, he would scare them but let them go.” Ruby explains, since he was a Pirate Captain back then, but he had a code. He only went after the ships that had bad people on them, ones that wronged him...and left him with nothing but greed and rage.

“Well, all this talk on the Knights and everything...this isn’t the only reason I came here.” Winter tells them, and they all look at her. This is information that Weiss and Neptune have not been informed on. She sighs, and looks around to make sure that nobody is listening. “Qrow, Taiyang and Raven came back with information...and they found someone.” Winter reveals and they all look intrigued.

“The Spring Maiden?” Ruby asks, looking really curious of what she is going to say. Winter shakes her head, and looks at them all, unable to believe the name she is about to answer with.

“They found Ozpin.” Winter tells them, and they all fall silent with shock and disbelief when they hear that name. Oscar especially, he thinks and he searches his mind to find the voice of Ozpin but he hears nothing. Usually he would have said something, but he has said nothing since they found him. He actually has not felt his presence since they found him in that chamber.

“Ozpin?” Blake questions with widened eyes.

“Where was he?” Weiss inquires, standing up to look at her sister.

“They told us that they found him in some sort of Arkhoni Bunker, he was put into stasis. He must have hidden there after Beacon fell.” Winter explains with shocked eyes as well, even she cannot believe what she is saying either.

“And the Knights of Grimm are returning around the same time...” Oscar quietly says, and Ruby thinks on these coincidental events as well.

“And the Headmaster of Haven is assassinated around the same time.” Ruby mutters as well, looking at her boyfriend with similar shocked eyes.

“And Jaune gets a promising lead on Pyrrha at the same time as well?” Blake also points out as well, all these events have happened around the exact same time. Their hearts are pounding when they realise the impossible coincidence that has just occurred in the gap of a couple days.

“That can’t be a coincidence.” Yang agrees, shocked at this chain of events that has just been discovered. Oscar rubs his head, still confused of how Ozpin has been found, and now he cannot find him.

“Was Ozpin awake?” Oscar asks her, Winter shakes her head.

“No, he was still in stasis.” She answers, and it confuses him even more.

“Then why can’t I hear him anymore?” He wonders as he paces around, confused of everything that is happening at the moment. They all stand there, and Weiss looks at Ruby as she thinks.

She had been tiptoeing around the topic for ages now, but she needs to know. She heard about what happened with Dew, she needs to know about what happened there. “Ruby...I...We’ve been avoiding this topic for a reason.” She says with a sigh, looking at her friend. Ruby stands there and looks at her, knowing what she is going to ask. “What happened back there? With Dew? I heard you were supposed to capture her...and you...” Weiss stammers as she tries to talk about what happened. Ruby sighs and then she walks out of the building, and Weiss walks after her. But Yang holds her arm out in order to stop her.

“Don’t...just...ask her later. She wasn’t fully there when it happened, she doesn’t really remember everything that happened. She basically blacked out.” Yang explains to Weiss.

“And butchered Dew?” Weiss questions.

“Everything she went through in Salem’s Sanctum...it has had an effect on her.” Oscar states, and Weiss sighs and has to agree to disagree. Ruby stands outside, and with the sun rising, they really need to get some sleep. She closes her eye and she flinches when she hears the maniacal laughter of Tyrian Callows. He may be dead but he still haunts the poor flower. She shakes it off, but the laughter changes into another man’s laugh. She rolls her eye when he walks over to her, his hat on his head and cane swinging across his finger.

“Ah...it was fun to have the controls for a while, Ruby. Have always wanted to see what that oversized gardening tool of yours could do.” Roman says to her with a smirk on his face, pressing his hands onto his cane as he looks at her.

Roman was the one that did it, using the anger in her body to take control of her for a couple moments to show what she could do when he had the controller. The results were gruesome. “You know, I think you and I make a good team. I’ve got the tenacity to do things you never had the stomach to do, and you’ve got a body for me to use. It’s a pretty good deal.” Torchwick explains, but none of that actually helps her in any way.

“Go away...” She whispers to Torchwick.

“Oh come on, Red! You feeling bad for Dew? She betrayed us, she deserved everything she got.” Roman says, walking around her, chuckling as he moves around her.

“Not what you made me do.” She coldly says, staring at him, grief eating away at her. She looks around at the people, and they look afraid of her. There are news feeds everywhere – _HUNTRESS SLAUGHTERED BY RUBY ROSE_

Things are not going well, especially since people are becoming more and more afraid of little Ruby. “And besides, Red...now people might take you seriously.” He whispers to her, and she goes to shout at Torchwick, but he has vanished once again. She stands there, and she exhales, feeling broken. She leans against the wall and covers her face with her hand as she begins to cry over what she did. Even though Torchwick made her do it...people are scared of her, even Weiss is. She saw the look in her eyes. Almost judgemental, like she shouldn’t be leader anymore.

But then...

Ruby’s eye turn to the screen on one of the buildings. The News Feed has switched to a different discovery, and she gasps when she sees the title.

_IMPERATOR OF THE SANDS HAS STRUCK AGAIN!_

_THREE HUNTSMEN FOUND DEAD_

“Guys!” Ruby calls, and she hears them all rushing to where she is.

“What is it?” Oscar asks her with a worried tone, gently touching her arm. She points at the screen that she was looking at, and they all gaze up at that direction. Their eyes widen when they read the text. They hear Team B.R.N.Z taking their weapons and rushing towards that place. Sun turns to them before they leave.

“Where is it?” Sun calls.

“Follow us!” Brawnz tells them, it must not be far from here.

 

Some time passes, and they arrive at the crime scene. Flashing red and blue lights with officers stood around where the three Huntsmen were found dead. There are press there as well, snapping photographs. The team stand there, pushing past the reporters to see the bodies of who were killed. “Miss, this is a crime scene!” The Officer argues, and Yang raises her brow.

“We’re from Beacon, investigating the Imperator. Get out of the way.” She orders, and they push past the officers. Ruby approaches the bodies, and her eyes widen.

She recognises them.

The first body she recognises is a slim man of average height. His head is shaved with a light-green Mohawk on the top of it. He wears a hoodie with the sleeves cut off, and two bracers on his arms extending from the wrist to just below the elbow. These bracers have his silver-coloured emblem printed on them. Beneath the hoodie, he wears a pale-green, long-sleeved shirt. He wears a brown strap around his chest holding a spiked spaulder to his left shoulder. He also wears dark-gray pants. His boots seem to be made of a thick brown material and go up to his knees. His head has been cracked open by something that struck him with brute force, claret everywhere, nearly obscuring his facial features.

The second body is a man that has light-brown hair that is combed to the left. He kept his eyes nearly closed, at a very noticeable squint, though it is unknown why he does so. But his death has kept them fully closed now. He wears tan-coloured armour with a belt that bears a dove on its buckle. He also wears vambraces on his arms that are the same colour as the rest of his armour. Underneath the armour, he wears a black shirt and black pants with a black scarf around his neck. Like the other, head cracked open from extreme force and blood has been splattered across his face and the floor.

The third body is also a man who has blue eyes and long, combed back, dark blue hair. He wears dark gray armour with light gray edges, as well as vambraces of the same style. Underneath his armour, he wears a black, long-sleeved V-neck shirt and black pants. And just like the rest, head bashed open and blood all over the place.

They all look shocked because they know who they are.

Russel Thrush

Dove Bronzewing

And Sky Lark.

All of them but Cardin are dead, been brutally murdered by the Imperator of the Sands. Their eyes are wide with shock, but Ruby looks around for where Cardin could possibly be...

Then a theory comes to mind...

The blunt weapon that must have been used could have been a mace. It required a great deal of force to do this to somebody’s head...and Oscar heard a man in the room in that Echo in Time.

Her eye widens with disbelief, and she backs up, nearly fainting when it hits her...

The Imperator of the Sands...

Is it Cardin Winchester?


	20. Laws of the Mind

**Ruby**

“It’s Team C.R.D.L.” Yang gasps when she looks at their bodies, the damage that has been inflicted upon their skulls. Weiss crouches down by the corpse of Russel; there is a lot of blood on the ground where his head must have been struck. She then looks around, probably to figure out where Cardin’s body is. But alas, he is not there, and she looks at Ruby, and they are all beginning to come to the same suspicion.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Weiss asks them all when she looks away from their corpses.

“I hope we’re wrong...Cardin was an asshole but he never struck me as a psycho.” Yang states, crossing her arms as she looks at the bodies. Blake looks back at the people watching, her ears can detect the slightest mumbling that people are saying to one another. Some of them are not even looking at the dead; they are looking at Ruby with suspicious eyes. Concern forms over Blake and Sun can sense that. He looks at her and he follows her eyes.

“Why are we letting a crazy girl in on our problems?” One of them whispers to the others.

“Do you think she did it?” Another asks, and Sun sighs with anger when he hears the horrible judgements that people are making about her. He leans down to her ear and whispers to her.

“Want Neptune and I to get them out of here?” He asks her, and she smiles, nodding her head to him gratefully. Sun looks over towards Neptune and he whistles to him in order to get his attention. The blue haired Huntsman looks at him, responding like a dog from how quickly he heard the whistle. Sun gestures towards the crowd and he understands what Sun intends to do pretty quickly. Sun and Neptune both walk towards the crowd, and they both lift their guns up in the air. They both pull the trigger, making everyone jolt from how sudden it was.

“Alright everybody! Party’s over, take your popcorn and get the hell out of here.” Neptune demands, and they swiftly depart from the area, the _officers_ who are really just hired guns look at them with shocked expressions.

“Hey! You’ve no right!” The Hired Gun shouts, but Sun leans forward towards him and holds his Junior Badge up in his face.

“Go away!” He slowly pronounces to the Hired Gun, like he is talking to a toddler. The Hired Gun squints his eyes with annoyance at the blonde haired Monkey Faunus, but decides that he might as well go. He and the other Hired Guns turn and leave the scene for the Huntsmen and Huntresses to do their work. Ruby keeps on looking around at the crime scene, using her still developing detective skills as best as she can. She touches some of the blood on the floor, and it sticks onto her finger. She rubs her thumb across it, it is still wet. This could not have happed very long ago; at most this must have been a couple of hours ago. Blake stands beside her and she crouches down as well, examining it as well.

“This was recent, more recent than the Pyromancer and the Headmaster.” Blake reports from what she can see.

“Yeah, blood’s still wet.” Ruby agrees, wiping it down her trouser leg. She stands back up as she looks around with Blake. Yang walks with Weiss and Winter as they search for any kinds of clues, whilst Oscar looks around for anything else, hopefully another one of those Echoes in Time, like the one he saw of the Headmaster. Sun kneels down by the body of Dove and he looks closely at the damage done to his head. The parietal bone in his head has been cracked, collapsed inwards from whatever it was that struck him in the head. Blood has covered most of his face, crimson claret glistening in the starry night sky. The floor beneath where his head hit the ground has been slightly cracked, most likely from the murderer hitting him in the head again. The damage done to the skull could only have been done by multiple strikes with a heavy blunt weapon.

But this is not like what happened with the Headmaster, because there are signs of struggle. Sun notices his nails, blood and bits of skin lodged underneath them. His weapons have some blood on them as well, and from the scrapes on the polished steel, that could not have been his own blood that did that. This means that they were fighting whoever it was that attacked them. His nose has been broken, the nasal bone protruding from his snapped nose. A couple teeth have been knocked out as well. “This wasn’t a surprise attack; they fought the Imperator off by the looks of things.” Sun surmises when he looks at the way his body looks after his death.

Yang sighs, scratching the back of her head as she looks at them. “What the hell were they doing here, anyway?” Yang questions with confusion when she looks down at Sky Lark’s corpse on the floor. His hair is dishevelled; bits of it have been ripped out. The fight must have been quite bloody, more than just a weapon striking him in the head.

“I dunno, maybe they came here looking for work?” Neptune suggests, searching for anything around their bodies. An idea comes to Neptune’s mind though and he swiftly turns to Team B.R.N.Z who are keeping the area secure. They still are uncertain if they can trust them, after what happened with Team N.D.G.O, but they are all they have at the moment. He walks towards them with a question on his mind. Weiss walks with him as they try and get some information out of them. “Did you guys ever see Team C.R.D.L here?” Neptune asks them, and the four of them look at each other. Nolan scratches the back of his neck, a clear sign that he knows something.

“I do remember seeing them a couple times. We never really spoke to them.” Nolan says to him, and they both look to each other.

“Was Cardin Winchester ever among them?” Weiss inquires.

“Cardin?” May asks for confirmation.

“Cardin Winchester, big douchebag with a mace?” Neptune describes briefly but rather well.

“Oh him, yeah he was with them. Not much though.” May shrugs as she looks at them, her Sniper Rifle slung over her shoulder. She still wears the same beanie hat as she did in the Vytal Festival, slightly slipping over one eye.

“So Cardin was here...doesn’t mean he killed them though. Headmaster could have been understandable; Oscar said the Headmaster was acting a little volatile. He might have done it to stop him from killing innocents...but why would he kill his own team?” Weiss mutters as she paces back and forth. Neptune walks away from them and he continues to look at their bodies. As Weiss thinks to herself, May approaches her while the rest of her team secure the perimeter.

“Is he your boyfriend?” She asks him, and Weiss stops, and slowly turns to face her.

“He is – is that an issue?” Weiss asks, almost challenging her.

“Oh no, not my type. Isn’t he scared of water though? Why would his parents call him Neptune if he was afraid of water?” May asks, and Weiss just puts her hand on May’s shoulder.

“Ever been in a submarine...in the middle of the ocean...or better yet outside of one with giant sea Grimm around you?” Weiss asks her, vividly remembering the Krastax that they came face-to-face with, outside of the Tethys.

“No?” May nervously answers.

“If you do, you’ll be scared too.” Weiss promises, patting her on the shoulder as she walks away from her. Ruby looks down at one of the bodies, looking at the body of Russel again. She has examined every part of his head and she knows that only a powerful guy with a blunt weapon could have done this. And it is all pointing towards Cardin at the moment. She sighs, rubbing the side of her head when she observes their bodies, so many things don’t add up.

_Why exactly did they come here? There must be a reason for it..._

_Why would Cardin kill his own team so callously?_

_Why would Cardin kill the Headmaster?_

Ruby sighs when she thinks about these things, still at a loss for words when trying to solve this puzzle. Oscar walks around and he stops when he hears something, his eyes widen and he turns towards the bodies with shocked eyes. Finally...he has detected one of them, an Echo in Time. He walks towards it, seeing the fractured apparitions of the three men that lay before them. When they must still have been alive. He can hear their voices echoing endlessly throughout the vacuum of time itself as they speak. “Did you see what he did?” Russel asks them with a fearful voice.

“He’s losing his edge...” Sky Lark agrees, pacing back and forth as he touches the back of his neck. Dove has his arms crossed whilst Russel is leant against the Lamppost, one that has been slightly damaged from the fight that must have broken out here. The Time Echo is very short, it only loops from there...but it does raise more suspicions.

“Guys...” Oscar says to them, and Ruby looks at him with surprised eyes.

“What’s up?” Ruby asks him as she walks towards him.

“I saw another one.” Oscar informs.

“An Echo?” She asks.

“Yeah, it wasn’t long but still made me curious.” Oscar explains as he sits down on one of the loosened bricks. Yang walks over as well, crossing her arms as she listens to what he describes. “I saw the three of them stood where they are now, it couldn’t have been long before they died. They were talking about someone...it might have been this Cardin guy. They were saying that they saw him do something...that he is losing his edge.” Oscar explains, and Yang touches her long blonde hair as she thinks this over.

“That’s strange...it doesn’t mean though that it was him.” Yang states.

“What do you mean?” Ruby asks her.

“Well think about it, what if they saw someone else do it? Or what if they are just saying stuff about Cardin doing something else...when someone loses their edge; it means that they are getting soft. Not losing their mind.” Yang explains, and thus making a very good point as well.

“It’s a good point; Cardin never struck me for a murderer.” Ruby says.

“Lionheart never struck me as a traitor and a coward either.” Oscar remembers, and the two sisters fall silent from his even better point. It is always the ones you never expect to be the enemy that end up being the monsters. Yang sighs, flicking her long blonde hair back over her shoulder and out of her view.

“So now what?” She asks.

“Well the best move would be to find any witnesses, the bodies were found really recently. Somebody must have seen someone leaving the area.” Ruby explains, and Winter notices something that truly intrigues her. She gasps and she looks at one of the lampposts, and then she points at it with her finger.

“I have a better plan.” Winter tells them, getting their attention, and they follow her finger towards a camera attached to the Post. It is looking directly at them at the moment; little do they know that Jacques Schnee is in fact watching them. “We need to find out if that camera caught anything, there aren’t any inside of the Headmaster’s Throne Room, but there’s one here.” Winter explains as she walks towards them with her theory.

“What if they have been wiped?” Blake suggests.

“It’s a good point, our foes aren’t stupid.” Weiss agrees.

“It’s still worth a shot.” Winter states, and they have to agree with her logic. She is Atlesian Special Forces after all. Oscar looks around and he still feels that the idea to find some witnesses would be good.

“I’ll go around and look for witnesses; you guys find the camera systems and get whatever you can.” Oscar says to them, and she nods to him. Ruby looks at Oscar and he looks at her with a smile. “I’ll be fine.” He promises, smiling kindly, eventually Ruby calms down and smiles back. She turns and follows Weiss and Yang as they follow her big sister. The others walk with them, and Oscar turns and walks in a different direction. Oscar walks past some people, and he can see a tavern up ahead. If there is any place where you could get information from the people, a tavern is the best place to go.

 

**Oscar**

He pushes the doors open, and like a movie set in the Wild West, they all swiftly turn and glare right at him. He looks at them all, large hazel coloured eyes glaring right back at them. He scoffs, and walks right inside, past some of them. He has become a lot more confident over the years compared to when he first joined up, now that he has become accustomed to the life of a Huntsman. One of the guys, a Bandit by the looks of his getup, eyeballs him as he walks over to the bar. He stands next to him and continues to stare at him. “Hey!” The Bandit challenges and Oscar sighs, rolling his eyes.

“What’s up, pal?”Oscar sighs as he stands at the bar, the Innkeeper cleaning the alcohol from the wooden surface.

“What’s a young lad like you doing around here? Haven’t seen the likes of you here before.” The Drunkard challenges. Oscar looks around, completely ignoring the witless idiot as he stands there, spouting rubbish at him. He continues to look around until his eyes see him there, his heart skips a beat.

His brown eyes staring straight into his soul, shaven head and a slight stubble on his face. He wears the tattered clothes of a merchant and has a cunning smile on his face, sat on a table, not even on the bench itself. “Oscar Pine! Over here.” He calls over, Vir Nominis Umbra...the first time that they have met since Arkhonex. Oscar sighs, and he walks past the drunkard, towards the Soothsayer that sits before him. But the Bandit stumbles in front of him, and pushes the boy back.

“Hey, boy! I’m not finished with you yet!” The Bandit slurs as he stands there, wanting to fight him with his fists raised.

“Seriously, asshole?” Oscar sighs, he could drop him instantly but he does not seem to want to. He looks at Vir Nominis Umbra and shrugs at him, and the Soothsayer scoffs when he looks at the man.

“I said! I’m not finished with ya!” The Bandit slurs, swinging towards him to punch. Vir Nominis Umbra lifts his hand over his head and snaps his fingers, creating a loud crack that echoes through the whole tavern.

And then...

Time stops.

But not like it does when either Time or Oscar does it, the land around them does not become all fractured and distorted. It just stops, like a video being paused. It seems his abilities are far more powerful than anything that they are capable of. Oscar looks around at all the people, seeing them all frozen where they were, no stretched out voices throughout a paused time frame; it is perfect compared to his. He looks past the bandit and back to the smiling entity across the room from him. “Show-off.” Oscar says, walking towards him and Vir Nominis Umbra laughs.

“Of course I am, I’m sure you are with your gifts as well. Time’s a marvellous plaything, isn’t it?” Vir Nominis Umbra says as he holds his hands out in the air, leaning against the wall on the table that he sits on. Oscar stares at him, and he takes a seat, that is obviously why he is here. He wants to talk to him...

But why?

He has the power to destroy them all in a couple of seconds...

Why oh why does he not do it?

“Are you a traveller? I saw you in Arkhonex and you haven’t aged a day.” Oscar asks him, and Umbra chuckles.

“At least buy me a drink before you start with the flirting, my dear.” Vir Nominis Umbra quips, smirking constantly as he speaks to the young boy. “But no, being a Traveller is just so boring. So many rules and regulations in what must and must not happen...no...I prefer to use Time to my own advantages. It provides so many delightful opportunities.” He continues, his brown eyes turn to one of the other Bandits inside of the Tavern with his soup before him. He chuckles and takes one of his potions out as he walks towards him, he unscrews the vial and pours the deep purple fluid into the tomato soup. “Like, spiking the soup of unsavoury individuals with appropriately ghastly things.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, and Oscar’s good nature makes him concerned for the man.

Oscar looks back to the Soothsayer, then narrows his eyes suspiciously. “It doesn’t look like what happens when I manipulate time...do you actually control it, or is this just some conjurer’s trick?” Oscar asks him, and he scoffs.

“What difference does that make?” He asks him.

“A big one.” Oscar answers.

“Ooh...” Vir Nominis Umbra vociferates, thinking of his answer with a smile on his face. “Okay then, let’s sum this up as – _time has always fascinated me­_ – so I taught myself how best to use it.” He answers casually.

“Wow, you just _taught_ yourself, huh?” He scoffs.

“I do not expect Humans and Faunus to comprehend.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, just as casually.

“Alright then, why Time of all things?” He asks him, and the Soothsayer chuckles.

“Oscar, there are four dimensions. Length, width, height and time. Which one is more appetising to you? Length? Well for some guys perhaps.” He chuckles, making more innuendos as ever. Oscar sits there, and the question continues to bounce around in his head, the question everyone who has met and understood who he is has wondered.

“Who are you really?” Oscar asks him, the question he must be sick of at this point.

“Vir Nominis Umbra, also known –” He answers theatrically.

“Not what I meant.” Oscar interrupts, and Umbra looks at him with a smile.

“Ah, so you’d rather understand what it is that I do?” He presumes. “In short, I give folk what they ask for – you might say, I simply grant their wishes.” Vir Nominis Umbra answers, waving his hands around as he speaks.

“Yeah, and then drop them into a world of hurt. I heard about what happened with Roman.” Oscar states, remembering what Ruby told him about what Torchwick said to her when she was captured five years ago. Umbra’s next statement is very powerful, and shows a dark hint behind what he really is.

“No, not I. That would be poorly formulated wishes. I’m no cheat, no liar, Oscar. I give folk what they want, the costs of their wishes however all come down to their wishes. If they wish for unworthy things, that simply all comes down to their rotten natures.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains.

“So you show the evil in everyone?” Oscar asks him.

“Something like that.” He agrees with the same cunning smile he always has. “Take you for example, when we first met, I sensed the love you had for Ruby Rose. What is the cruel version of love?” He asks him, leaning forward.

“Lust.” Oscar answers, realising as well.

“Correct. And look how you turned out.” He says, leaning back against the wall. Oscar stares at the Mysterious Soothsayer and he clasps his hands together, similarly to how he does it, and he now asks the important questions. No more _getting-to-know-you_ courtesy, now it’s serious.

“Why are you doing this? You’re not on our side, I know you’re not. You could kill me and the others easily...but you still haven’t told me why you are fighting us.” Oscar states, and Vir Nominis Umbra’s sinister smirk returns.

“Every fairytale requires an old-fashioned villain.” Vir Nominis Umbra answers, with what almost sounds like pride in his scheming voice. Oscar, however does not seem overly convinced by his very simple answer.

“No...it can’t be that simple. You’ve been doing this for a long time, what could possibly be your endgame?” He questions, and he chuckles, leaning closer to him.

“Oh but it is, Oscar.” Vir Nominis Umbra claims, still smiling like a mad man. He reaches over to the cup of tea that one of the people here was reaching for. He holds it in his hand, and has an apple right by his foot. “All of you, Team R.W.B.Y and all your pathetically childish teams...you need me.” He states, and he scoffs.

“I think we’d fare just fine without you, Umbra.” Oscar states with anger in his eyes.

“Now, you say this. But what kind of hero would you be, without your villain? It is the natural law of things, without me you would be nothing. No great enemy to save the innocents from. You all need something to keep you going, keep you intrigued. And that is where I come in.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells him, powerful truth behind what he says as well. “You see, the good guys and the bad guys...we’re all just alike...except the good guys are boring.” He tells him and Oscar scoffs.

“Boring, huh? So a girl that can dart into rose petals and a guy with a split personality isn’t interesting?” Oscar questions.

“Childish hocus-pocus. If you really believe your abilities would interest me then you are thicker than I thought you were. I am not interested in the things that make you strong...no...I am interested by what makes you weak.” He claims, prodding Oscar’s chest where his heart is. “Your kindness, your willingness to fight on the side of the angels is what makes you so weak. But at the end of the day...heroes always are the ones that get beaten down. They might win eventually but that is just children’s authors for you...but this is no story...this is real life. The bad guys, do not play by your rules.” He explains.

Oscar sits there, thinking of what to say next. Deep down, he knows that Vir Nominis Umbra is right, everything he has said so far, he is right. “How did you know I was going to be here?” He asks him.

“Come now, Oscar. I managed to track you down when Time sent you thousands of years into the past. Did you really think I would have struggled with figuring out you would come here?” He questions.

“Soothsayer...” Oscar sighs, realising as well that he must be able to see the future as well.

“There you go.” Umbra chuckles. Oscar thinks and then the murders come to question, and he might as well ask him to find out if he was involved.

“The deaths, Team C.R.D.L, the Headmaster and the Pyromancer. Was it you?” He asks him, and Vir Nominis Umbra smiles.

“What do you think?” He asks him.

“Enough with the riddles, just tell me.” Oscar demands. Umbra does not even look jolted in the slightest by Oscar’s raised voice, he just smiles.

“I was not the one behind the weapon, but I must admit it has been fun orchestrating some of it from behind.” He answers, and Oscar steps back with shock when he says that. Vir Nominis Umbra really does not lie.

“Who is it?” He demands.

“Oscar, Oscar. That is not how the game works, I have already given you plenty of hints, but do you go ahead of tell everyone the answers to your own quiz?” He asks him, and Oscar scowls at the Soothsayer.

“Let me guess, you would want something in return for that information? A good old fashioned Merchant like yourself?” Oscar presumes.

“No.” Umbra retorts.

“No?”

“Why would I? I enjoy watching you lot trying to figure out my little game. The fact you never noticed me before always amazed me.”

“What do you mean? I found you.”

“Oh, I’m talking _long_ before that.” Umbra says, taking a sip from the hot tea. He hums with excitement from the taste. “Oh, that is some good tea!” He cheers triumphantly.

“Then how are gonna do it, then? Huh, Mr Bad Guy? How are you gonna kill us?” He asks him.

“Kill you? Oh no, not yet. Trust me, my Wrath is coming and a lot of you will be killed. It will be a massacre, lots of blood will spill on both sides of the coin. But at the moment...I still need you.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells him truthfully, his wrath has gotten him extremely concerned of what he meant by that. A massacre? “No...but if you truly want to know what I plan to do next? I love watching you living beings suffer...watching you reach breaking point. It is one of the most enjoyable sights imaginable.” Umbra says with excitement in his voice, and Oscar seems extremely creeped out by this personality that he has.

“Then how do you plan to do it? Break us down?” He asks him. “Has it got something to do with a – _Great Evil_?” He asks, remembering what Loss told Weiss that one time.

“Ah, dear Starla. Bless her heart, she is paying the price for her transgression, she shouldn’t have gone to you.” Umbra explains, and for once he actually feels concerned for one of the Knights.

“What have you done to her?” He questions.

“What? Do you think I killed her? Oscar she’s already dead. No...I just made her wish she could be.” He says and Oscar’s eyes widen fearfully.

“What do you mean?” He questions.

“Have you still not caught on?” He asks.

“Onto what?”

“Oh Oscar, I had hoped you were cleverer than this.” He sighs.

“Answer me!” He shouts, for of all of them he does care for Loss the most because she still has some sense of who she used to be in her.

“Alright, big man...calm down.” He laughs, acting like he is afraid of Oscar. “She is a Spirit at the end of the day, I can put her through the worst pains imaginable and she would never die. And I won’t stop until she remembers her place.” Umbra coldly states, smirking away as he speaks.

“The Knights are not your chess pieces.” Oscar snarls.

“When did you become so fond of them?” He asks with that smile.

“When I met them before they were corrupted.” He answers, and Umbra chortles away.

“You’re sense of decency is charming but it is one of your greatest weaknesses...and thus comes the great problem.” He says, and Oscar looks at him with confused eyes, taking a seat. He sits there, contemplating on what he meant by that. Umbra is a master of hiding things inside of the usage of his words, he does not lie but makes it hard to understand what he says. A genius method for someone who is not as poetic as he is. “What’s the Great Problem, Oscar Pine? Because I did tell you...but did you listen?” He asks him in a sing-song tone, smiling away as he says it. Oscar thinks away, remembering everything that Vir Nominis Umbra said...and he is struggling to figure out what it could have possibly been.

_Wishes? Is he going to trick one of us into wishing for something with him?_

_Wait! No, he loves riddles...is that what he is gonna do?_

_The Massacre?_

_The Knights of Grimm?_

_Gods what could it be?_

“I love listening to you trying to figure it out, I really do.” Umbra says with a smile, hearing his very thoughts.

Vir Nominis Umbra sets the mug of tea back down onto the table and he begins to whistle as Oscar thinks away on what he means by that.

_That tune...it’s the same one that I heard before...I heard it at Arkhonex and then in the woods at one point._

“How hard is it for you to admit that you don’t know the answer to something?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks him.

“Trust me, I don’t know the answer to a lot of things.” Oscar says with a chuckle.

“You might not...but he did.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, tapping the side of Oscar’s head with a smirk.

He is talking about Ozpin.

“By the way, talking about being so clever, have you told all your friends about it yet?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks him, and Oscar stares straight at him.

“About what?” Oscar asks him.

“About the nightmares and who you know is responsible for it? Why you haven’t bothered putting any cameras up in the hotel room you and Ruby are sharing together?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks him.

“No.” Oscar answers.

“But you know who it is?”

“Of course.”

“Go ahead.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, wanting to hear Oscar impress him.

“You want me to tell you what you already know?” Oscar questions.

“Nope, I want you to tell me. I want to see how you know.” Vir Nominis Umbra answers, looking excited to hear him say it as well.

“Very well.” Oscar agrees. “I was taken by Time into your Dimension – the Charred Forest – which leaves me to guess that he is one of your minions as well. Possibly a new Knight of Grimm that we’ve never faced before or a brand new creation of yours. Doesn’t matter.” Oscar explains quickly.

“Good.” Umbra says, taking a bite out of his red apple he had in his hand, letting the juice trickle down his lip slightly. He wipes it off with his wrist as he watches and listens to him.

“I was taken to Arkhonex and then I met you, you were following me everywhere, and then you were there with Qrow when you helped us find Ruby. She has had nightmares of the Charred Forest for years now, your Dimension which could only mean that you have been feeding these nightmares to her yourself.” Oscar continues to explain, showing the intelligence that he does have. When he does know something, his explanation skills can be just as good as Ozpin’s.

“Good, keep going.” Vir Nominis Umbra encourages.

“What purpose do the nightmares have? No certain yet, but from the emotional changes she has been having lately, killing Dew the way she did and showing more anger...I have reason to believe you are doing this to try and control her. As you did with Pyrrha Nikos.” Oscar concludes and Umbra smirks. He applauds him as he sits there.

“That’s the Oscar I’ve heard so much about!” He cheers, sounding monstrous as he speaks as well.

“But there are other factors I am unsure of, right?” Oscar presumes.

“Oh a whole lot more, but I don’t expect you to know any of that yet.” He says with a chuckle.

“Then teach me.” Oscar requests.

“Well, human minds have always been so interesting to me. So many things can motivate people, and one of the things I enjoy manipulating is the fear function that they have. Same as the Faunus in fact, and how just through feeding nightmares to someone...eventually they will fall into your control over time.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains. “Every soul who has ever lived can just be another tool, another chisel for my stone art work.” He states. “And Secrets! Oh! Secrets are just so delicious! The more you tunnel your way into someone’s mind...the better the secrets become. And the better they become...you own secrecy.” Umbra says to him, and Oscar glares at him with hatred in his eyes.

“What kind of secrets?” He asks.

“All kinds. I could learn the secrets of the most powerful men in the world, I could start countless wars with the secrets I know. I could launch a nuclear missile to hit Vale and start a war against Atlas in mere seconds. Everything is at my disposal...the man with all the secrets is a king...and baby you should see me with a crown.” Umbra says to him, again in a singsong voice.

“And you’d be able to do all of it in the shadows.” Oscar says, with real shock in his voice when he realises it as well.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am not afraid to get my hands dirty. I have slaughtered entire armies and not a single one of them could harm me. But it is far more intriguing to use people – _never underestimate the usefulness of others_. That has always been my most prized quote.” Vir Nominis Umbra says to him, revealing that Salem must have gotten that line from him.

“Then how do we fit into your little game? Can’t just because we’re challenging you.” Oscar says.

“Why do you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you think I haven’t just wiped you and your friends out already?”

Oscar thinks and thins, trying to come up with why he hasn’t. Then it comes to him. “You can get the world to look at us as the enemy?” He guesses, and Umbra smiles.

“We shall see, won’t we?” He says with a smile. He holds the apple in his hand and he swivels it around, using his fingers to spin it round on his palm. But then the big question comes to Oscar, the one he really wants to ask.

The one he does not know the answer to.

“What is the Shivering Dominion?” He asks and he looks at him with the apple next to his head.

“Everything ends...” He says, and the apple begins to rot away in his hand. The flesh turns brown and it collapses down into itself, becoming dusts.  “Even time...joins the ashes.” He says as he blows the dust away.

“You sound excited for it.” Oscar says.

“Of course I am, it looks so incredible!” He laughs and Oscar scoffs.

“You’re insane...” Oscar shudders, and Vir Nominis Umbra stares at him.

His next statement...

...is very powerful.

“Ah, and therein lies the common misconception.” He says, leaning forward towards Oscar with his hands clasped together. “Nobody seems to understand the Three Laws of the Mind.” He says with a smirk.

“The Laws of the Mind?” Oscar questions.

“Neither do you, apparently.” He chuckles. “Well, listen up, son.” He says as he sits there. “There will always be bad people in the world, but there are three forms of them that they come in.” He explains.

“Go on.” Oscar says.

“There those who are formed through suffering. Those can be insane, or just with nothing left to lose in the terrible things that they do.” He says, and his eyes turn yellow, just like the irises of Tyrian Callows. “There are those who are misguided by their beliefs or by what they have...” He continues, and his eyes turn Hazel coloured as he stares at him with a smirk. He leans towards him and his eyes turn red as he glares at him. “And then...there are the evil ones. Insanity is a by-product of suffering, others are misguided...Evil however...Evil is a choice.” He says with an evil smirk on his face, intimidating Oscar.

Vir Nominis Umbra hops off the table and walks to Oscar’s side, looking down at him. “Which of your foes are which? Which...am I?” He asks him with a smile.

He walks away from Oscar, and the young man watches him as he walks away. Vir Nominis Umbra walks towards the Bandit that challenged Oscar when he first entered the room. He smiles at the Bandit. “That is the last time you interrupt me whilst I was talking to someone.” He says, touching his shoulder. Oscar gasps when he sees the man’s skin wrinkling, hair turning white slowly and his body collapsing as he ages him.

Vir Nominis Umbra just aged him into a Pensioner, and Oscar sees him turn to look at him. He holds his hand over his head, and snaps his fingers again. Time resumes, and the Bandit collapses, his heart stopping...

...He aged him to death.

Vir Nominis Umbra’s smile has not disappeared as he leaves the Tavern, leaving them all behind.

Oscar shudders fearfully.

He has learned a lot about Vir Nominis Umbra.

And now he knows he is the biggest threat that any of them have ever faced.


	21. What Remains...

**Cinder**

Cinder keeps her fingers held onto her arrow that is locked onto her bow. The two of them have been walking for days now, following their trail on the Summer Maiden.

She must be close.

She walks ahead of her partner; he looks around the woodland of Mistral to make sure that no Creatures of Grimm are watching them. Birds flutter across the sky, tweeting in their nests as well. But the road that they follow comes to an end before them, with a river that churns across where the path once was. She holds her bow in her hand, and looks around to follow the path that they believe the Summer Maiden had taken on her travels. “Damn it, trail ends here.” Cinder sighs when she struggles to see where else they could go. Hazel shakes his head, and his eyes focus on the waterway that passes before them.

“I didn’t take you for someone to give up so easily.” Hazel says as he stands at the foot of the water. Cinder scoffs, planting her hand on her hip as she looks at Hazel.

“Oh yeah, so what we just walk through a river? What if it leads into a rapid?” She asks him, understandable concerns as well. They did not come this far to die from drowning in a river to find the Summer Maiden. Hazel looks at her, then stretches out his arm and points at a docked fishing boat not very far from where they are. She sees it, and feels quite stupid when she realises that they can just take the boat.

“Come on, Cinder. We can take the boat and follow the river, she probably did the same.” Hazel says as he follows the bank towards where that makeshift pier has been made. The water gently flows beside them, and Cinder looks at a tree as an adorable squirrel looks at her. Her personality has changed a great deal from five years ago. She would have never found any happiness when looking at a squirrel. But then the Knights of Grimm arrived and changed everything for her.

“Hazel...” Cinder begins as she walks beside him, dwarfed by his huge size difference to her.

“Mm?” He responds, looking down at where she walks beside him.

“Why do you think she is constantly on the run?” She asks him, and he ponders on this thought for a few moments.

“My best guess? The Knights of Grimm are hunting her for some reason, just like the Spring Maiden.” He answers. Cinder looks up at him, worry in her eyes.

“Do you think that they might come for me?” She asks him, since she carries the gifts of the Fall Maiden still.

“We won’t let it come to that.” He assures.

“Well, what I don’t understand is why they are hunting them...it’s not like they can take their powers. They’re spirits; it has to be passed down to a young woman, even a girl.” Cinder says to him, a very good point as well. Even Loss would not be able to take the powers since she has existed for thousands of years, she could not possibly be able to do so. And the others are all male, so there must be another reason.

“I don’t know...but Salem must be behind it.” Hazel states.

“You still think that she’s alive?” Cinder asks him.

“We never saw her die.” He replies, as they approach the pier, walking across the wooden planks. They creek asunder their footwear, old ropes holding the structure together. He walks over to the boat that gently rocks as the little waves that swash against the bank pass against it. He looks at the ropes on the hooks that hold it in place. Cinder looks at the space parallel to where this boat is, and there is a rope there as well.

“Hazel, I think you’re right. There was a second boat here.” She tells him, and he looks at the rope she pulls up from the water. Drops of water fall from the rope and into the river.

“Then it looks like this is our next trail.” Hazel says as he walks over to their boat. He reaches towards the tiller that controls the rudder. But before he does, Cinder stops him by holding onto his wrist.

“I’ve got it.” Cinder says.

“You sure?” He asks her.

“I’m younger, you’ve deserved a rest.” Cinder says with a wink as she sits by the Tiller, whilst Hazel sits down on the other side of the boat, leaning against the wooden body as he rests his body. But he does not sleep, he keeps his eyes peeled, who knows what could be lurking out here. Cinder unravels the rope that bound the boat to the pier and she pushes against the pier with her leg to set the boat off. It is pulled into the current, and they both travel across the river. Cinder moves the tiller every now and then to not send the boat swerving off somewhere by accident.

The boat passes by many trees, and they can hear countless species all calling out to each other. From birds to reptiles, but all are natural animals, unlike the Creatures of Grimm. Hazel scratches his beard that he has grown, and he is beginning to form white hairs in his beard. Cinder flicks her long black hair back round her shoulder, sighing as she does it. “I’m gonna need to cut this damn hair again.” She heavily sighs as she guides the boat onwards. Hazel looks at her and he chuckles.

“The long hair looks good on you.” He says to her.

“Oh yeah? I dunno...it gets in the way and an enemy could grab it.” She points out, and she is not wrong on that point either.

“Is that what Emerald suggested?” Hazel asks her, and Cinder looks at him with her only eye available. She has confusion in the eye when she looks at him, and he just looks right back at her.

“Yeah.” She sighs as she agrees.

“She was always the one with the short hair.” He agrees.

“Yeah.” Cinder sighs in a softer voice as she thinks about Emerald. She has still not been seen since she vanished from Salem’s Sanctum after Mercury was killed. An event that Cinder never saw, only Ruby and Oscar saw that happen. The murder of one of her old friends, one of the few people she could actually call friends at the time.

“You miss her?” Hazel asks her.

“Yes, and Mercury. They didn’t deserve what happened to them.” Cinder sighs as she guides the boat.

“Just because we haven’t found them it doesn’t mean that they’re dead.” Hazel says.

“They told me what happened, Hazel. Mercury is dead, you were there you saw it as well.” She says when she looks at him, and he remembers the sight of Death driving Ferrum Arctus straight through the boy, lifting him off the ground and eviscerating his soul. But nobody saw where Emerald went; she just disappeared into the Sanctum somewhere, where the Grimm are born from.

“I know...I just mean that, there is every chance that Emerald could still be alive.” Hazel says to her.

“The Sanctum was filled with Grimm, and the Dragon was there. There was no way in hell she got out of there...” She says to him, and Hazel looks at her again, with a surprised expression.

“So you just accept the idea that she could be dead instead of hoping?” He questions with confusion.

“It’s easier that way...you’re not going to be as upset when you always have that feeling in your mind. I’m realistic, Hazel...” Cinder explains to him, keeping her eyes on the river as she tells him her way of thinking. A sad way to think, especially in a world where hope is something that they must cling to when there is a ruthless Soothsayer on the rise. Hazel sits there and he sighs, thinking about his daughter.

“I thought that way once...” He says to her, and she looks at him. “About my little girl...when I didn’t see her for a long time after Ozpin took her away from me...I thought she was gone.” He explains, and then he smiles as a familiar memory returns to him. “But then one day, she knocked on my door, and came to visit me. I was more shocked than happy.” He tells her and Cinder listens to his words, and she can hear the emotion in his voice.

“But then?” She asks him.

“But then...Ozpin sent her off again. Then you and your team went for her.” He says, but he still does not blame her at all for what she did. Cinder has never been able to understand why he does not blame her...she killed his daughter in cold blood. She was a different person back then, sure...but she still murdered her.

“How do you not blame me?” She questions with confusion.

“It was Ozpin, Pyrrha was not the first time he tried to force the power onto someone. He had her fall in love with the previous Fall Maiden, and when she died from unknown causes the power obviously went to Amber...and then it happened again.” He states with pain in his voice, clenching his hand into a fist.

“But I still did it.” Cinder says with grief in her voice, and shame that she did it as well.

“You were merely the weapon that Ozpin used...he still put her in that position...I fail to see why though.” He says with anger.

“Do you still want to kill Ozpin?” Cinder asks him, and he nods his head.

“It is all that motivates me, that one day she will be avenged. Nothing else matters.” He says as he looks out at the river that carries them.

“Nothing?” She asks him.

“Nothing.” He repeats.

“But what about the Knights of Grimm? The Maidens and Salem?” She asks him, and he sighs.

“I don’t know...we will see, I guess.” He answers as he looks at the mist that sits atop the river. The water trickles around them in the current, and they both notice something incredible in the trees.

Huge abandoned structures that have been left for millennia by their creators after their fall came about. Buildings that stand nearly seventy feet high, even what appear to be some old skyscrapers that have collapsed over the years. Trees and nature have consumed their bodies over time, creating hills and environments for more life. Around them are over buildings that the trees and flora surround, like old Mayan Temples. Cinder’s eye widens with amazement when she looks at the place that surrounds them, definitely built by the Arkhoni. “Is this Arkhonex?” She asks him as she looks at the huge buildings that they pass by. But Hazel shakes his head, strangely certain of his answer as well.

“No.” He answers as he looks at the buildings that nature has claimed over the years, Cinder looks at him with a confused face.

“How do you know?” She inquires.

“Because I have been here before...” He says when he looks at the buildings. “I don’t know the name of this city, but it was home to the Arkhoni as well.” He says to her.

“When did you last come here?” She asks, and Hazel thinks back to the day.

“Eight years ago...with Tyrian.” He answers, and even she can still remember the cackling he let out when she saw him lose his mind. It gives her the chills when she thinks about the laugh, echoing throughout that building as he slaughtered that Beowulf. He looks at the fog that hangs above the water’s surface, hearing the fish that swim around beneath their boat. “The Enkindled Creek, that’s what the Mistraalians called that.” He says as he looks at the fog above the water. He looks at the buildings as Cinder guides them, keeping them away from floating logs and things in the water. Little sticks carried in the current bounce off the wooden raft that they sit in.

Hazel clearly is a man that has always found history, especially ancient history, very interesting. “How long do you think it will be until we can build cities like they could again?” He asks her as he admires the architecture.

“What do you mean?” She asks.

“Cities that do not need walls, cities that could be built anyway without the risks of the Grimm.” He clarifies as he looks at the buildings. “For thousands of years, the Arkhoni lived in cities like these, the masters of our world. The greatest at almost everything, they could even tame the Grimm for a time...and then...” Hazel speaks as he looks at the buildings that they pass by, now the homes of countless animals and Creatures of Grimm.

“And then they weren’t.” Cinder states, and he nods as he looks around.

“And then they weren’t.” He agrees, repeating precisely what she just said. Hazel thinks back to something he read, Kragen gave them many texts on the pasts of the Arkhoni, many of them he wrote. The man has always been very poetic and well read, he has lived for thousands of years, he would have picked up a few things over all that time.

He begins to recite something from one of the books that he read, Cinder never did read them. She was always focused on the here and now rather than their history. “As the sun began to fall behind the horizon, families screamed with fear as the darkness rose back up.” He speaks as he remembers what he read, and Cinder looks at him as he says it, as they peacefully float through what remains of this city. “Dancing towers of firelight filled the sky, black clouds plaguing the stars. And from the shadows, the monsters of fairytales came for them.” He speaks as their boat passes underneath an ancient bridge; it is a huge bridge as well, made from cobblestone and other things. Must have been used for many people to cross and even their vehicles as well. “Flames grew so tall that even the birds burned, unable to free themselves from the destruct he wrought. The last sights of the great people, was of their world falling apart from the beings they thought they controlled.” He continues to speak, passing by what looked to be a temple once.

“And then one day...there was silence...just the sound of the sea waves that whipped and churned...bodies filling the rivers where our beasts killed us in droves.” Hazel continues as he remembers what Kragen wrote, the horrifying end of the Arkhoni Era, and by the sounds of it...the Grimm that they used broke free from their control.

They had so many of them...that they destroyed their cities so fast that they could not even stop them.

Hazel goes to speak more. “A people of millennia, the beauty of our banners that once flew from our towers. The cheers of thousands of souls...silenced in a single moment.” Cinder speaks, before even he could and it truly surprises him that she actually read some of the texts that they have in their bags. “And none would remember...” She concludes as she looks at him and Hazel smiles, gently clapping.

“So you did read them.” Hazel says with a proud tone in his voice as he looks at her. She smiles and looks ahead.

“Well, I thought I’d give it a go one night.” She admits, and Hazel chuckles. In a strange way, he sees a lot of Amber in her...he even speaks to her like he speaks to his daughter. Perhaps it is true what they say, that when a Maiden passes on, the previous owner combines with the next one. Amber seems to live on; combined with the good that exists within Cinder, and has eradicated the cruel she used to have from Salem. “A shame...because he was right. Nobody remembered who they were but Kragen. I’m amazed he stayed sane.” Cinder says as she thinks of the old man that has been fighting the real threat this whole time.

“His heart is in the right place.” He says as he looks around some more.

“He does.” She agrees. He looks at one of the buildings, where the flags have wilted away over the years.

“I suppose this is it then...” He says.

“This is what remains.” He finishes as they continue to move through what remains of this city.

If they do not find a way to stop Salem...

Then this will be waiting for them as well.

 

**Qrow**

Undoubtedly nearby to Hazel and Cinder...

Qrow, Taiyang and Raven walk through the Restless Marshlands to retrieve what they bargained for with the Three Witches. Their clothes are muddy and slightly tattered from the harsh environment, but it is nothing that they cannot handle. Qrow extends his sword out to push some of the branches aside so then they can return back to the barn. As they walk into the clearing where the barn lays, the branches mysteriously shift and return back to where they were. As if they were alive, Raven looks at them suspiciously before moving with them as well. The crows caw as they fly around the sky and land on top of their building. The carrion flies buzz as they feast on a dead deer that must have been killed recently, right in front of them. But this was killed by an animal, the natural laws of life, as they turn to see a Crocodile in the swamp. It hisses at them, snarling as they both stand by its prey that left for a second. It suddenly snaps its jaws onto the leg of the deer, dragging the corpse into the bog to feast on it.

Easy to forget that not every animal is a Creature of Grimm on Remnant, there are still the other threats that live here that are not controlled by shadows. They approach the Barn, and the doors open, as the Undertaker emerges with the shovel being dragged by its huge hand. It glares at them as it approaches, the eyes glowing fiercely as it stands there. Then the three Witches emerge from the building as well, behind the Undertaker. The three walk around the Undertaker and stand before the three Hunters. Ghostly whispers seem to surround the three as they approach them, looking directly at them as their eyes glow.

Taiyang turns round when he hears the sound of an animal walking around them, and he sees a Wolf with glowing yellow eyes as it circles them, keeping its eyes on them. Taiyang clenches his hands into fists to fight the creature, until the Alchemist raises her voice. “Stand down, young man!” The Alchemist demands, making him jolt and turn to her as the three witches stand before them. Qrow gives him a stare; he did make it very clear to not act in any way to insult the Witches. For they are extremely dangerous, they could easily kill them with magic compared to what the Grimm could do. Taiyang does as the Alchemist demands and he lowers his fists and stands beside his team.

“Is the deed done? Have you cleared those dark powers from the Factory?” The Sorceress questions as she stands before them. Qrow nods as he looks at her.

“Mutated Grimm, an enemy of ours is responsible for their creation.” Qrow tells the Witches.

“Mutated Grimm? Why this gets more interesting by the second.” The Alchemist coos with curiosity.

“They were not under his control, though. A Leshen that was angered by the Factory just like you took them over. We were forced to kill it.” Qrow explains to the Witches, and they seem very intrigued by this development.

“A Leshy? We did not demand this creature to do this, did not create one.” The Enchantress says as she bumps her eldest sister’s shoulder.

“Must have been the Dark Queen.” The Sorceress presumes, and the three Hunters look extremely surprised.

“Wait, what?” Raven asks with confusion.

“You create Leshens?” Taiyang asks them out of curiosity.

“Ooh! They’re curious!” The Alchemist exclaims with joy as she presses her hand to her sternum. The Witches giggle as their curiosity is shown to them.

“They’re not the easiest Grimm to fight, you know?” Raven says as she presses her hand to her hip.

“That is their purpose.” The Sorceress says.

“Why do you make them? There are enough Grimm as it is.” Taiyang questions, and the witches giggle some more.

“Do you not remember what we told you, young knight?” The Enchantress asks him. “We cast curses!” She giggles as she stands there.

“The Leshens are no different to Undertakers, but we do not use organic matter to construct them, we use flora and soil.” The Alchemist explains, which makes sense of why they are so different to normal Grimm, why they are made of Wood instead of dark matter like most Grimm.

“But why?” Taiyang asks.

“The Leshens were originally our creations, guardians of Nature to protect the world. We detested the Arkhoni Settlers that tore down our trees and killed our children...so we created a monster that would protect the lands.” The Sorceress explains to them, also revealing that they must have existed before the Arkhoni ever came to power. They are extremely old...maybe even older than Kragen Nox and the Knights of Grimm.

“But Settlers are very persistent, we are lucky that the new generation are not as disrespectful.” The Alchemist explains as she remembers the old Settlers that came here. They must have been here long before...they may not even be human beings from how they speak.

“They are our tools, as the Arkhoni did the same with their technology on other Grimm...until the Dark Queen took control over them all.” The Enchantress explains.

“But that matters not, history lessons are not what you seek. You seek the Spring Maiden after all.” The Sorceress says to them, stopping this little debate before it could go any further.

“We held our end of the bargain, now you hold yours.” Qrow states, stepping forward as he says that.

“A word once given we never break.” The Enchantress promises.

“The Girl...Raven Haired, Violet Eyed, and gifts unimaginable.” The Sorceress describes.

“Thin as a rail, and very beautiful too...but she was exhausted, injured the poor thing.” The Alchemist adds to the Sorceress’ description of Yenna. They have described her perfectly, got the hair and the eyes exactly how they have been told that she looks. None of them know, however, that Neopolitan met her when she was captured.

Before Vir Nominis Umbra freed her.

“How did the Spring Maiden wind up here?” Qrow asks them.

“We sensed a disturbance in the air, a portal was opened and she was thrown into our swamp.” The Enchantress answers.

“She was attacked by the Knights Bannermen.” The Sorceress states, and the three of them look confused by the name that they have just raised.

“The what?” Raven asks.

“The Knights Bannermen, dear child.” The Alchemist repeats as she looks at her.

“Fallen Riders from an unknown dimension, they last appeared when Arkhonex fell, the same time the Creatures of Grimm were no longer under their control.” The Sorceress clarifies, and they vividly remember the Riders that pursued them, the screech...

They are the called the Knights Bannermen.

“What about Yenna?” Qrow inquires.

“We cared for her as best we could.” The Enchantress seductively says as she touches her hair as she speaks. Her eyes glow bright blue when she speaks.

“Wasted affection, for she proved to be a _very_ naughtier girl.” The Sorceress says as she shakes her finger to them with a cunning smirk on her face.

“Mischievous, aggressive and selfish!” The Enchantress snarls with anger when she thinks about Yenna, tensing up when she says those words. But the way that Kragen described her...he never said that she was like that. If anything – she was always the opposite, very kind and loving. Selfless...

“The woman we seek would never hurt anyone without cause.” Qrow states, taking the words of Kragen very seriously. He doubts that he would lie about that, from how much he seems to care for her.

“Have you met her yourself?” The Alchemists asks her, raising her eyebrow. Her question stumps the three of them, for they have not seen the woman in the flesh. Only heard stories and seen visions of her thanks to some of the things that Kragen offered to them. Memory Books for example so then they know who to look for.

“No.” Taiyang answers.

“Then how would you know of who she is?” The Sorceress questions.

“We trust the man who asked us to find her.” Qrow says to the Trio of Sisters.

“If she means so much to him...then where is he?” The Enchantress asks, putting thoughts into their minds from her very powerful question. Qrow’s eyes dance away from her as she thinks on what she just said. It is a very good point...he claims to love Yenna with all his heart, and yet he is not here. But he is also training the Silver Eyed Warriors to be more efficient, now that they have more faith than they previously did. Ruby will soon have to go back there to hone her abilities more and more.

“Then why did she attack you?” Raven questions.

“It is not that she attacked us...but that she attracts dangerous company.” The Alchemist warns as she looks at them, smiling away as the three always seem to do. But Qrow does not believe them, and he wants to know everything, he wants them to show him what happened when she showed up there.

“Fury...” Taiyang quietly says.

“It would be best for you to turn and leave this quest of yours; she is not worth your lives.” The Enchantress advises.

“I don’t believe you. You claim to always keep your word, so we want to see everything that happened.” He states, making his request very clear. The Alchemist reaches into one of her pouches and she holds a vial with a powdered green chemical inside. It must be some form of hallucinogenic that will show them what they wish to see.

“We shall show you, brave Hunters.” The Alchemist promises. She waves her hand before them and the dust is blown towards them and it enters their system. They cough from the foul taste and the feelings that form across their bodies as it has its affect. The three of them stumble as their vision clouds away and they see everything.

The Marsh is calm and quiet in the night, animals gently creating sounds to one another as they live their lives. Until suddenly, a powerful orange pulse erupts and the body of the woman is thrown from where it was detonated. She falls into the mud, and she grunts as she lands. Mud covers her body and she groans, grabbing her side where blood runs down her hand. She pushes her hands against the muddy floor to get back up.

Yenna has locks of curly, raven black hair fragrant with lavender scented perfume, falling in a cascade of curls on her shapely shoulders. Her face is very pale, triangular in shape with a slightly receded chin. Her eyes are cold and sparkling with a remarkable violet penetrating gaze, in anger blazing with livid, blue-gray fire. Those very eyes also concealed wisdom and imperiousness. Yenna’s nose is slightly long, mouth pale with thin and slightly crooked, soft, sweet with lipstick, proud lips. On her long and slender neck hangs a black marigold with a star made of obsidian sparkling with a multitude of tiny diamonds embedded in it. The same one she always wore when she decided to become the Spring Maiden thousands of years ago, the only original one left for the others were killed and their powers passed onto normal people.

Yenna has pronounced cheekbones; natural, slightly irregular eyebrows trimmed by hand and emphasized with charcoal, long eyelashes, and petite hands. Even in high-heeled shoes she wasn't tall, was beautiful but threatening, having incredibly thin and slender waist and slender legs. Yenna’s skin was as delicate as a sixteen-year-old girl, incredible considering that she is in fact a couple thousand years old due to the gifts the Relics gave her and Kragen. And of course, the other three original Maidens.

Yenna wears a set of clothes that are very unique, simply because they are the same style of clothes that the Arkhoni people used to wear unlike people today. She mainly wears black, matching her hair colour, starting with a tightly tied up corset around her slender frame. Over the corset, she wears a short black coat that it’s buttoned together over, with a collar of black bear fur that surrounds her neck. She also has a hooded cape on, but the hood has been pulled back so she can see, the cape is slightly charred and damaged from her encounter with the Knights Bannermen. The sleeves are long, with fur around the wrist area where it ends and she does not wear any gloves on her hands. Yenna also wears some tightly worn black leather trousers with different pouches attached to them. Finally she wears tightly buttoned on boots which appear to be made from expensive leather.

“We knew she would come, we could glimpse her likeness in the reflection of the Mirror...” The Enchantress says to them. “She came from the Lower Swamp.”

Yenna stumbles weakly towards the Barn, and she has no idea that the three Witches are watching her. The creatures with their glowing eyes are like cameras for them, they knew she arrived as soon as the Gecko on the tree spotted her. The Alchemist stands by the window as she watches the weak woman falling to her knees, in great distress as she holds her side, trying to stop the bleeding. Until she passes out, falling onto her back and her eyes roll into the back of her head.

The Alchemist walks over to her and looks down at her, she crouches down and picks Yenna up, she is quite a small woman, but the Alchemist is the tallest of the three anyway. She picks her up and walks her into the barn, setting her down onto one of the beds. Time passed as they used their magic to tend to her wounds, curing the diseases she must have contracted in the swamp. “The Spring Maiden...and not just any Maiden either, for she is the first Spring Maiden, the first and only.” The Sorceress describes.

“We did not wish to waste such purity; we repaired her wounds and cleared her of any diseases. She was asleep when they arrived on our land.” The Enchantress states, and the memories stay with Yenna as she lays there. Her eyes open slowly and she groans, feeling the pain has subsided, and her corset has been sewn back up where they must have opened it to fix up her wounds. Most likely with Spider’s Webbing as they described in making the Undertaker. They can hear what the three Witches were discussing at the time.

“Does she sleep?” The Enchantress asks her.

“Like a lamb.” The Sorceress answers with a smile.

“Come sisters, we cannot dawdle; we must make sure she will be safe from the Riders.” The Alchemist says to them.

“What? The Pirate will burn our forest down if we do such a thing!” The Enchantress argues.

“He will burn it down whether or not we hand her over. He has not come yet, if we send her off somewhere, he will never find us.” The Alchemist explains to them, and Yenna sits up as she hears them talking about that. She stands up and picks up the staff that she has, very similar in design to what Amber used to carry. She uses it like a walking cane as she pushes the door open and looks at them.

The Three Witches gasp when they see her, jolting back as they see her. Yenna looks at the three of them with nervous eyes and she knows that they are right. “I will go peacefully.” Yenna assures.

“You will not make it in time before your friends find you.” The Sorceress states.

“We will not have our home burned down because of a traveller.” The Enchantress snarls defensively.

“Come sisters, we must do this as quickly as possible.” The Alchemist demands, walking into the Barn with her. They walk into the place and the Alchemist moves the wooden door open, looking at what lies inside. There is a large, magical mirror inside that looks like it is made of water. The Alchemist steps aside and looks at Yenna.

“A Doorway Mirror...” She recognises.

“Go now, it will send you elsewhere.” She demands, and Yenna looks at them.

“Thank you.” She says, and then steps inside of the mirror, vanishing into it. They then close the wall, and they wait for any signs of the Knight to arrive.

The vision comes to a close, and Qrow presses his hand to his head and looks at the three Witches as they stand there. Taiyang and Raven cough from the experience, and Qrow sees the Sorceress waiting for their explanation. “She did not seem like she was selfish.” Qrow points out, realising that everything that they said was more to push them off this quest to find her. Since the Knights of Grimm are becoming more and more dangerous by the day, for even these Witches fear them.

“If you continue on this quest, Hunters...your greatest threat will be waiting for you.” The Sorceress warns, looking straight at Taiyang and he raises his brow.

“The Mirror, can we use it to follow her?” Qrow requests.

“I’m afraid it is not that simple. Gateway Mirrors are ancient Arkhoni Devices, over the years they have become unpredictable, sending those to random locations that have one.” The Enchantress explains.

“Where are the other Mirrors? How many of them are there?” Raven asks out of curiosity.

“Two other than this one. There is one in Vacuo, and another in the city called Ephai, it is not far from here. However there is no telling which one she came out of, that is why we sent her through it. Hopefully Fury will have a harder time in locating her position.” The Sorceress explains, and luckily for them, they now know more than the Knight of Fury does. They just made their job a lot easier and gave them their next lead as they hoped that they would.

“Thank you, I can contact Ruby and let her know.” Qrow says to them.

“And we will go to Ephai.” Raven agrees, little do they know that Ephai is the same city that Cinder and Hazel are currently travelling through.

But the Witches still have one more message to them. “Hunters.” The Alchemist speaks, getting their attention.

“Be warned – do not trust the man called Vir Nominis Umbra...cross him and you will face a fate worse than death, trapped in a realm of darkness that cannot be lit.” The Alchemist warns.

_Trapped in a realm of darkness that cannot be lit?_

“Thank you.” Qrow says to them.

“Good luck to you.” The Sorceress says as they leave.

They have their next lead.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby stands with the others inside of the building where all of the Security Footage is being looked over by the others. Winter is sat down in the chair, watching all of the feeds, checking for any signs of Team C.R.D.L to figure out what could have happened there. Ruby has her arms crossed whilst everyone else waits. Oscar walks in, none of them are aware of the conversation he just had with Vir Nominis Umbra, but Ruby notices the fearfulness on his face. “Oscar?” She softly says as she walks over to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?” She asks him, and he looks around and sees a little balcony that they could talk to each other on in private.

“Can we talk?” He asks her quietly, and then looks at the others. She quickly catches on and she follows him to the balcony and he closes the door behind him. Weiss stands there, noticing that the two of them have just gone outside without telling any of them, and her eyes narrow. She has become suspicious of Ruby after what she heard about Dew, not that she does not trust her, more that Ruby is hiding things from them. And like what happened with Blake, it makes Weiss pretty irritable when her friends lie to her about things.

Oscar presses his hands against the railing and he sighs, the sun has risen back into the sky after the events that night and he looks at her after he looks at the sky. “Oscar? You’re scaring me.” She stammers.

“Sorry...I just...I just found some stuff out.” He stammers, remembering what Vir Nominis Umbra told him...mainly about how he could easily kill them all in essentially a single thought.

“About Team C.R.D.L?” She asks, but she shakes his head.

“I spoke to Vir Nominis Umbra.” He answers with a shaky voice, and Ruby’s eyes widen with fear when she hears that name. She has only heard of the mysterious Soothsayer, she has never actually seen him in person. And that makes her even more intimidated by him, the fact he has spoken to some of them but not all of them. Not even her, and she is such a pinnacle part of all of this. But Ruby knows that to keep her mind in check she needs to try and stay calm, but her voice has become just as nerve-wracked as his.

“A-About what?” She nervously asks him.

“Gods...he told me a lot of things. That he has been watching all of us for a long time; apparently...we’ve just never noticed him. That he could kill us all in a second but he doesn’t choose to...about the Laws of the Mind...the difference between evil and insanity...” He stammers as he lists all those things, and Ruby looks at him fearfully.

“What? What difference?” She asks with a confused voice.

“Insanity is a by-product of suffering, whereas evil is a choice. That is what he told me, then he killed a guy, by aging him to death.” He says to her, and she gasps with shock from how he reveals that. _Aging someone to death? A terrifying way to be killed by somebody, you would not even realise it at the time._

“Why?” She asks him with fear in her voice.

“He said that every fairytale needs a good old fashioned villain, and that he has chosen to be ours.” He says to her and she walks over to him with a nervous expression on her face.

“Do you know how to beat him?” She asks.

“I don’t think we can.” He answers, but he has not seen what he is capable of yet, he can only take his word for it. “I just hope that his confidence will be his weakness.” He says to her, and Ruby presses her hand to her face with fear. Oscar notices her trepidation and he walks over to her, and wraps his arms around her. She buries her head into his shoulder as she hugs him.

“We can do this...right?” She asks him.

“Yeah...” He assures, then the door opens and his eyes widen when he sees her. Weiss is stood there with her arms crossed and quite a stern look on her face. Ruby turns and looks at her, seeing Weiss there and her heart begins to pound heavily.

“Weiss?” She nervously asks her.

“Enough bouncing around the questions, Ruby.” Weiss demands, descending back into younger Weiss...back into Ice Queen mode. She storms towards Ruby and she backs up, but Oscar stands between them.

“Weiss, stop.” He demands, pushing his hand out towards her.

“No, Oscar. I need to know; I hate when my friends lie to me or hide the truth. I’m getting the bottom of this.” Weiss sharply says as she pushes him out of the way. Ruby backs up against the railing, holding her arms up, shrinking down fearfully from Weiss’ anger. The door is still open and Sun and Neptune watch, walking outside whilst the others are still working away.

“Weiss...” Ruby whimpers.

“No, no more puppy-eyes. You’re my best friend, Ruby, and that is why I will not stand for this!” Weiss exclaims, this must be hurting her as much as it hurts Ruby. “Tell me, why did you kill Dew like that? Octavia’s death was an accident, I killed Nebula because she left me no other choice, and Gwen was killed by Neo. Why did you do it?” Weiss questions loudly, and Yang turns around when she hears the shouting.

“Hey, Weiss!” Yang shouts as she walks out onto the balcony as well, being the defensive big sister that she is. She did not think, though, that she would be doing this against Weiss again, after everything that they have been through.

“No, Yang! I’m tired of being lied to.” Weiss coldly says, also thinking about her father as well.

“I...I...” Ruby stammers, and Neptune reaches out to her.

“Come on, Snow Angel that’s enough.” He softly says, but she slaps his hand aside.

“She needs this, I don’t want our friendship to be pulled apart because some Dunce wouldn’t tell me the truth!” Weiss shouts.

“Shut up, Weiss!” Oscar bellows, pointing at her. That is the angriest anyone has ever heard him get.

But Weiss ignores him and then the next question leads to breaking point.

“Why did you do it? You’re not Tyrian so why did you butcher her like you were?” Weiss shouts, and a lot of them gasp, but Ruby’s reaction is far different.

Ruby screams in distress, closing her eye and she suddenly grabs Crescent Rose, transforming it into Scythe Mode and she accidentally slams it into Weiss. She grunts, taken off the floor and flying back into the wall so hard that the adobe wall cracks and fractures. She grunts, falling onto the floor. Her aura was up, so the attack did not do any damage to her, but the attack was enough.

Silence and shock fills the air, everyone looks at her, Blake and Winter stood outside with widened eyes. Ruby opens her eye and she gasps with shock when she sees Weiss on the floor and she looks at Ruby with a confused look. Ruby stammers, and collapses Crescent Rose and puts it back. She runs and dashes away into petals, onto the ground below as she runs away. Oscar runs over and watches her run away. “Ruby! Wait!” He calls, but Yang grabs onto him and stops him from chasing after her.

“Let her go, when she has moments like that, it’s best to let her go.” Yang tells him, but he keeps watching her. He sighs and he turns to Weiss with furious eyes.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” He roars.

“I...I didn’t mean to...” She stammers.

“She suffers from P.T.S.D for crying out loud! And you yelled at her? She is already terrified of her own mind, she doesn’t need you making it worse!” Oscar yells, with real anger in his voice. Weiss sits there, realising what she did and feeling guilt overcoming her. “You’re meant to be her best friend, not just another one of the crowd who sees her as a monster.” Oscar snarls, storming past her and walking down the steps.

They all look at Weiss and they all walk away from her apart from Neptune. Neptune walks over to her and helps her get back up.

 

Ruby runs and runs into the desert, until she falls to her knees. Tears stream from her eyes as she falls there, feeling the baking hot sand under her knees and the scorching sun against her skin. She covers her face with her hands as she cries, the tears trickle down her cheeks as she sits there. “Look at how they see you, Ruby!” Roman says to her, walking around her as she cries. She sniffles, and looks up slowly when she hears his voice. “They see you as a monster!” He says, and she shakes her head to try and get these thoughts out of her head.

“Go away...” Ruby softly says.

“Why don’t you let me take over the controls?” Roman asks her with a grin on his face, crouching down beside her. She clenches her hands into fists, her silver eye flickers as she sits there, still very tearful over what she did out of anger towards her best friend forever.

“Go away...” She repeats louder, gritting her teeth, white energy leaving her iris.

“I mean, they already see you as a monster! Why not play the part?” Roman asks her with a big grin, then she snaps.

“Go away!” Ruby shrieks with rage, grabbing her eye patch and ripping it off, before throwing her arms back, and suddenly a powerful blast of white energy erupts from both eyes, even the one where she lacks it. The thick beams of white light pour out and they fall into the ground, turning the sand where it lands into glass. She screams constantly, just as she did when she watched Pyrrha die. The rays of white energy continue to pour from her eyes, until they are cut off as she loses her eye, cutting both off.

The Silver Eyes are not a physical ability...

It is all in her aura.

She falls back onto the sand, exhausted from doing that, no longer just passing out from moments like that. She sniffles on the sand where she lays, the tears soaking the sand.

She hears a faint voice in her memory begin to speak to her. “Do not let your emotions control you.” The familiar voice tells her, and she hears herself as well.

“I can’t!” She argues.

She falls into memory, seeing Kragen Nox stood before her with a kind smile on his face, holding his staff in his hand. The Ebony coloured wood woven together with Isomacium, passing Silver Eyed Energy through his weapon. His eyes glow, but he does not fear her. He is a kind, and a fantastic teacher, helping her control her emotions. They both stand in the Courtyard of the Silver Eyed Sanctuary. Kragen paces back and forth whilst she holds her newly rebuilt Crescent Rose at the time, upgraded compared to her old one. “Come now, if an old man like me can do it, so can a young one like you.” Kragen says as he walks back and forth.

“You’ve had years to hone your senses, I’m a kid!” She exclaims, as he stands there. She goes to strike with her Scythe but he steps aside and hits the back of her leg, knocking her over into the grass. She rolls over and lays on her back, sighing. “I can’t...” Ruby weakly says, kicking the floor like a kid having a tantrum.  He chuckles as he stands there, looking at the young woman on the floor.

“How have you made it this far if you are such a defeatist?” He questions as he looks down at her. The Architect stands not far with his mechanical arms crossed. Ruby sighs, rolling her eye as she sits there.

“I was lucky...” She admits, and he scoffs, walking to her side.

“What a load of rubbish.” Kragen says as he lies down on the grass beside her, setting his staff down next to him.

“I was.” She assures.

“Do you think I’ve lived thousands of years because of luck?” He asks her with a raised eyebrow, and she stammers.

“Uh...” Ruby slurs.

“Luck and Destiny are just ideas we have, I’ll tell you what has gotten me this far...willpower.” He says to her, and Ruby turns her head to look at him as he lies beside her.

“Willpower?” She asks him.

“Yep. If I did not have the will to keep on going, to wait for the Silver Eyed Girl I heard the prophecies of...I think I’d have died years ago.” Kragen explains to her, and his words are so sincere and honest as well. He has suffered more than she has, he watched his own people die, and he had to keep on going after they all died out.

“But...Roman and Tyrian...I keep having panic attacks and I don’t even feel like I am always in control.” She stammers, and he sighs as he looks up at the clear blue sky.

“I suffered with Post Traumatic Stress for a long time.” Kragen tells her, and Ruby raises her eyebrow.

“You?” She questions, since the man she has known is a very calm and collected individual.

“Oh yeah, for many years.” Kragen assures. “After Arkhonex fell, and our Empire fell apart...I suffered for so long. I was so alone in that shack, I kept thinking I had people to talk to, for a long time I thought I was the last person alive. Yenna helped me get through that one, but I saw friends of mine that I lost for a very long time.” Kragen explains, things that Ruby can relate to. “Yenna would be woken up by my screams in my sleep, seeing them being killed in front of me over and over again...the explosions, the screams...” He lists, remembering the fall like it was yesterday.

“How did you beat it?” She asks him curiously, and he smiles as he looks at her.

“I fought through it, because it feeds off your pain from it. You have to learn how to become used to it, face it, laugh in its face. Whatever it takes for you to accept that you’re a little bit crazy. That’s what I did, I even made fun of myself. Called myself – _Krazy Kraig_. All with a K.” Kragen tells her, making her giggle.

“No way.” She disagrees.

“I’m serious, Yenna hated it but it worked.” Kragen admits with a laugh as well.

“How?” She asks him with confusion, of how that even worked.

“Over time, the nightmares became a joke. Think of them as bad jokes, at first you don’t find them funny, so you come up with something funny inside of it. In time, the nightmares begin to include the humour...and before you know it...” He says, snapping his fingers. “The nightmares are no longer scary.” He says with a smile.

Ruby smiles back, and she thinks about it. “It’s all our lives are...fighting...” She sighs, and Kragen looks back at her.

“Isn’t that good?” He asks her, and she looks at him with confusion.

“Huh?” She questions.

“To fight? Doesn’t it make you feel alive? Nothing makes you remember more than a good fight...that’s what separates us from the Knights, they do not remember the thrill of the heart that races. We fight to survive, and that is what makes life so precious. Because our lives are short, I might not die from age, sure...but I can still die just as you can.” Kragen explains, and the idea was placed in her mind from there on.

Fighting can be terrible...

But it reminds you of the importance of how beautiful life really is.

And that is what is important in this war. Kragen stands back up, picking his staff up. He stretches his hand out to her, offering to help her back up. “Come on, Little Red Riding Hood, one more before dinner.” He says to her kindly, and she smiles, accepting his hand.

He pulls her up, and in the present day she sits up from the warm bed of sand she was laid onto. She smiles after she opens her eye, remembering what he told her, and she looks at the eye patch on the floor and picks it up. She looks down at it, feeling her heart beat. “Alive...” She softly says, clipping it on around her head and over her eye. She lets her hair sit over it, long and soft as she sits there, thinking.

So peaceful...

Until...

She hears the sound of a jet flying towards her from behind. She raises her brow and turns around. She stands up and pulls Crescent Rose up as well. In the distance, there is a High Tech Atlesian Fighter Gunship flying towards where she is. She narrows her eyes, and then they widen with fear.

“Oh no...” She gasps.

Neo is in the cockpit with gritted teeth, and she pulls the triggers, firing bullets towards her.

Ruby sprints away from where she was, hunted down by Neopolitan.

She has found her, and she is alone...


	22. Desert Clash

**Ruby**

Ruby gasps, and she sprints away as fast as she can across the sandy environment as Neo’s Gunship roars towards her, firing all cylinders at her. Hundreds of bullets land in the sand, throwing grains into the air, gunfire echoes for miles as she attacks, gritted teeth as she attacks. Ruby runs and runs, the gunship getting closer. Ruby jumps and slides down the dune, just in time as the Gunship roars overhead, blowing sand off the ride. Ruby grunts as she tumbles down the sloped dune, sand stuck in her long hair and she looks up, staying prone to the ground as she watches the Gunship flying off, the afterburners glowing bright gold. She can hear the screech of the aircraft as it flies, the flaps shifting places as it flies ahead, and Ruby grits her teeth. She saw the pilot; she saw her pink and brown eyes. “Psychopath.” She names with venom in her voice. But then, the Gunship banks around, with a hauntingly loud metallic screech as it turns back for a second attack. Ruby realises, and she gets back up, running as the Gunship heads back for her. The afterburners and the engine inside of this Atlesian Prototype Fighter Ship roars deeply, growling like some huge Creature of Grimm. The wings have the weaponry built underneath their wingspan, two Vulcan Dust Charged Miniguns and a pair of missile launchers, ready to fire at whatever stands in its way.

The Gunship, named a Vulture, guns towards her, the Vulcan Miniguns begin to spin round and dust charges into the barrels. The cannons fire, blasting hundreds of dust charged bullets towards her as she runs; Neo is pulling her further and further away from the city, almost luring her somewhere. So then her friends cannot save her in time from her vengeance. The barrels heat up, turning from steel grey to molten red in seconds, due to how many bullets are being launched from it as it chases after the red hooded girl. The flaps on the wings and the many thrusters allow this thing to be extremely manoeuvrable, even entering into Vertical Take Off and Landing, hovering as it follows her. The bullets are only just missing Ruby, and she draws Crescent Rose, only activating it in its collapsed Rifle Form, the scope folds out for her to aim through. She reaches to her belt around her body and she pulls out a magazine that is loaded with Fire Dust, charging them up to do some damage. She cocks the rifle as she runs, firing it directly at the Vulture piloted by Neopolitan, and the bullets burst into little explosions of fire. The flames pulsate across the plates, but it does not have any effect on its armour plating.

_It must have a weakness...a chink in the armour._

_It’d be too heavy otherwise, wouldn’t be able to fly._

Ruby calculates all of the possible weaknesses in her head as the thing continues to pursue her. She slides down one of the dunes, and the Vulture hovers past it, blasting sand around as it flies with her, firing countless bullets at the young woman. The afterburners blast so hot that Ruby can feel the heat from where she runs, trying to identify a weakness in the body of the machine. The plating is highly flexible, like that of a reptile, almost like snake or even a lizard from how well they can overlap and shift for the movement of the vehicle. The rising sun creates a reddish hue across the beautiful sky as Ruby keeps moving from the monster that pursues her.

The Vulture finally stops firing, and the afterburners roar unbelievably loud, propelling the vessel forward suddenly. It shoots off overhead, sand blowing off around the area as it flies into the sky, banking round the dunes as it goes for a second attack. Ruby slows down for second, dropping down and leaning against the sand dune, avoiding sight of the Vulture as it flies around, searching for where she went. The Vulture decelerates as it searches for her, and Ruby’s eyes widen, realising her hooded cape is giving her away too much. She takes the cape off and she partially buries it into the sand, leaving the red hood visible so then she could find it again. Her outfit now is less red and blacker, and since it is not like her old one with the skirt, she can hide more easily. She digs herself into the sand, blending into the rocks, and she keeps her head down, feeling the Vulture approaching where she hides.

The Vulture hovers over the dune where she is taking cover; she closes her eye to keep the grains from blinding her in the process. The thrusters are so hot that she feels her arm actually burn a little from the heat that is being exerted from the fuel cells. Neo looks around desperately, trying to find the murderer of the man she loved with all her heart, gripping the joysticks of the vessel tight. Ruby keeps her head down, and Roman walks around her in the dunes, watching her flying overhead and he smiles. “You’ve gotten better.” Roman comments with a proud smile on his face. Neo notices the hood in the sand and she grits her teeth, spinning the Vulture round and she squeezes the triggers.

Ruby’s eye widens and she gasps, watching her hood being shredded down by the hundreds of dust charged bullets launched into it. The fabrics have been cut to ribbons by the bullets that have torn it to pieces. If she were there, those bullets would have annihilated her aura and most likely reduced her to a bloody mess on the floor. Neo then fires a missile into where the cape is, the missile detaches from beneath the wing, and then the afterburner erupts. The missile shoots forward and explodes, launching sand absolutely everywhere and destroying what remained of Ruby’s hood.

_My Hood..._

_Snap out of it, Ruby! You can always buy another one!_

She shakes the childish thought out from her head and she carefully picks Crescent Rose back up, she held it close to her body when in the sand as it shifted over her and into her hair. She lifts it up and looks through the scope as the Ship hovers around; Neo knows that that was not her target. Another one of her little traps, and she moves around. Ruby continues to make her analysis of the Vulture, trying to find a weakness in the aircraft.

Then she notices something...

The wings have powerful thrusters that could be blown up with a well placed shot. Most precisely would be a fire charged shot, the increased heat would detonate the fuel cells, too much heat would cause the cells to overload. She looks through the scope and slows her breath down when she aims at the Vulture as it hovers before her, finger on the trigger. Sweat trickles down from her temple, down her cheek and then down her neck. Or off her chin and into the sand. The heat from the Scorching Sun and the Vulture’s thrusters is thoroughly exhausting the young woman, but she focuses her senses the same way that Kragen taught her.

Her silver eye glows faintly, and she exhales calmly, focusing extremely hard to the point where the scope has just become a guide now. She could hit it without the scope. The Vulture turns slightly and Neo looks around erratically to find her...

Then her pink and brown eyes double take when she spots Ruby, seeing the glimmer of her scope. Her eyes widen when she realises, and Ruby smirks, pulling the trigger. The fire engulfed round shoots across the desert floor and straight into the afterburner underneath the wing. The burst of fire, increasing the temperature in the process, works exactly as she planned. Her silver eyes helped her focus completely, she is using them more effectively now, slowly but surely she will be able to master her senses without needing to think about it. Just like how Kragen can.

The Vulture screeches with pain, as smoke and golden flames belch from the thruster, the computers inside of her cockpit flash red constantly, alarms ceaselessly blare over and over again. It begins to spin out of control after the thruster explodes as the fuel cells erupt into flames; the wing is completely sheered to pieces. Mini-Explosions work their way across the wing, shattering chunks of wing matter off, smoke billowing from the wing as it spins out of control. It screeches as it spins out of control, and Neo swiftly unclips her buckles that held her inside of the cockpit and she grabs her Umbrella. Sparks burst from the computers inside of the aircraft as it spins and spins, more explosions erupting from the body of the Vulture as it approaches the ground. The cockpit is blown open and Neo leaps out of the Vulture just as it crashes into the dunes with an epic bang. The wreckage tumbles down with them as Neo leaps into Ruby, smashing right into her and the pair of them tumble down the huge Sand Dune with the smouldering wreck.

Ruby grunts as she falls with Neo, sand stuck in both of their hair, Neo throws herself at Ruby again and tackles her into the sand. Ruby kicks her in the chest and rolls backwards, continuing to tumble, the Vulture explodes again, this explosion is far more powerful. Chunks of metal are thrown across the desert from this explosion, sharp shards thrown absolutely everywhere, the explosion echoes for miles. Neo jumps and runs across the falling wreck of her Vulture, and then she jumps straight at Ruby as she lands on some flat ground.

Neo slams the curved hilt of her Umbrella down with all of her might into the back of Ruby’s head as she jumps at her. Ruby grunts from the impact and the wreckage crashes down and finally comes to a stop right next to them. Neo strikes her again in the back, bringing Ruby to her knees. She hooks the handle onto her neck with force and swings her round into the wreckage with force. Neo rushes towards the stunned Ruby and grabs her by the back of her hair, yanking her back and then pushing her forwards towards a jagged chunk of steel that protrudes from the wreck, glowing orange with heat. Ruby presses her hands against the hot metal, pushing against it to keep Neo from plunging her pretty face into the spike that could kill her. Ruby looks back, gritting her teeth with anger and she smashes her head back into Neo so hard that she staggers backwards. Ruby quickly scoops her boot underneath Crescent Rose and kicks it up in the air, catching it in her hand. She immediately swings round and slashes towards her.

Neo jumps upwards and lands on the scythe’s blade, pushing her feet against it and jumping backwards. She rolls back across the sand and she points her Umbrella at her. The end of the umbrella opens up, red dust charging up inside of it. She then pulls the trigger inside of it that folds from the handle over and over again. Explosive shells shoot towards Ruby; Neo holds it up like that and fires three rounds into Ruby’s chest. Her aura keeps her from taking any physical damage, but the explosive rounds throw her backwards and she bounces off the metal. Ruby rolls out of the way, when Neo sprints across the wreckage of the Vulture and she flips through the air, and slams the back of her heel downwards at her head. Ruby backs up, seeing Neo staying low to the ground and pacing back and forth. Her teeth are constantly gritted and her eyes are furious with a lust for vengeance.

Ruby stays careful, Neo has always been a lethal foe, they have sometimes struggled to even get a hit on her in the past. The only way they have ever beaten her was from Raven saving Yang with a surprise attack and Ruby quickly opening the Umbrella. Jaune did manage to slam a hook into her shoulder when she was disguised as the Onyx Phantom one time, but other than that she has always been able to beat them. But this Neo...she has changed...she seems to act like she is feral. Almost foaming at the mouth with hatred as she glares at Ruby, pacing back and forth.

Ruby watches her, now able to feel the wind around her body in her more tactical outfit. “What has happened to you?” Ruby questions as Neo paces, scraping the blade that extends from her Umbrella through the sand. The blade glimmers stunningly as light reflects off the blade, the sun shining in the sky, signalling morning for the people of Vacuo. Ruby nearly forgot that Neo is a mute, and thus she will not be receiving an answer from her any time soon. “Oh yeah, sorry.” Ruby apologises, but Neo is in no mood to accept apologies. She snarls and she sprints directly at Ruby, leaping towards her with her blade in her hand.

Ruby jumps back and spins Crescent Rose through her fingers, deflecting the impact of Neo’s Umbrella. She yells, swinging the scythe over her head and towards Neo. The Pink and Brown haired girl cartwheels backwards, only just avoiding the red blade, landing on her feet and rushing right back in for the kill. Ruby ‘s eyes widen as Neo jumps and kicks her in the chest, Neo lands on her knee and spins round, slashing the blade across Ruby’s aura. The red flicker of energy bursts from the blade as it cuts across, and Ruby staggers back a little bit more. Ruby grits her teeth through anger and she dashes towards Neo, the scythe shifts and extends into War Scythe form as she swings towards Neo. Neo leaps over her and slashes her Umbrella across her back. Ruby falls and lands in the sand, the sand bursts up around her, she slides through the sand and groans.

She looks up, and gasps, seeing Melodic Cudgel pressing down into the sand in front of her. It looks like he is there, but due from the fact that Neo has not even reacted it means it is still in her head. Roman smirks as he looks down at her, flashes of memory return to Ruby, seeing the night sky filled with hundreds of Nevermores and Griffins over Beacon. “Little Red, Little Red...you’re just determined to be the hero of Remnant aren’t ya?” Roman asks her as he sets both hands upon the curved handle, smirking at her. She grits her teeth when she stares at the spectre that stands before her. “Remember when I said that?” Roman asks her with a smirk.

She looks back at Neo, seeing her running at her again; her attacks are far more aggressive than they have ever been before. Neo jumps towards her and Torchwick continues to smirk, but she spins round and slams the scythe at Neo. The impact knocks her out of the air and she falls into the sand. Ruby jumps back up to her feet, spinning Crescent Rose through her fingers and slamming the scythe down into the sand. She stares at Neo as she sits back up in the sand, grains stuck in her hair. She glares directly at Ruby, gritting her teeth together, almost grinding them together.

Neo gets back up and goes to attack again, but Ruby holds the scythe forward. “Stop, Neo!” She demands, but Neo does not. Ruby does not want to fight her; she just wants her to listen. _I want her to know...I didn’t want to kill him...I just wanted to stop him._ But Neo cares not, she springs towards her and fires another shot at her, Ruby spins Crescent Rose like the propellers of a helicopters, the explosive rounds passes across the action and around her. Embers are carried off into the wind. The smoke from the burning wreckage of the Vulture passes between the two of them, and Ruby stares right at her. “Let me just explain what happened!” She begs, but Neo sprints at her and jumps towards Ruby, not listening. She knees Ruby up the chin but Ruby spins round and slashes with Crescent Rose as a counter attack. Neo thrusts towards her, the blade extended from her umbrella, the light from the rising sun shimmering across it as she lunges towards her.

Ruby slides out of the way and kicks Neo in the back, making her stumble, but she manages to flip and land back on her feet, jumping around erratically to avoid the bullets being shot from Crescent Rose. She dodges every single one of them and then she kicks directly downwards, heel first onto the top of Ruby Rose’s head. Ruby screeches as she swings round to take out Neo with the scythe, and she hits her. Neo shatters like glass, the silver eyed girl realises her mistake and feels the fist swing right into the side of her cheek. Ruby falls onto the ground and Neo rushes back towards her, grabbing Ruby by her long hair and swinging her round with all her might, slamming her head down onto a rock that protrudes from the sand. She yelps from the hard impact, and she lifts her up to do it again, but Ruby picks up Crescent Rose and fires it. She rides the recoil and smashes into Neo’s chest to free herself from the Assassin’s grasp.

Ruby immediately goes for a second attack, only for Neo to back flip and cartwheel away from her scythe. Every attack she tries, she always escapes. And whenever she does manage to hit her, Neo has already made a second attack. Neo sprints towards her and jumps, rolling across Ruby’s back and kicking upwards into her jaw, throwing her into the air. Neo smirks and she kicks Ruby in her side, throwing the young woman across the sand and she lands by some of the burning chunks of metal. Ruby groans and looks at her aura level, she still has enough left to stay being offensive, but she must be careful...

All this conflict happening between them...

Something is bound to sense it soon.

Ruby sits upright, and she sees Neo walking slowly towards her and she feels a burning sensation in her mind. She groans and then hears the whispers returning to her mind, the voice of Torchwick seems to plague her. “You took me from her, Ruby...” Roman whispers into her ear as he walks around. “Why don’t you let me take the reins for a moment or two? I haven’t had the pleasure of talking to my sweet little ice-cream girl for a long time.” Roman requests ominously as he paces around Ruby. Ruby feels the cold fingers of the spectre reaching into her mind to take the wheel from her. Ruby yells with rage, and she snaps out of it just in time as Neo jumps towards her with the blade extended from the end of her Umbrella.

Ruby grabs Crescent Rose and swings it round with all her might, knocking her out of the air and into the sand. Ruby dashes towards her, petals dance around her as she moves. She forcefully slams Crescent Rose down onto her neck, the scythe plunges into the sand and the huge handle pins her to the floor. Neo strains and Ruby glares down at her, not even noticing the bizarre sandstorm that has formed just in front of them. Neo keeps writhing around, but Ruby pushes down with a grunt. “Stop it, Neo!” She demands with anger, and she stops, looking right back at her. Neo, still acting like a feral animal from how much she wants to avenge the man she loved, stares right back into Ruby’s single eye.

Neo pushes up against Crescent Rose but Ruby forces her back down, glaring down at her. “Listen to me!” She demands with a raised voice, and Neo stares straight back. “I did not kill him.” She answers and Neo growls with anger, but Ruby keeps her pinned down into the sand, pushing down with all her might.

Neo strains, not listening to what she says, but then Ruby tells her the truth of what happened up there on that ship. “I was never planning on killing him, only stopping him. But he had the upper hand over me; he was spouting off with a speech he came up with.” Ruby explains and Neo stares at her. “A Griffin dropped onto him from above and swallowed him whole, and it tried to kill me. It flew and I smashed it into the ship and it exploded.” Ruby explains and she sees Neo’s eyes darting around as she thinks on what she just said. “Roman killed himself.” She tells her, and Neo stares directly into her silver eye, and she scowls.

Ruby sighs, closing her eye and then opening it. “We do not have to fight each other anymore...we can work together.” Ruby says to her, but then Neo smirks as she looks up at the young woman that has her at the mercy of her scythe. Ruby raises her brow with confusion of why she is smiling.

Ruby looks ahead at the swirling cyclone, wind carrying sand into a vortex that has formed. It begins to dissipate and she notices familiar red flashes inside of the sand. Ruby’s eyes widen fearfully.

The sand falls and she sees her stood before her.

Her long white hair blows in the scorching wind, pale white skin and reddish black markings across her body. She wears a tattered poncho and she looks far more tired than she looked when they last met. Her eyes glow bright red, piercingly as she glares directly at the Silver Eyed Girl.

It’s Salem.

Salem’s eyes look sternly towards her and she speaks again, her voice more powerful than when she was back at her camp. “Your transgressions against our Order will be punished, Ruby Rose.” Salem commands, as red lightning sparks and channels through the markings in her arms and into her palm. She blasts a powerful bolt of red lightning towards Ruby; she swiftly gets up and spins Crescent Rose around extremely quickly to create a shield to defend her aura from the attack Salem had just delivered. Neo rolls back and picks her Umbrella back up, ready to fight again.

Ruby is pushed back across the sand by the force of Salem’s attack, and eventually the lightning recedes, and Ruby looks directly at the Dark Queen.

Salem and Neo stand side by side, and they both rush towards her.

Neo she could have handled alone...

But Salem?

 

**Yang**

“Goddamn it, Weiss!” She exclaims, pacing back and forth in front of the young Schnee Girl. She is sat on a box and she sighs, her eyes closed before she buries her head into her hands, she deeply regrets yelling at Ruby the way that she did. But now they really need to find her and help her, she is in way over her head at the moment. Salem is not looking to make a prisoner of her this time; she aims to kill her for what happened five years ago. Neptune stands beside his girlfriend, trying to defuse the argument as best as he can, standing up and making his defence against Yang.

“Yang, enough. She has apologised.” Neptune states as he looks at his girlfriend that looks so guilty for what happened, but the fury of Yang and Oscar has not faded away. Yang scoffs, double taking at him as she paces and then stops. She plants her hand on her hip as she looks at Neptune.

“Are you serious?” She scoffs.

“Yes I am, now I don’t condone what Weiss did. But you are blowing this way out of proportion, she apologised for her mistake, now let’s find Ruby and fix this.” Neptune requests, just wanting to get back to the far simpler task of figuring out what Team C.R.D.L were up to.

“Yeah, I doubt Weiss is the person she would want to see right now after that outburst.” Yang states, and he sighs, pushing his hands through his hair, and Weiss has not said anything else. Mostly because she cannot think of anything to explain why she shouted at her like that.

“I just...” Weiss stammers, but still unable to find an answer. Neptune looks over at Sun who has his hand on the back of the chair that Winter is sat in. Winter is still looking over the security footage in the Kingdom to figure out what could have possibly happened. Winter ponders over the footage; she mainly has been looking at the camera feed which is the closest to where they found the bodies of Russel, Dove and Sky.

Oscar paces back and forth on the balcony, waiting to see something of Ruby; due to the size of the dunes he did not see the Vulture attacking Ruby at the time. And due to the amount of industrial machines in the area, the explosions could have been mistaken as something from the construction sites in Vacuo. He overhears Yang’s debate with the others on what they should do, her anger is justified, but Oscar is focusing on trying to find her. “I was just annoyed that she was hiding stuff from us, we’re her friends, she should be able to trust us.” Weiss says.

“Yeah, there is a fine line between trust and personal problems, Weiss.” Yang states, looking at her with a scoff.

“That’s ironic.” Blake scoffs, with her arms crossed and Yang looks at her.

“Huh?” Yang questions.

“You guys were practically interrogating me on my personal problems.” Blake says, thinking back nearly seven years ago when Weiss and Blake got into that huge argument. Yang shakes her head, raising her hand towards Blake.

“That was different.” Yang dismisses.

“How?” Blake questions.

“You were trying to hide who you were from us; all we wanted was to know who you really were behind that bow on your head.” Yang explains, and Blake sighs. “We know who Ruby is.” Yang says, but then Weiss says something that does shock Yang.

“Do we, though?” Weiss asks her, and Yang’s eyes widen and she slowly turns around. Silence fills the room; even Winter turns away from the many screens with a surprised look on her face.

“What did you say?” Yang questions with a stern look in her eyes, and Neptune looks at her with a shocked expression on his face. Even he cannot defend his girlfriend here, so she better explain herself pretty quick. Weiss looks up at Yang and she has pretty glassy eyes.

“Do we still know her? Ever since we got her back...she has never been the same. Small things like how she doesn’t eat cookies anymore, or does not get excited around weapons and puppies. But the bigger things as well...she would never go and kill someone like that, she would always find a better way...incapacitate them. Never butcher.” Weiss explains, and her points are very valid, but the defensive sister does not see it that way, and she points at Weiss with furious eyes.

“Take that back.” She demands.

“It’s the truth, Yang.” Weiss says, sounding ashamed as she says it as well. But she does not take what she said back. Yang clenches her hand into a fist with anger, her eye twitches slightly, but the thing that truly sends her over the edge...is that the others agree with Weiss. Even Blake does, she stands there with the look of understanding...

Because at the end of the day...

Weiss is correct.

Ruby has changed; she is not the adorable little ball of sunshine she used to be. She has lost her purity; she has become quite cold and merciless at times. She can try her best to help people, to not kill her enemies, but she now understands why you should as well. Maiming does not work...

...not against these people.

But Yang does not care.

Ruby is her baby sister by choice.

“Take! That! Back!” Yang erupts with fury, her hair glows extremely bright and ignites, and she throws her arms back, creating one powerful shockwave as her eyes change from lilac to red. The shockwave shatters the windows and nearly knocks them off their feet or where they were stood. Oscar stands there, shock in his eyes as he sees what is going on.

He is the only one that is on Yang’s side here. Yang breathes erratically with anger, gritted teeth, and Weiss looks at Yang...afraid. Now, it has shifted around, when everyone looked at Weiss with shock at what she said...

Now they all look at Yang that way.

Blake puts her hand on her best friend’s shoulder and she pulls her back. “Yang...calm down.” Blake tenderly says and Sun looks at her, and she looks at him. Sun scoffs, shaking his head when he looks at the furious sister.

“What has happened to _you_?” He asks her, and he is not wrong either, because she has changed as well.

But then again...

Haven’t they all?

“I will stop at nothing to keep my baby sister safe and sound.” Yang assures.

“She’s not your sister.” Neptune points out, and Yang looks at him.

“She is to me.” Yang says, storming off to cool down. She walks out onto the balcony to calm down and she knocks a rack of plates over out of anger. Oscar does not even flinch to the sound of them all falling, he is different as well. Being captured by the Knights of Grimm would do that to you.

Nearly dying and losing her sister has made Yang even more protective than she ever was. So protective that it could get her killed as well if she is not careful about what she does. She stands next to Oscar and she buries her head into her hands, pressing her head and hands against the adobe railing.

Blake looks back at her and Sun stands beside her. Sun sighs as he paces around the room, because the thought has entered his mind. “This is what they want.” He says as he paces back and forth, getting his girlfriend’s attention.

“Huh?” She asks him.

“The Knights. Salem. The Acolytes of Lien. They vanish like this and they let the effects of what happened tear us apart.” Sun explains, and Winter looks at them.

“He’s right...we can’t let this break us apart. Otherwise the enemy will win.” Winter says and they all feel very downtrodden from everything that has happened.

Oscar continues to look out at the desert to figure out where she could be, he did not see where she darted off to. He sighs, closing his eyes as he looks down at the ground. “I should have gone after her.” Oscar sighs heavily. He wipes the sweat from his brow, and Yang looks at him through her hair as she turns. She rises back up, flicking her hair back over her shoulder, her eyes lilac again and she has cooled off after her mini freak-out.

“She’ll come back to us when she is ready, trust me I’ve known Ruby her whole life. Whenever she gets upset like that, she just needs some alone time to think.” Yang says to him, the two of them have been able to get along the strongest due to the connection they share with Ruby Rose. Hopefully soon they will figure out that the thing that binds their little family together...their glue...is in trouble. Yang sighs, shaking her head. “Damned P.T.S.D...evil thing.” She says, feeling her hand shaking slightly and she has to hold her wrist to steady it. Even though Adam has become an ally and six years have passed since she lost her arm...she still suffers from some effects of P.T.S.D. Her freak-out there was possibly one of them.

Oscar closes his eyes and he sighs. “It’s not just her P.T.S.D.” He reveals to her, and Yang narrows her eyes and she looks at him.

“What?” She asks him.

“I know where her nightmares are coming from.” He tells her and she has her full attention directed towards him.

“You do? Did you set up the cameras?” She asks him, but he shakes his head.

“I always had my suspicions...but he proved them right for me.” He tells her.

“ _He_?” Yang asks him, raising her brow, and Oscar looks at her.

“The Soothsayer...Vir Nominis Umbra? I spoke to him around half an hour ago.” Oscar tells her, and the shock in Yang’s face in unforgettable. Wide eyed and mouth agape from shock.

“Wh-Why did you not say sooner?” She questions.

“I had to process everything he told me...and he told me a lot.” Oscar answers;

“What kind of things?”

“Saying he has been giving her nightmares for fun, that he is our enemy because he chooses to do it...the differences between insanity, misguidance and evil. And a tonne of other things that I still need to understand...” He stammers, still stuck around the terrifying fact that he could kill them all with a single thought. The fearful look in her purple eyes is enough to arouse concern, but what he says next only makes it worse for her. “He also told us that the only reason we are alive is that he has chosen to make it that way...he could kill us all right now if he wanted to...” Oscar stammers, and she looks even more scared.

Vir Nominis Umbra makes all of their threats combined look like a tiny Grimm in comparison.

“Then...why hasn’t he?” Yang asks him, and Oscar just shrugs his shoulders.

“From how he said it? Because killing us that way would take away the fun...I’m betting the fun for him is through our suffering.” Oscar explains, and Yang groans.

“You know, Oscar...that really did not make me feel better.” Yang says to him.

“But it’s the truth.” Oscar says to her, and Yang looks at him.

“So...how do we kill him? Can we kill him?” Yang asks, just to see what they could theorise, but Oscar truly has nothing.

“I don’t think we can...he can stop time at will, stronger than I can...stronger than Time could.” Oscar explains as he remembers those eyes. He has the face of a kind man, and that is what makes him so terrifying. A smile as a sweet as sugar and a voice as enticing as bait on a hook.

“What do we do? Did he say what we should avoid doing?” She asks and he shakes his head.

“I don’t think he cares, I bet he is so confident that he will win that he is gonna let us do what we do. Until we are of no use to him.” Oscar says, looking out at the sand dunes.

“And he has been showing her those nightmares?” Yang asks.

“I’m hedging a bet that the Charred Forest is his home.” Oscar says to her, and Yang chuckles.

“Something as evil as him? Wouldn’t surprise me...” Yang says, remembering when she saw it. The burned trees, then turning to ice at one point as she saw the Shivering Dominion.

They could have continued to theorise about the mysterious Soothsayer that has been following them, until Winter called them. Yang turns when she hears Winter’s voice calling out to her. “Guys!” Winter calls, and they both turn to face her. “You need to see this.” She says to them, Oscar looks at Yang and he looks back at the sand dunes.

“You go; I’ll keep an eye out for her.” Oscar promises, and Yang smiles.

“Thanks, pal.” Yang says, following Winter into the room with the many screens. Winter sits down in the chair and she hangs her finger over the play button on the keyboard. But before she plays, she points at one of the screens, and they can all tell that this is outside of the Headmaster’s Throne Room.

“Look at the time stamp.” Winter says, and Sun reads it out.

“Twelve O’clock...at lunch.” Sun reads, and it happened yesterday as well. She plays the video and they can see a man walking towards the doors, opening them. The man is huge, towering above any of them, and he has burnt-orange hair that is combed backwards with a slight peak at the front, and indigo eyes. He wears silver-gray armour with gold trim. The chest plate sports a bird with its wings outstretched. Underneath the armour, he wears a black shirt with red trimmings and black pants with a red belt tied around his waist.

And finally, he has a huge mace slung round his back.

“It’s Cardin...it really is him.” Blake remembers, mostly for how he treated Jaune and Velvet back at Beacon. But he does not seem to act the same way, he is acting more like a Huntsman. He walked in there to get his mission from the headmaster. Winter fast-forwards the video to the point where he walks out, around twenty five minutes later. He looks shocked, confused and dazed, nearly collapsing as he holds his mace tight. Blood drips from the head of the mace, leaving the trail that they saw when they came in. He then ran off into the city, leaving them behind.

“He...He did it?” Yang stammers with shock, unable to believe this revelation.

“Why? Why would he do it?” Neptune questions with confusion.

“He was always an ass...but I never took him for a psycho.” Sun states.

“It doesn’t end there.” Winter says, pointing to camera twenty three, and she has moved to midnight. The lamppost is there, and they see Cardin stumbling around as he tries to get to safety. But he stops with wide eyes when he sees them emerging from the darkness. Russel with his knives in his hands, Dove with his sword and Sky with his Halberd, they cornered him at the lamppost. They cannot hear what they say to him, but they do not look in the friendliest of moods. They watch, seeing Cardin trying to calm them...but...

They attacked him first; Russel threw the knife at him and cut his cheek. Cardin attacked afterwards, taking a few hits, then smashing their heads into the ground with his huge mace. Yang looks away, unable to watch the brutality of their deaths. Most of them look away; all the blood is horrific to look at.

“It was him...it really was him.” Weiss stammers with shock.

“I never wanted to believe it.” Blake says with fear in her voice, but Yang and Winter seem to be the only ones that have caught onto a very important fact.

“He defended himself.” Yang realises, and they look at her. She turns to them and she points at the screen. “Didn’t you see, his own team attacked first...” She points out.

“What about killing the Headmaster?” Sun asks her.

“Remember what Oscar said? About the Echo in Time he saw? He said that the Headmaster was acting dangerously...what if Cardin was forced to kill him and the Pyromancer as well?” She asks them, and they think on this.

It is extremely possible...

But he vanished after that clip. He was never seen again in the recordings.

But he did murder his entire time, and two very powerful people.

He must answer for what he did.

“We need to track him down.” Yang says, turning to talk to Oscar, until she feels her Scroll vibrating in her breast pocket. She jolts and looks down, reaching into the pocket and pulling it out. She expects to see the face of Kassius on the screen, but it is not him at all.

It is Qrow.

She answers the scroll and holds it up to her ear. “Uncle Qrow?” She answers, sounding confused of why he is calling her.

“Yang? Where’s Ruby?” Qrow asks her with a worried voice. She stops in her tracks with widened eyes, since that is the last thing she needs to hear.

“She and Weiss had an argument and she stormed off – why?” Yang asks as she turns to them, and Oscar notices something in the distance.

“She’s not answering her scroll.” Qrow tells her, and Yang turns to Oscar when she hears him calling to her.

“Guys!” He calls, pointing to the dunes. He can see the sand being kicked up, with multiple faint red flashes in the distance. Yang’s eyes widen fearfully for her sister’s safety...because she sees the silhouettes of Crescent Rose swinging towards the Dark Queen herself.

“Oh gods...” She realises fearfully. Oscar grits his teeth and he suddenly vanishes.

 

**Ruby**

Salem yells with rage, blasting a powerful bolt of glowing red lightning directly at Ruby, and the young woman throws herself backwards to avoid it. The bolt of electricity explodes against the ground, turning the sand into black glass, spikes of it rise from the ground. Ruby fires Crescent Rose into the ground to launch herself into the sky, riding the recoil. She spins it round and fires behind her, extending the Scythe into the War Scythe form, swinging it straight at Salem. Ruby slashes across her powerful aura, that attack would have done immense damage to most of her foes, but that only made Salem stumble. She snarls with anger and raises the sand behind her and blasts it towards Ruby. The sand swirls around her, and Neo suddenly leaps at her from behind, kicking her in the back of the head with force. Ruby stumbles and takes a bolt of lightning into the chest. The forks of red energy crackle across her small body, and she is thrown into a sand dune.

Ruby gets back up, looking angry all the time and she sprints towards Salem, firing Crescent Rose at her over and over again. She bursts into Petals as she dashes towards her. She swings the scythe directly at Salem, and Salem ducks down, pushing her blade aside before slamming her palm into the young girl’s chest. Ruby however, blasts towards her again and slashes across Salem hard, then jumps straight back to kick her in the back of the head. She spins round and forms a red electrical blade, swinging it into Crescent Rose. They both lock together, pushing down against one another, and Salem stares down at her. “It seems Kragen’s training has brought you a long way, Miss Rose.” Salem comments, and Ruby snarls with anger, thrashing the scythe across her and rolling backwards.

Neo jumps towards Ruby and she gasps, turning and firing a round towards her. Neo flips through the air and she fires her Umbrella at her, launching an explosive shell formed from dust at her. The shell explodes at her feet and Ruby is thrown into the air by it. Salem charges the red lightning from the veins in her body and shoots a bolt at her, that throws her into one of the dunes again. Neo runs at her with the blade extended and Ruby rolls out of the way, turning to slash across her aura, a pinkish brown flicker bursts from her and she stares at Ruby with angered eyes.

Ruby senses the vibrations in the sand as Salem walks towards her and swings that electrical red blade at her, creating an awesome metallic thrum as she swings it at her. They lock together, and her silver eye stares into Salem’s unnatural red ones, and the Dark Queen snarls as she pushes her into the sand with force. Ruby forcefully kicks Salem in the chest and swings her Scythe across her chest, cutting through the poncho, and beneath is the same black dress she always wore, but it has become tattered and weathered from her time out here in the desert. “But your training will not be enough!” Salem roars, but Ruby slashes into the red blast so hard that the electrical form shatters and fades away. Salem glares at her, the red electricity passes through her fingers and she slams her hand downwards.

Ruby points Crescent Rose to the floor and fires, riding her weapon into the air as she rises up. She just avoids the shock she would have had if she stayed there. She lands on top of one of the dunes and looks down at Salem, her long white hair blowing in the wind. “At least I’ve not fallen to what you’ve become, a nomad who hides in the deserts.” Ruby challenges, further angering the Dark Queen.

“I am capable of more than your feeble mind can possibly imagine!” Salem roars, and she holds her hand up to the burning wreckage of the Vulture and she launches it straight at Ruby. The whole thing rises up; due to her telekinesis she lifted that thing like it was made of plastic. Ruby slides back down the Sand Dune towards Salem, and as she slides she slashes towards her.

Salem falls to one knee as Ruby hits her leg and she grunts. Ruby jumps up to attack again, until Neo kicks Ruby with both feet. Ruby falls and goes to attack Neo again, but she jumps at her and wraps her legs around her neck. She forces her whole bodyweight towards the ground and she rolls off her, throwing Ruby into some chunks of rubble that remain from the ship that she flew here.

Ruby bounces off the metal, her aura is getting weaker and weaker against these two.

Salem rises back up with fiery red eyes.

Even with her pride extinguished and looking weaker than ever in her poncho, she is still almost godlike. Her eyes glow fierce red as she fights Ruby Rose, blasting red lightning from her hands, black smoke forms around the lightning as she lifts her from the sand dune and smashes her straight into the ground. Ruby groans with pain, flashes of Tyrian delivering similar tortures upon her appear in her eyes as she reaches for her weapon. Salem walks towards Ruby with a smirk on her face. “Ah...now I remember, you’ve yet to hone your senses haven’t you?” Salem presumes as she approaches the tormented girl in the sand. She looks at Salem with gritted teeth as she walks towards her.

She notices that the black gem imbedded in her forehead glows more and more, her eyes glow brighter and brighter. Crackles of glowing red electricity form around it as she approaches her. “You can’t, for there is too much pain and loss in your life.” Salem presumes as she approaches her. Ruby closes her eye, and when she opens it, it glows bright silver. She stands up and yells with rage, blasting a beam of light from her eyes, taking her eye patch off as she attacks Salem. She focused her emotions all into anger as she attacked Salem, still learning how to master those gifts. But she is getting stronger and stronger. Salem blasts a thick beam of black energy from her head, red lightning crackles within and around the beam as it collides into her beam of light.

The impact is explosive, blowing sand in all directions as it pushes them both back, and Neo is slammed to the ground from the shockwave. Ruby roars with rage as she stands there, like solar rays that ripple around the beams that have formed from both eyes, despite her having lost one of them. Salem’s teeth are gritted tight and hard as she fights against the powerful Silver Eyed Warrior. Light and Dark collide, and they are both being held in place, until Salem yells with rage, and turns her head, pulling both beams into the sand and creating a powerful explosion.

The blast from the explosion launches Ruby back and she falls into the sand. She looks ahead with a widened eye as she sees Salem sprinting towards her. She clenches her hand into a fist, red lightning channels through her arm and into her fist. She jumps high in the air to do immense damage to her.

Until suddenly...

Oscar erupts from out of nowhere, the sand blasting forward around him after slowing time and running to her aid as fast as she could. Oscar slams his fist into Salem’s chest, and the velocity of the time throws Salem back, tumbling across the ground, and he pauses time again when Neo lunges to him. He turns and strikes her in the chest as well, sending Neo into the floor. Salem pushes her hands against the sand and looks directly at Oscar with enraged eyes, and Oscar draws Traveller’s Atrocity, the complex blade folds out and the cogs rotate round as he holds it. He spins the sword through his fingers, then holds it with both hands, aiming the blade forward at her. Ruby stands back up, holding Crescent Rose and she stands back to back with him. Oscar looks at her with a smile. “Well...at least things are even now.” Oscar says with a smile, and Salem rises back up.

She floats back up, a dark energy helps her float upwards and she stares down at the two who were once her captives. “The two of you together will fail; you cannot stop the coming destruction.” Salem warns as she rises up and Ruby smirks at her.

“Maybe, but we’re willing to try.” Ruby says, and Salem narrows her eyes.

“You deceive yourself!” Salem yells, charging her abilities back up as she rushes towards them. Oscar pauses time and he slashes across Salem’s chest, knocking her out of the air. Ruby turns and deflects the blade of Neo’s Umbrella, sparks burst from the impact and Ruby spins round and kicks her in the side of the head. Salem crashes into the ground and immediately fires a bolt of lightning at Oscar. Oscar twists the blade round and uses his blade to absorb the electrical matter aimed at him. He pushes a trigger down in the hilt with his pinkie finger and the blade ignites with fire dust. He sprints towards Salem and he jumps up to her and she uses her forearms to deflect his attacks, forming a whip made from the same red lightning and she swings it towards him. It creates a powerful lashing sound, but he darts away by using his semblance and he slashes up her back and fires a round into her as well, making her stumble.

She turns swiftly to slam her electrified fist down onto where he is, but he darts behind her again and slashes across her poncho. The poncho ignites into flames and she growls with anger, channelling all that lightning into a ball. She then throws her arms back with a powerful scream, knocking Oscar onto the ground. She lands back onto the sand and she rips the burning poncho off, standing there in her damaged old outfit. The smoke and embers from her poncho rises up around her as she glares at them.

Neo kicks Ruby in the chest and goes to stab her in the chest. But she misses and the blade plunges through her aura and through her shoulder. Blood squirts out and Ruby shrieks with agony as she feels the gold spike puncture her body. Oscar’s eyes widen, and he knows that this is not a fight that they can win. He could take them on, but Ruby cannot. He darts towards her and catches her, slashing his sword across Neo, throwing her back from the impact. She lands on her feet and glares at them.

He looks at the two of them and he vanishes, stopping time as he carries her off.

Salem stands there and she smirks, seeing them retreat from their fight. Neo stands tall beside her superior and she steps forward to pursue. Salem touches her shoulder and she stops, looking up to her master. “No, they cannot escape what is coming.” Salem assures. “You will get your revenge, I promise you that.” Salem says, turning and walking away. Neo stands there and looks back, but then follows Salem as she opens a red doorway, and they leave.

An Evil is Coming...


	23. Atlesian Corruption

**Ruby**

Oscar darts back to the building where he left Yang and the others, the wind rushing into them as they stand there. Yang staggers back, her long locks of golden blonde hair blows from the gust that was thrown straight into her. She looks past the sand that was kicked into her, and she gasps, seeing Oscar holding Ruby in his arms. Blood leaks from her shoulder where Neo managed to stab her with the Umbrella that she wielded. Yang gasps with fear, and runs to her side, looking at her and she looks at Yang. “Hey...” Ruby exhaustedly says to her, even though the wound is not serious, Yang is very protective over her. And very worried, since she was attacked by something.

Little did they know that Salem was over there.

Oscar sets Ruby down on the sofa in the corner for her to recover her strength and her aura to repair the damage to her shoulder. Most likely healing into one more scar that she can add to her collection. She has made a fair few in recent years. Yang crouches down beside her, everyone crowding round to make sure that she is okay, Weiss still feeling guilty for how she treated Ruby. “What happened? Are you okay? Who the hell attacked you?” Yang excessively asks with bursting wide eyes, Ruby laughs softly at her defensiveness.

“I’m fine...” She softly promises with a little smile on her face, Yang looks at her with frustration; her sister always pulls that face to try and get out of a position of being in trouble. She uses that face and her sad puppy dog eyes act to make her feel bad, and even when she is twenty one...she still manages to melt Yang’s heart.

“Hey, don’t try that...it...it won’t work!” Yang stutters, trying to stay strong against it, but Ruby just beams an even bigger smile, her eyes nearly shut from her cheeks rising up. Yang stands up and walks away, beaten by her baby sister who is claiming everything is fine. “Damn it!” She exclaims with defeat, stepping away from her, Oscar sees her and he walks after her. He did not forget what he saw, more than Neo is on his mind. Yang turns and hopes that he won’t pull the same thing.

“Neo attacked her; I think she still blames her for what happened to Torchwick.” Oscar explains, and Yang looks at her, seeing Weiss talking to her. Most likely apologising for what happened earlier. Yang sighs, remembering the vengeful girl who was the Onyx Phantom once before.

“Neo...so she is still kicking.” Yang says, for she also has a bit of a rivalry with the small woman as well, after she was one of the few people to actually beat her in hand-to-hand combat. Nearly killed her...if not for the Knight of Fear scaring Raven into saving her life that day.

“She wasn’t the worst part.” Oscar says, crossing his arms as he stands by the pillar, and Yang raises her brow with inquisitiveness.

“What was?” Yang inquires, Oscar looks at Ruby and then at Yang.

“Salem was there, and she has been out there for a while by the looks of things.” Oscar reveals and Yang steps back with shock when she hears the name.

“Salem?” She gasps with fear, the very name she bares is haunting enough. They always suspected that she never died when Ruby shot her in the Volcanic Chain Isles; she just vanished into thin air after she was knocked loose from where the Relics were. Perhaps it would have been better for the island to have consumed them...but Kragen demanded that they be kept in their hands so they know where they are. “So she’s still running the show...” Yang says, looking down at the floor as she thinks on that.

“I don’t think she is...I doubt she ever was in full control. Or at least maybe she never realised it.” Oscar explains to her, and Yang looks at him, hearing him out on this theory he has come up with. She already knows what he is going to say, but that does not make it any more spine-chilling when she hears him confirm it.

“The Soothsayer?” She guesses, he just nods and she shudders. She has yet to have met him, only seen his domain and has heard tales of who he is. Nothing more than that, the illusive man always seems to stay out of their eye until he sees fit.

Strange how he has not shown his face to Ruby as of yet.

Yang sighs heavily, like every day is just piling on more bad things at a time. Or in their case, every hour something bad seems to happen. She pushes her hands through her blonde hair, letting it flop onto her shoulders. She looks at Oscar and smiles. “Okay...let’s think of what to do next.” She sighs.

Ruby looks at Weiss, who is crouched won beside her; the others have given them some space. Sun is stood with Blake as they look out at the desert for any signs of enemy activity. They have become very observational over the years, working together. To think that once she was so adamant that she never wanted their help...their friendship...or even their love. Now look at her. Neptune sits in the corner nearby with Trishula in his hands, cleaning the ins and outs of the rifle with a cloth, polishing the steel.

Weiss looks at her with saddened eyes for how she yelled at Ruby. “Ruby...I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” She confesses, holding her tail of hair, off centred as an act of defiance against her father’s lust for control. Whatever it is that he is up to at the moment is completely unknown to them...but he is still out there.

Along with Darren Ortega and Doctor Merlot...

Ruby looks at her, closing her eye and shaking her head. “No...I should be the one that should be sorry, Weiss.” Ruby admits, and Weiss looks at her with a confused expression.

“No, with your problems I should never have pressured you...it wasn’t fair and I’m sorry.” Weiss explains, looking away from her best friend shamefully. But Ruby still smiles when she looks at Weiss, she then giggles, making Weiss raise her brow with confusion. Weiss then starts to wonder what she finds so giggly. “What?” Weiss asks her.

“Oh nothing...just reminded me of how much of a rude brat you were years ago.” She giggles and Weiss gasps, hand on her sternum.

“I was not!” She defends, Ruby giggles some more, then begins to mimic Weiss in a similar way she did on their little quest to stop Torchwick nearly seven years ago.

“ _Oooh, look at me! My name's Weiss! I know facts! I'm rich!_ ” Ruby mimics and Weiss narrows her eyes at her laughing friend.

“Don’t be a pest!” Weiss defends again, but this is exactly what Ruby needs. Not the way that Weiss challenged her, but the banter that they used to share back at Beacon seven years ago. Their friendship was built upon their silly arguments and childish behaviour. Weiss’ frown though turns to a smile, feeling better about herself after seeing Ruby laugh like that.

It is clear that not all of Ruby is gone; she may not be as adorable as she used to be, but the old Ruby is still in there somewhere.

She just has to pull it back, over what her suffering is turning her into.

Eventually though, Ruby does stop laughing, and she looks at Weiss.

“I am sorry though...We made a promise to never keep secrets from each other.” Ruby says to her, and she closes her eyes, thinking back to what happened with Dew. She knows what she did, and she can’t escape it, Roman may have been the one on the controls, but it is not like the Onyx Phantom. Not like Hyde where one takes over, it is like he is part of her completely, and that in her mind she did choose to do that. But it was merely Roman manipulating his vicious personality upon her. Eventually, if she does not fight him...she could end up literally becoming him. Maybe not physically, but he would be reborn within her.

Weiss listens carefully to her closest friend with detail. “When we were fighting them, we managed to get Dew to a point where we could have captured her, but she wasn’t willing to come quietly. Yang said that she suggested knocking her out and taking her alive...” Ruby explains, and she closes her eyes, more like she is trying to search her memory to find that...but she never did really hear her. “But everything just went...red...I couldn’t hear anything other than ringing in my ears when I stared her down. I just...wanted her dead...” Ruby reveals, the effects of her P.T.S.D and Roman combined are having a tremendously dangerous effect on her. As Ruby tells this, she can feel the presence of Roman in the room, he stands beside Weiss and she has absolutely no idea. He has his hands placed onto the cane, looking down at Ruby with a villainous smirk. “After the anger passed...I realised what I did...in front of everyone.” Ruby concludes, sounding ashamed of herself for killing Dew like that, cutting he limbs off...there was so much blood.

Weiss looks down; the thing that really hurts for her is when she said that Ruby is acting like Tyrian. Of all the things that she said to Ruby, that is the one most of all that she wished she could take back, because she knew who Tyrian was...Ruby is nothing like that monster. Ruby looks at Weiss, then she sits up, flinching from the hot and sudden shock of pain that rushes across her shoulder. Weiss reaches out to her, helping her sit back up from where she was laying down. “I should have told you...and I am sorry. I won’t do it again.” Ruby promises, and Weiss smiles.

“Okay...how about this?” Weiss asks her, and she leans forward. “We tell each other everything, and maybe I’ll learn how to bake some cookies every once and while?” Weiss suggests with a smile. Ruby scoffs at her with a smile.

“You’re terrible at cooking; you set the kitchen on fire last time.” Ruby remembers, very vividly as well...all that Weiss had to do was keep an eye on Ruby’s cake that she was baking. She left her for five minutes...and the whole kitchen was ablaze.

“I’ll figure it out.” Weiss assures, then turning to Neptune. “You’ll help me, right?” Weiss asks him, he looks at her with both a scared and confused face. He is always scared whenever Weiss asks him something out of the blue when she knows he was not listening.

“Huh?” Neptune asks.

“Help Weiss learn how to cook?” Ruby asks him, whilst Weiss gives him a stare that burns right through his eyes. Like she has broken the windows to his soul and is climbing inside to take control. Neptune smirks and he poses to her, resting on his rifle.

“You know it.” Neptune attempts with a smile, until Trishula falls and he nearly falls with it. He catches himself, but still looks like a clumsy buffoon in front of the two. Weiss smiles and Ruby giggles, looking at her friend again. Weiss looks at her, then extends her hand for her to shake it.

“Deal?” Weiss asks her.

Ruby looks at Weiss’ hand and she smiles. “Deal.” She agrees, clasping onto her hand and shaking it firmly. Ruby sits upright and then stands back up with Weiss.

“Come on, Qrow tried to call you. He sounded like he had something important to say.” Weiss says to her, but Ruby stops with a wide eye, mouth slightly open with fearfulness. She is still coming to grips that Qrow is her biological father...but Tai is still her dad to her. He did raise her after all.

“He did? What about?” Ruby asks her, and Weiss turns to Ruby and shrugs her shoulders, Neptune walking to the table where Yang holds her Scroll, getting ready to call him.

“Dunno, he didn’t say. Hopefully now you’re back he will.” Weiss says with a confident shrug, walking to Yang and the others. Ruby stands there, after seeing Salem again...her fears have been realised.

_It’s not over...I hate being right._

Ruby follows Weiss, standing beside Oscar as Yang sets the scroll down on the table as she has the pending call to Qrow. Yang crosses her arms, looking down at the table as they wait. Sun has his hands pressed against the table, leaning forward as he waits to hear the gravelly voice of Qrow. Blake stands with him, her hand on her hip as she waits to hear from him as well. Neptune rests Trishula on his shoulder, and Oscar gently holds his girlfriend close, she rests her head on his shoulder for comfort.

Finally Qrow picks up. “Hey kiddo, did you find her?” Qrow asks them all, and Yang turns to Ruby. Since it is on Speakerphone, he will be able to hear her clear as day.

“Hey Qr – Dad...” She answers, and they can hear Qrow sigh with relief, but he also says something to her that he has made clear. He knows that he has not been a _father_ for her so to speak, that has always been the gift of Taiyang.

“It’s alright, pipsqueak. I’m still just Qrow to you, Taiyang was the guy that had to raise you after all.” Qrow promises, something he hopes will make it easier for the family. He carries a lot of guilt for not being there, for placing the burden on his best friend to raise her. But that does not matter anymore.

“Okay...” Ruby timidly answers, feeling better about it.

“Is dad there?” Yang asks with concern.

“Don’t worry, Yang. I’m still kicking.” Taiyang assures.

“Literally.” Raven adds, since they have had some tense combat recently. Especially against the Creatures of Grimm that Merlot created in the Restless Marshlands. It also confirms to them that all three of them are in fact alive right now. Yang sighs with relief, she has finally gotten her parents back together...the last thing she would ever want is to lose either of them now.

“What happened, Ruby? Why didn’t you pick up your scroll when I called you?” Qrow asks her, and Ruby sighs.

“I ran into trouble...” Ruby answers.

“Trouble?” Taiyang questions. “What kind of trouble?”

“Well...” Ruby begins, sounding very nervous as she speaks to them. She sighs, then tells them what happened. “You missed a fair bit when you guys were gone...Team N.D.G.O...they were working for the Acolytes of Lien, for Jacques Schnee specifically.” Ruby begins, having to fill them in on everything that happened. The short silence is clearly the three having to comprehend the betrayal that they have been informed of.

“Damn it...wait...what do you mean _were_?” Raven asks, clearly catching onto that very specific word. That very important word.

“They turned on us, we tried to capture them...but it didn’t end up going that way.” Sun says to them.

“They’re all dead.” Blake says to them.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about them stabbing us in the back. What about Team B.R.N.Z?” Qrow inquires.

“Not sure, I don’t think they’ve turned against us. They didn’t seem to know about Team N.D.G.O, but the important thing is that they weren’t the ones behind the murder of the Headmaster. Cardin Winchester was.” Weiss explains, it is clear that they do not want to make Ruby uncomfortable by bringing up what happened to Dew...so they are moving onto the situation with Cardin.

“Cardin?” Qrow questions with shock, even he cannot believe it. Ruby widens her eye with shock, for she only just got back.

“Wait, what?” Ruby asks with disbelief.

“Yeah, we found the bodies of his team. They were killed the same way the Headmaster and his Pyromancer was. He beat their heads in with his mace...but I don’t think he set out to do it. We found evidence that the Headmaster was up to something, people said he was unstable...and from the recordings, his own team turned against him. Something isn’t right about this, Qrow.” Yang explains to them over the phone, and it is clear that they are trying to comprehend all of this information.

“In a way, I hope that you’re right. Cardin never struck me for a psycho, an asshole for sure, but not a murderer.” Qrow states, the same thoughts that they all share on this subject.

“What about what happened with Ruby?” Taiyang asks, fatherly instincts coming into play.

“I was in the desert, and I was attacked by Neo.” Ruby says, but it does not seem like they even hear the important part.

“Why were you in the desert on your own?” Raven asks, and Ruby sighs.

But she has to tell them, she did make a promise. “I murdered Dew...when I shouldn’t...Weiss wanted to know and I freaked out.” Ruby shamefully answers, sounding so frail as she says it. They are silent for a couple moments, but Qrow’s answer calms her down.

“You did what you had to, Ruby. I’d never doubt that.” Qrow promises, and she can be certain that Taiyang and Raven feel the exact same way. They are family after all, Raven has understood the true importance of family after all that time. How unfortunate that it took something as catastrophic as the Resurgence of the Knights of Grimm for her to figure it out.

Taiyang is the one to return to the important part of Ruby’s explanation of everything that happened. “Neo attacked you?” Taiyang asks her.

“Yeah...she had some sort of Atlesian Ship...I’ve never seen one like it before. Extremely advanced, probably another one of Merlot’s experiments.” Ruby presumes, since they never did stop Merlot...she always had the suspicion that he was not done after the fall of the Volcanic Chain Isles, he came back from Mountain Glenn and his Island...why wouldn’t he come back from that? “We tangled for a bit...until she showed up.” Ruby stammers, remembering the sight of that vortex diminishing and Salem stood inside it, her bright red eyes and pale white skin.

“Who?” Raven asks.

“Salem.” Ruby answers.

“Salem...” Qrow growls, in a similar way he did when they first met Tyrian Callows. “Wondered when she’d show her face again.” Qrow adds.

“She would have killed me if Oscar didn’t save me from her and Neo. It was close, but I got away just in time.” Ruby says to them, concluding everything that they have experienced here in Vacuo since they left Beacon.

“Damn...so our foes are coming back as we predicted.” Taiyang says.

“I hate being right.” Ruby mumbles sadly like a distraught child.

“You’re telling me.” Qrow chuckles.

“So...have you guys found the Spring Maiden yet so we can all come up for air?” Oscar asks curiously.

“Well, that is why we needed to contact you.” Qrow says, actually surprising them with his response. “We met these Witches in Mistral, seems the Spring Maiden found herself there, after these...things attacked.” Qrow explains, and Winter walks over to them, she remembers what they are talking about very well.

“The skeletal riders? I remember you saying, I’ve informed them on all of that stuff.” Winter assures.

“Winter? You made it there in one piece...thank the gods.” Qrow sighs with relief.

“Nearly, my ship was destroyed by the Acolytes of Lien.” Winter tells them.

“What?” Qrow questions with shock.

“And they bombed the S.D.C Branch she landed at.” Weiss adds.

“Oh yeah, that too.” Winter agrees.

“What?” Qrow questions even louder.

“And the Trinity Marshall is their dad.” Neptune adds with shrug.

“Oh yeah, that was a good bit.” Weiss agrees.

“What!” Qrow nearly yells, making Winter giggle.

“Guys, can we get back on track, please?” Blake sighs, grabbing the bridge of her nose.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Winter shakes it off, Weiss giggling as they continue to listen to what Qrow had to say.

“Sorry, anyways...these riders chased her and she opened a portal and ended up in that swamp. Thanks to Sienna Khan, she gave us the location.” Qrow explains, when he mentions her name, Blake’s ears perk upwards. “The Witches asked us to clear an area out...it had those Mutated Grimm that you faced six years ago? The ones that Merlot made?” Qrow asks them, and Yang shudders, remembering the glowing freaks.

“I remember.” Ruby assures.

“So he’s back to crazy scientist again?” Weiss asks.

“Did he ever change?” Sun asks her.

“No, I guess not...” Weiss agrees, shrugging.

“We cleared them out and they gave us the information. Fury was coming after her, and they let her take this ancient piece of Arkhoni Technology called Mirrors.” Qrow explains.

“Ancient? We have tonnes of mirrors.” Winter says, sounding confused.

“Yeah, I had like ten in my bedroom.” Weiss says.

“Alright, rich-girl.” Sun scoffs, and she narrows her eyes towards him, Sun just smirks. He loves getting on her nerves because she is simply so easy to annoy.

“Guys!” Qrow exclaims, silencing them. “This is important.” He says, and they all pay close attention. “These Mirrors, they are practically portals but were designed to be unpredictable. There used to be many across Remnant, but now there are only two others that she could have exited from. There is one in the Ancient Ruins of Ephai, we are headed there as we speak, and they said there is one in Vacuo.” Qrow tells them, and they seem amazed by this, they could hopefully track her down this way.

“Did these – witches – say where it could be?” Blake inquires.

“My best guess? It would probably be in the Vault underneath Shade Academy, like the one that Pyrrha was inside of with Ozpin.” Qrow suggests.

“The Vaults have held powerful and also ancient technology for years. If it is going to be anyway, it would be there.” Raven adds.

“How the hell would we get in? I mean it’s not like they will just let us inside.” Neptune asks him.

“That...you will have to figure out. I never had access, only Ozpin did. He let me in sometimes, but I never held the keys or knew what the codes were.” Qrow explains, and Oscar stands there, hoping to god that Ozpin’s voice returns to him. They might know that Ozpin is alive and has been found...but he is in a coma...he must still be out there in his head.

_Come on, Oz...talk to me._

“We’ll figure it out.” Ruby assures.

“What about Cardin? We still need to figure out where he went.” Yang asks her, but Ruby has now realised that this is now their priority objective.

“This is more important, if we find the Spring Maiden, then the odds will finally be tipped in our favour against the Knights. We have Cinder, sure...but remember the Knights are basically the Grimm’s version of the Maidens.” Ruby explains, Yang looks at her and she smiles. She is not acting all timid anymore, she is able to focus and be the leader that they all admired again. Yang smiles and looks at the scroll again, proud of her sister’ ability to find the perfect balance between objectives and their importance. “We’ll find our way into the Vault, and we’ll figure out if she came out that way.” Ruby promises.

“Okay, I’ll call back and let you know if we find anything.” Qrow assures. “Stay safe, pipsqueaks.” Qrow says to them all.

“You too.” Ruby says, and Yang hangs up on the call, closing her scroll and sliding it into her pocket.

“So...where should we start?” Yang asks her, and Ruby looks at Oscar.

“Can you see if you can get Ozpin back?” Ruby asks.

“I can try...but I have a backup plan if I can’t.” Oscar assures.

 

**Jaune**

His sapphire blue eyes gaze at the security camera feeds on the wall, showing Pyrrha in that cage. She looks so distressed, looking down at the floor with a sniffle in her nose. She had just escaped one prison, and now she has been tossed into another jail cell. He is sat in the office with Kassius, Nora and Ren. Nora is throwing a ball that she has on her against the wall, letting it bounce right back into her palm over and over again. She keeps on doing it over and over again, Kassius has his legs rested on the table and Ren is meditating in the corner. Jaune has his head rested on his hand, fingers pushed into his dishevelled blonde hair. “This is a load of crap.” Jaune mutters, all he wants is to talk to her. He has only had one solid conversation with her since she died and returned, he has earned some time to talk to her. “I did not go through all of this to find her, get her back, and then lose her again.” He growls with anger.

“We’re not losing her.” Kassius assures, picking up an apple and taking a bite out of it. He chews it and swallows it down, tasting the sour juice. He creates a disgusted sound, of pure repulsion, and throws it into the bin across the office.

“Good throw.” Nora compliments, not even looking in that direction.

“Thank you.” Kassius says, sitting there. He and Nora are clearly completely and utterly bored right now. However their attention is piqued when the door to their office opens, some soldiers enter the room, along with everyone else who has been arrested from Beacon Academy. Penny Polendina, Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck. With Glynda and Adam back at Beacon, ironically the White Fang are the ones keeping it and the students safe from harm. Kassius takes his feet off the table, and Nora catches the ball, putting it away and she turns in her chair. They all take their seats, and Ren stands back up, taking his own seat as well.

The soldiers stand inside of the room with rifles in their hands, all wearing armour, unable to see their faces but their mouths behind their helmets. Then he enters, General Ironwood. He enters alone, without Thaddeus watching over this discussion, for he has information to tell them.

Clearly.

James straightens his sleeve, then he speaks to them. “Thank you all for not creating a scene, I must admit I wish I could have been seeing you all here under better circumstances.” James tells them, Jaune looks directly at him as Ironwood continues his speech to them. He chuckles, thinking back to when he was a prisoner, a trophy to Jacques Schnee. “You know...I think it was five years ago today, when I was captured by Jacques Schnee, grew a great big beard in that box he had me inside of. For a couple of months in that place...I learned something I never truly saw until today.” He says to them all, pressing his hands against the table, leaning forward as he looks at them all.

“Perspective.” James says, looking to them all. He is clearly referencing the position that Pyrrha Nikos is currently in right now. It seems that he is definitely on their side, but is still quite the rock in the hard place. Stuck between politics and his sense of honour that he has for these Huntsmen and Huntresses.

“I’m surprised that the President isn’t here for this meeting.” Port scoffs, Ironwood look at Peter and he chuckles.

“I actually asked him not to be here for this, because he’d rather have you all executed for helping Miss Nikos.” Ironwood explains, making Jaune clench his hand into a fist. “These soldiers, are my most trusted.” He says, looking at them all. Kassius notices one of them is not one of the average soldiers, but is in fact a Huntsman. He is young, around their age, with a face that has not clearly seen much combat. Far less than anything that they have faced in their lives, must be a new one. He looks at the tag on his outfit.

Shane Ironwood

It is his son, he has black hair like his father and a similar square shaped jaw. He is shorter and is working himself out, carrying what appears to be a revolver that can transform into a small scythe. Kassius is no fool, most of the Huntsmen and Huntresses here rarely ever see combat because they hardly ever leave the Kingdom to help others. They just protect their own, and there are no contracts or battles here, so they are soft and baby faced. They all have the marks of war on their faces, whether they are scars or just the look of experience.

Penny sits there, twiddling her fingers as she listens to what Ironwood has to say. Ironwood crosses his arms behind his back, walking back and forth. “The world owes you all an un-payable debt, everything that happened at Beacon Academy, Mistral...the Volcanic Chain Isles. You have fought for us, protected us...risked your lives for every single one of us.” Ironwood explains to them, they can all sense the turning point coming in this speech that he has prepared.

Jaune taps his finger against the table, his eyes glancing over to the screen with Pyrrha on it, still looking down at the floor. He then looks at Ironwood once more. “Although, while many see you all as heroic idols...symbols of what Huntsmen and Huntresses should be...there are some that believe that you are becoming more of a danger than a protection.” Ironwood claims, and Nora smirks as she sits forward on the table.

“And what would you describe us as, General?” Nora asks him, and he looks at her and the rest of them brought here.

“Look, I respect every single one of you, I trust all of you. If it weren’t for your actions against our enemies, I would still be in there. I owe all of you personally...however...this might be one of the few things I can see where Brimstone is coming from.” Ironwood says to them honestly, and he sets his scroll down on the table. “Because unfortunately...people are wondering if the Academies can even protect us anymore.” He states. He opens it, and a montage of recordings of their past battles appears before them.

Like bad memories.

“Beacon.” He says, and they watch the horrific footage of Penny being ripped apart by Pyrrha all over again. The cables being manipulated by her polarity, slicing her to pieces. Jaune looks at Penny, seeing her reaction. Her eyes widen, then she closes them and looks away...there are some memories she wishes she could forget forever with her problems. But that one...she remembers that one clear as day. Penny may understand what happened, that Pyrrha was tricked and manipulated...but it still hurt. More footage appears before them, the footage that Mercury recorded during the Fall of Beacon. Deathstalkers marching the streets of Vale and at the Courtyard, slaughtering innocents in droves with their pincers and stingers. Atlesian Knights and Paladins attacking everything in their path, Adam cutting down an Atlesian Soldier who tried to challenge him, smirking as he did it.

“Mistral.” Ironwood continues, footage from the people who recorded the fall of that Kingdom as well. The massive Nevermore that flew across the sky, spinning round and launching his Fatal Feathers into the road. Killing hundreds of civilians in the process, transforming into the Knight of Death afterwards. Fury flying across the sky in his Wyvern Form as he laid siege, burning the streets, killing so many civilians. There is a shot of the dead body of Scarlet David on the ground, and Kassius clenches his hand into a fist when he stares at the screen. So many bad memories being brought back when they look at it. Jaune still remembers the horrible sight of Ruby losing her eye to Death when he formed that Glass Bow.

“The Volcanic Chain Isles.” Ironwood keeps going, looking distraught that he has to make them see these battles again. Some of them they won, yes...but others they did not. They see the footage of the Grimm Dragon flying across the sky and burning hundreds of brave soldiers in an instant. The Knights of Grimm cutting them all down one by one, the Acolytes of Lien with their cannon placed in the ruins. Killing entire squads with each shot that was fired, so many explosions...so much blood spilled. The crashing Atlesian Frigate that tried to fight the Drift of Wandering Star, only to crash into the ocean...becoming food for the Krastax that lurked beneath.

“Vacuo.” Ironwood says, and they now see footage that they were completely unaware of. They knew about the murder of the Headmaster, but they never saw any of this. The burning Schnee Dust Company Branch Building after the Acolytes of Lien bombed it, so many civilians hurt or killed in the attack. Some with blood running down their faces, crying with pain and terror as they tried to limp to safety. Then...Jaune’s eyes widen when they all watch as Ruby cut Dew down so callously. Seeing her dash towards her, slicing her legs and her arm off, and the bleeding girl fell to the ground. They are all in disbelief when they see that shot...Penny’s eyes are wide and mouth agape.

“Ruby...” Nora softly gasps.

Jaune looks at Ironwood and he sets his hand on the table. “Alright, we get the point.” Jaune states, staring directly at him. Ironwood obliges and taps the screen, making the Scroll close back up.

“For the past seven years, the Huntsmen and Huntresses have acted as essentially Mercenaries. This is a system that the governments of Remnant will no longer tolerate.” Ironwood explains, turning to his son who holds a book. “But we believe we might have a solution.” He says, taking the book and setting it down on the table. He pushes it towards Penny and she looks down at it.

_The Atlesian Coalition._

“The Atlesian Coalition.” He says to them, Penny looks at the book which carries the symbol of Atlas on it. She looks over the table to Oobleck who extends his hand for her to pass it to him. She obliges and she slides it towards him and he picks it up and looks at it. He opens the book and begins to read through it. “A signed document from all members of the Remnant Council that states that all Hunters from the Academies will no longer work as Bounty Hunters.” Ironwood explains to them. “Instead, they shall all serve and work under the new Atlesian Coalition, lead by Thaddeus Brimstone, deciding on how you shall undergo your missions. Where you will go, only when and if it is necessary.”

Jaune scoffs, shaking his head at this new order that has been created for them to serve. “So you expect us to ignore the Knights of Grimm? Because that guy is hell-bent on believing that they are just a myth. We all know better than that.” Jaune says to Ironwood, and he looks down at him.

“Jaune, believe me I do not like this agreement either. But it has been made, we do not have a choice in this. This is now how the Academies will work.” Ironwood states, sounding disappointed in it, just like the rest of them are.

“This is not right. The Academies represented individuality, our ability to be our own person...not what the governments of the world demand us to be.” Ren states, remembering what Ozpin said once.

“We’ve been keeping the people of the world safe for seven years, we can keep doing that.” Jaune says, Ironwood turns to him.

“The unmarked graves of those who died at Beacon and Mistral say otherwise.” Ironwood states, making Jaune fall silent. “If I did not have control over the nuclear weapons of Atlas...you’d bet there would be consequences.” He says, walking away from Jaune and back to the end of the table. “Compromise, reassurance. That’s how the world works...believe me...this is the middle ground. Because Thaddeus initially wanted the Huntsmen all hunted down and arrested.” Ironwood tells them.

_The damn president is a mad man..._

“You know, Ozpin would never have agreed to any of this.” Oobleck says. Ironwood turns to the Doctor.

“Unfortunately for us...Ozpin’s not here.” Ironwood says, clearly showing that he has no idea that Ozpin has in fact been found and is alive.

“So there are...contingencies?” Ren presumes, looking at him and Nora gives him a shocked look.

“Two to three days from now, the Politicians of the World will be meeting here at Atlas to ratify the Coalition.” Ironwood says to them. Jaune sits there, not even looking at him, just looking at Pyrrha.

“What about Pyrrha? Does the Coalition mention that?” Jaune asks him, now looking right at the General. Ironwood looks at the screen where she is seen.

“She will be tested and sent to a high security prison to serve her time.” Ironwood says, and Jaune scowls at the General.

“I don’t think so.” He challenges coldly, and Ironwood sighs. He looks at them all and he turns to leave. “Talk it over.” He says, walking away from the table. But before he leaves, Kassius has one last question.

“And what if we come to a decision you don’t approve of?” Kassius asks him, raising his eyebrow. Ironwood stops and turns to him.

“Then you join her.” Ironwood answers, and Kassius scoffs. Ironwood clearly did not choose these laws...but he must.

For the Politics have their strings on him. The soldiers all leave the office, and the door closes behind them, leaving the group inside in silence. Jaune shakes his head at this, looking at the copy of the book that is before Oobleck. “This is bullshit!” Nora exclaims, standing up swiftly from her chair, pacing around the room angrily. Oobleck sighs and he gestures to Nora to calm down.

“Calm down, Miss Valkyrie.” Oobleck requests.

“Calm down? You know this is a load of crap! That damned self-absorbed prick wants to take away the very things we fought for?” Nora exclaims angrily.

“She’s right, and we won’t be able to fight the Knights of Grimm under that. They will just deny everything.” Kassius says with an annoyed shrug of his shoulders. Nora keeps pacing back and forth behind Penny and Port with annoyance at this news.

“Nora...” Ren requests, and she only calms down to his words. She stomps over to where he sits, slouching down into her seat, crossing her arms. Jaune looks at Pyrrha on the security footage and he sighs.

“We need to get her out of here.” Jaune tells them, and they all look at him. Penny looks outside at the many soldiers that are around there.

“Easier said than done.” Penny points out.

“I know...but with this Coalition thing going on...I will not let her go to prison for crimes she did not commit.” Jaune states, hitting his hand against the table. Kassius looks at him and he thinks away, trying to come up with a plan.

“Jaune...she was seen killing lots of allied soldiers on those Islands.” Port says.

“She was brainwashed!” Jaune argues.

“We know that, sure...but the people of world? They don’t.” Port states, truthfully as well. He is not wrong with those words. The people of Remnant can bend the truth to their will no matter what. They are corrupt and cold hearted.

“So how do we even get to her?” Nora asks him.

Jaune thinks and thinks...

...then...

Kassius smiles.

“I’ve got an idea.”

 

Kassius opens the door and he approaches one of the operatives. She is an attractive woman with blonde hair, wearing a white Atlesian Dress. She has freckles under her eyes, on her cheekbones with an annoyingly strong Atlesian Accent. It is in fact the same woman who was at the Schnee Fundraiser that was mouthing off about Beacon’s fall being a good thing. He approaches her and pokes her on the shoulder, and she turns to face him. “Where’s it at kitty-cat?” He asks her with a confident smirk on his face, fake-hitting on her. Kassius is clearly using his sarcastic personality to his advantage.

Jaune walks by, looking at him and Kassius has his hands behind his back, sticking his thumb up. “I beg your pardon?” She questions with a snide look on her face.

“Why, I must say, you look utterly incredible in that dress, ma’am.” Kassius says to her, and she scoffs.

“Oh, you must be one of those Valerian Sweethearts...ugh.” She grunts repulsively.

“What? Me? No! It’s you’re old pal, Shamus McScrewYourself!” Kassius sarcastically says, smirking away...Jaune has to hold in the laughter from his amazing way of words. He walks by the people working away, and none of them have even noticed.

They are all looking at him, at the stuff that he says. He keeps on walking and the woman plants her hand on her hip. “I have work to do, ass-wipe. Run along before I call security.” She orders. Kassius smiles, already retorting with a sarcastic reply.

“And miss basking in your delightful personality?” Kassius questions.

Jaune turns a corner, pressing his back against the wall. He looks bewildered from what just happened. “I can’t believe Operation Smart-Ass actually worked.” Jaune chuckles, still hearing the woman shouting at Kassius, but he moves on. Now he needs to be stealthy, he was lucky enough to see on the wall where she is being kept.

The lowest level in this building, it is actually underground. If he can find an elevator shaft, he could get down there very quickly.

First though...he needs to find one.

Jaune gets close to the ground, every step is very quiet, keeping his eyes peeled and ears focused to the slightest sound. He keeps on walking through the corridor, he will hopefully be able to hear anything anybody says at this rate.

The Arc Boy keeps sneaking across the corridor to figure out where Pyrrha is being held. He knows he won’t be able to get her out today, but he mostly just wants to talk to her. That is all he wants. He proceeds, then his eyes widen, he stops like a deer at headlights when he hears some people walking in that direction, conversing. “Did you see what happened at Vacuo?” One of the soldiers asks. Jaune looks around, and luckily there is a luggage cart that he can hide behind. He swiftly hides behind it, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, hoping they don’t see him.

“Yeah, where that Ruby Rose chick killed that N.D.G.O chick?” The soldier asks him, approaching the cart. He stands by it and they continue to talk.

“A shame, she was pretty cute.” The other soldier sighs.

“Oh like you could get a gal like her, please she’d fall in love with me.” The soldier laughs, smoking a cigarette.

“You? You look like a pig’s backside that just got run over by a tank.” The other soldier insults.

“Maybe she was into that.” The guy says, grabbing the cart and pushing it away from where Jaune is sat. He continues to push it off, the other soldier scoffs.

“You’d have more luck with that Pyrrha Nikos girl.” The soldier says.

“Hey, she’s pretty cute.” He says.

“Yeah, and a psycho.” The soldier says.

“Psychos tend to be pretty hot...and good.” He says weirdly, they both leave, Jaune is sat there with a confused look on his face. Mostly amazed they didn’t see him. He moves out and looks back at them, bewildered by their strange discussion.

“You’ve got issues, dude.” He says, walking down the hallway. “And she’s not a psycho, the Phantom is.” He corrects to himself, walking down the corridor some more.

Jaune keeps his head low to the ground in order to not be spotted, and then he approaches the window to another room. From the medical sign, this must be the Med-Bay of the building. Or at least one of them. He peaks through the window, just enough so the doctors inside do not see him.

He sees something rather curious.

There are some soldiers inside on the beds with some doctors injecting some drugs into their systems. He cannot hear the discussion, but there is a cue entering the room from the other side of the room. Seems like they are having some sort of Vaccine Shot being administered to them all...

...but for what purpose?

Jaune would stay and find out, but he sees the Elevator shaft ahead. He starts to move quicker towards it.

It is right there.

Until she bumps into him, gasping when she walks into him. He stops and double takes when he sees who she is. It is Willow Schnee...she looks directly at him. He already thinks that he is done...until she calls the elevator and it rises back up. The doors open and she stands there. “Go.” She says to him, and he raises his brow.

“Huh?” He questions.

“I know you want to talk to her. I know you’re Jaune Arc...go.” She says to him.

“Why are you helping me?” Jaune asks her, and she smiles.

“You are a friend of my daughter’s...think of this as a thank you.” Willow says, kindly smiling and walking away. Jaune watches as she walks way, wearing her white dress she always wears.

He takes his chance and he gets inside, the doors close just as a patrol of soldiers pass by. The soldiers walk past and he stands inside of the elevator as it descends down the shaft to the basement. It takes a couple seconds...then they open.

Pyrrha gasps, seeing him stood there. She smiles happily when she sees him, and he cautiously approaches. Making sure that there are no Atlesians inside. He then jogs over to the cell, crouching down and he holds her hand. He tries to get as close as he can to her, and she looks into his eyes. “Jaune...” She softly whispers.

“Hey...” He says to her with a smile. “We’re gonna get you out of here, I promise.” Jaune says to her.

“How?” She asks him.

“I dunno yet, but we’re gonna. You missed Kassius’ way of distracting the guards, it was pretty funny.” Jaune assures, and she giggles happily.

“I missed you, Jaune...” She says to him, and he smiles.

“I missed you too...more than I could bear. But we will be able to be together...we will get you out.” He says. “I won’t be able to do it now, too many Atlesian Soldiers, but we will figure it out.”

“It’s okay.” She says softly.

Suddenly the alarms start to go off and he looks around. “They must have checked the cameras...” He realises, hearing the soldiers coming to take him back to the place where they are being held. “We’re gonna get you out...I promise.” He says to her, backing up with his hands held up.

The soldiers turn and they see him, they lower their weapons and one of them grabs him by his wrists, pushing him forward. “Promise...” She softly says as they take Jaune back to the office.

At least he could talk to her...

 

**Pyrrha**

Night has fallen at Atlas...

Pyrrha is asleep in her cell, dreaming of things. She sits there, eyes closed and flinching in her sleep. Nightmares filling her memories, her shattered memory. She shudders...until she hears a voice.

“Pyrrha.” He says, she smiles.

“Jaune...” She says.

But then...

“Not quite.” The stern voice says, her eyes open, wide with fear when she recognises his voice. She looks up slowly when she sees him stepping out of shadows. He has his hands by his side, staring directly at them with anger in her eyes.

“Ortega...” She realises, and he continues to glare. He does not smirk, he just approaches her cell.

“So you do remember me...” He scoffs.

He must have been hunting her for a while.

“Why?” Pyrrha questions, sitting upright in her cell. “Why did you do this? What did I do to you?”

Ortega scowls at her, then stares straight into her eyes. “You Hunters...all you bring is pain.” He coldly says.

“No...we bring people together.” She corrects. He chuckles, then reaches into his jacket, holding a photograph. He stares right into her eyes.

“Sometimes...or they tear them apart!” He roars, slamming the picture onto the glass that has been placed after their talk. She looks at the picture...

Ortega is in the picture, younger with a smile. He does not look the same, black hair and a happy smile on his face. He had a wife, with orange hair and what appears to be Cat Ears...he was married to a Faunus. Then she sees the middle.

There is a little girl.

She has curly orange hair, a bright smile and green eyes. Her eyes match those of her mother’s, but she does not seem to share the Faunus Features. An odd trait for the child of a parent who is a Faunus. She has freckles on her cheek, and a beautiful smile.

But she recognises her...

“Penny?”


	24. An Admiral's Pain

**Ortega**

“Shocked?” Ortega asks her, with a scoff in his voice. “Can’t say I’m surprised...you never took any notice to her when she was alive.” He snarls, Pyrrha looks at the picture with a stunned expression. The girl in the picture, his daughter, it is undoubtedly Penny Polendina. The same hairstyle, the freckles, the green eyes...it all matches the girl that they know today. She even shares the same adorable smile that the synthetic girl has. Ortega keeps his hand pressed upon the glass, then he slowly takes the picture back, looking at his daughter tearfully. Pyrrha is lost for words, because she does not ever remember seeing that girl.

“W-What happened? What did I do?” Pyrrha questions with a stammering tone. “Penny...she’s alive, I know what I did, I remember too well...” Pyrrha says to Ortega, as he stands outside her cell. He glares at her with furious eyes. Ortega pushes his picture back into his coat and he walks towards her cell, staring at her as she sits in there. His stern face has not altered one bit, only when he looked at her face did it change from anger to grief.

“You really didn’t care about her at all...did you?” He snarls with anger.

“I don’t understand...Penny was built.” Pyrrha presumes, and he slams his fist against the glass, making her jolt fearfully from him. He slowly fronts on her, glaring directly at her through the thick bullet proof pane.

“Not always...” He says to her, cold voice but one formed from pain unlike Jacques Schnee. “She was my daughter...once...she was real.” Ortega tells her, and Pyrrha looks stunned from this information.

“But why?” She asks him, and he sighs, having flashes of memory appearing in his mind.

“Have you ever experienced frontline combat before?” Ortega asks her, looking at her with different eyes now. Eyes that reflect horrors of war and terror.

“N-No...” Pyrrha answers...struggling to see what sense this makes to Penny in any way.

“I have...thirty six years ago...I was a private in the Acolytes of Lien Mercenary Force. We were hired to fight at Fort Castle, to battle against the Faunus all those years ago.” Ortega explains, looking out at nothing. He then closes his eyes.

“I don’t understand...” Pyrrha stammers.

“I don’t expect a Huntress to. You don’t risk your lives like real soldiers do...because on the frontline...your life does not matter. You are not expected to survive...you are just a statistic.”

 

Thirty Six years ago...

Explosions rocked the courtyard of Fort Castle, missiles roaring over head and exploding against buildings. Screams seem to endlessly echo throughout the fort where they are fighting, then he rises from behind the burned out military truck that was hit by a missile. He holds a rifle in his hand, multiple empty magazines on the ground, firing his rifle over and over again at the enemies across the road from him. Blood trickles down the side of his head where a piece of shrapnel sliced across the side of his face due to the detonation of a grenade. He ducks down just in time to avoid a bullet from a soldier across the No Man’s Land. Fire burns endlessly, skyscrapers of smoke towering over the walls.

The man is young, barely even capable of growing any facial hair. Clean shaven with scratches and grime on his bloodied face. He wears the Acolytes of Lien armour and colour scheme, black and red with accents of golden paint on the plates of metal around his body. He breathes in and out, trying not to freak out from the warfare that surrounds him. The man is Darren Ortega when he was younger, fighting in the Battle of Fort Castle, against the Faunus. “It all started at Fort Castle...” Ortega narrates, his voice echoing as he remembers his own past.

Young Ortega was shaking with terror behind the truck that he is keeping his head down behind. The sun has fallen, the fractured moon hanging above them in the sky, stars twinkling. But the smoke is polluting this starry night. The roars of dancing flames that have spread like the plagues that exist in this world. The gun rattles in his shaking hands, teeth chattering, eyes wide with fear. There is the salty bitterness of the metallic blood in his mouth, beaten down from the war that rages on around him. “I remember learning about it...” Pyrrha says to him, all the way back to Beacon with Professor Oobleck, Cardin being an ass about it all the time. “General Lagune made the foolish choice of trying to take the Faunus Position there at night.” Pyrrha remembers, thinking back to that lesson, the one where Jaune foolishly mistook her advice to him as binoculars.

Ortega chuckles...

“True...we did try to do that. But the man was no fool, which is what the history books tell you. There was more behind what the Faunus were up to than what they liked to reveal.” Ortega tells her, his voice echoing through his memory. Younger Ortega’s eyes set onto the corpse of a fellow human on the ground, blood splattered across the concrete ground. His head blown open, the brain matter scattered everywhere, blood pouring out from where a bullet burst his skull. Others with their stomachs blown open from the firepower of the Faunus defenders in the Castle.

One of the soldiers could have been only eighteen years old, shrieking for his mother as he holds his innards in his hands, blood staining them. But Ortega could not hear his cries, only the ringing in his ears from shellshock. “The Faunus that held the Fortress...we had Intel that they were keeping prisoners in the fort, and they were torturing them in there. But not just Humans...Faunus ones as well. Those who did not join their cause...” He explains. Ortega’s eyes set upon his commanding officer, not the General but one of the lieutenants. One of the last surviving soldiers in Ortega’s position.

“Ortega!” The Commander yells, Ortega’s ears still ringing endlessly with shock. He cannot hear him, but then the Commander stands up. “Advance!” The Commander roars, until a bullet suddenly shoots straight through his head. The side of his head explode, blood splatters against Ortega’s face, and he jolts back, horrified as he watches his commanding officer collapse to the ground. His head clatters upon the ground, a crunch could be heard. There are others...but he cannot see them. Young Ortega looks over the burnt out truck, then he sees the leader of these Faunus, walking over the bodies of his own men.

The one that fired the shot that killed his commander.

The chilling figure wore a red hood that functioned partially as a cloak, made of two pieces held together by yellow buttons and string. He wore a black tunic with two sections extending farther down than the rest at his front, and a hole is cut out for his fox-tail. Both the hood and tunic had white trimming. He also wore detached white sleeves, bound at the mid-bicep and the wrists. Black gloves served that function and attach to his middle fingers. His white pants were pleated. He wore black open-toed sandals with fabric extending up to his knees. Ortega could not see his face, not until the man’s brown eyes met his, narrow and small as he stood there. He reaches up to the hood that casted the shadow across his face, then pulled it back. He revealed his face, a beard grown across his face...looking very familiar. “Their leader...was called Demetrius Albain...” Ortega reveals...the father of Fennec and Corsac Albain.

The Faunus that held this place...was the first Order of the White Fang...where it all began. He stood there with a smirk on his face, and then pointed at the soldiers. Until suddenly, more Human Soldiers charged in from behind, firing their guns. General Lagune amongst them, pulling the trigger on his machine gun to attack them. Ortega shook the shock from his body, and he used the barrel of his rifle to get back up. “I mustered my resolve...I knew that the job had to be done.” Ortega tells her, and he had to loot his fallen comrades for ammunition. In this type of skirmish, all that matters now is completing the mission. Your death matters not, only the fate of your objective.

He emerged from the rubble, aiming his rifle upwards at the White Fang Militia that emerged from the ruins, firing their guns at him. He sprints across the courtyard, rubble and chunks of building everywhere. Smoke trails from his fractured armour as the dust in the air trails off him. He sprints towards a soldier and shoulder-charges him, pressing the barrel against his cheek. Everything went mute when he pulled the trigger, firing ten rounds into his head, blood everywhere as he kept running. Artillery falling from the sky, shattering the ground that surrounds them, chunks of debris thrown everywhere in the process. Ortega lifted his rifle and pulled the trigger, hitting a White Fang militant in the chest, blood sprayed out and he collapsed, falling to the ground. They all began to climb over the bodies of the fallen, over the smashed debris.

General Lagune fires his machine and he decimated one of the White Fang, and Ortega rose up from the bodies like a zombie. Meeting the boot of a White Fang, they both tumbled down the hill of cadavers. The air was thick with the stench of either rotting or burning flesh. They both fell and landed in the mud. Punching each other with their wrists, screams from both sides as they broke their skin against each other. Ortega grappled onto the soldier’s throat and began to throttle him against the floor, squeezing tighter and tighter as he suffocated him. The White Fang soldier drew his dagger and went to stab him, but Darren spotted it just in time. He caught the wrist of the soldier and stopped it from being jabbed into his stomach. He forced it back, and they began to roll through the mud, pushing against each other.

Darren roared with all his might, then sank his teeth into the ear of the soldier, ripping it off with force. Blood sprayed from the side of his head, he screamed with pain, and the shock was all Darren needed. He weakened the enemy and took the knife from his hand. With both hands, he thrusted the blade into the throat of the White Fang. He screamed before was silenced as the blade cut through the jugular, and he pushed it until the hilt and his hands were soaked with blood. He twisted the blade for good measure, then rolled off the corpse of the man he murdered. “I learned a very valuable thing that day...that there is only one equalizer in war.” Darren explains as he picked up the soldiers gun and continued to charge forward, shooting at the White Fang, charging towards one with his knife and driving it right into his ribs, stabbing him over and over again until he died. “Can you guess what it is?” Darren asks her.

“What?” She asks.

“Death.” Darren answers. Ortega looked up with shocked eyes as a White Fang charged towards him with a chunk of metal and smashed him across the face with it. It knocked him onto the ground, and he thought it was the end. The White Fang held the chunk over his head, about to crush his head. Ortega would have met his death right then and there...until everyone heard the most haunting word.

“Artillery! Get down!” Lagune roared, and it began to rain steel. Mortars fall from the clouds and explode against the ground as they land, killing the humans and White Fang Faunus alike, blood everywhere, the explosion knocked him out in the process.

“Lagune’s strategy failed...he was captured and all of the others were killed by Demetrius’ men...” Ortega tells her, but he could still feel the cold air against his grimed skin. The bodies covered him, he was also soaked with mud and was suffering from Hypothermia.

“How did you survive?” Pyrrha inquired, and Darren sat up in the silent battlefield. Something that no soldier ever comes to terms with...the silence of a battlefield...all that gunfire...all the explosions...all the screams...

Gone...

Just the howling winds and the crows that peck at their rotting flesh. With dry blood stuck to his skin, he was constantly in pain, he never even noticed that he was shot in the side during that suicidal charge that General Lagune attempted. “Luck...is how I survived...I passed out from shock in the battle...and when I woke, everybody was gone. Only the bodies were around me, and the crows that must have also mistaken me for a corpse.” He tells her, and Ortega in the past flinched as he felt the beak of a Crow biting onto his open wound on his leg. He swung at the black bird but it flew away.

“At least...I thought I was alone.” Darren tells Pyrrha, and in his memory...he remembers this one very well. He was sat there, unable to stand up amongst the bodies, wounded and dying there with his friends that were slaughtered by the White Fang. Then he heard a cough come from the buildings, and he picked his rifle up and aimed it in the direction he heard it. There was a young woman stood there, a Faunus with Cat Ears, she was younger than he was. She must have been at least eighteen years old, thrown into the horror of war like this. And she wore the same attire as his enemies did.

She was a White Fang, and he was a Human.

“She stared me down...I stared her down...we had our guns trained on each other...but neither of us could bear firing another shot. We were both just as terrified as the other.” Darren tells her, their cold breath leaving their mouths, then she limped over to him, and dragged him out from the corpses and into the shelter of the buildings to survive the night. “We helped each other, instead of kill each other.” He says to Pyrrha, something that does truly surprise her, since she has not experienced the presence of a White Fang militant that has not tried to kill her...other than Blake Belladonna that is.

“A White Fang helped you? A human?” Pyrrha asks him with disbelief as the White Fang woman helps him to the shelter of the destroyed buildings. They both sat down in the shadows and began to bandage each other’s wounds, sharing their bodies for warmth in the darkness.

“Let me tell you something, dear. In war...after the fight is done...you see the world and other people a different way.” Ortega says to her, he is truly giving Pyrrha a lesson on the world that they thought they were going into. “You all believed that being a Huntress or a Huntsman would bring you great adventures? No...War is ruthless...and to the politicians, you become nothing more than just a number.” Darren states, very truthfully...and very wisely. They two slept through the night, using their warmth to survive together.

“Who was she?” Pyrrha asked.

“She would later become my wife.”

The two survived and returned back to Vale, where they were both born. She was forced into fighting a war she did not believe in. She had long ginger hair and little cat ears, she was a similar type of Faunus that Sienna Khan is, she was a Tigress. She did not, however, have the stripes that Sienna had, and she had paler skin than she does. “Her name was Robin Polendina.” Ortega tells her, the mother of his daughter. “She was the proof that the Faunus are not monsters...if I had not met her I would most likely be like Jacques Schnee...” He explains to her.

“But Penny never had any Faunus features.” Pyrrha remembers, and Ortega chuckles.

“No...She didn’t. She was an anomaly, that’s what the doctors said.” He says to her, chuckling as he says it. He can remember the time that they had together, both suffered from the war...but they helped each other. In time...they did manage to block the horrors of that war from their mind.

“What happened to Demetrius?” Pyrrha asks him, noticing that he never did say that the creator of the White Fang did not die that day. Ortega stands there, clenching his hand into a fist, seems he still wants revenge on the man.

“Nobody knows...he vanished after the war...nobody has ever seen him. Only his sons remain.” Ortega tells her, and it is true. Demetrius Albain lead a catastrophically dangerous force across Remnant, they slaughtered everything that opposed them, killed humans in droves. They started doing the very thing that ancient humans did to them when they first came into contact with each other.

Until, however, Ghira Belladonna stepped in, and he managed to overthrow Demetrius from his throne. But he was not killed, he lead an assault at Menagerie and took control of the White Fang, for he knew that this way of thinking would lead to the destruction of the White Fang as they knew it. He killed those that fought and took in those who surrendered, then finally went to confront him.

But Demetrius was not there.

He vanished and has not been seen...only the Albain brothers remain, his prodigy. And it appears that they are following a similar path as their predecessor. A monster that sought to wipe humanity out forever, to only leave Faunuskind left on Remnant.

But if they continue down this path...

Salem and the Knights will win...

And yet, despite the horrible war that Demetrius Albain began, Darren and Robin somehow survived, and somehow managed to fall in love. They even had a little baby, one that shared her mother’s hair and eyes, but shared the strength of her father. They lived in a house in the highlands of Mistral, safe from the people that would drag them back into the war.

They both were happy...

But it would not last forever. Pyrrha could see the pain in his eyes, the happy memories faded and the bad seemed to override the rest of them. “What happened?” Pyrrha asks, and Ortega looks down at his necklace...the same one that his wife once wore. A beautiful jewelled necklace with stunning crystals built into the amulet. He holds it and looks at it, clutching it tight and close. He closes his eyes tight with pain.

“What always happens...” He answers.

One day...the two of them were walking out at the park, baby Penny in the pram. She must have been a couple years old at this point. The park had children of both Human and Faunus playing outside, they had heard about what happened with the war. It was as if there was no war, that there was finally some form of peace for once...

When they walked, Darren felt Robin’s hand slip from his, and his eyes widened. As if time slowed down, he saw her collapse by his side, falling on her side hard after her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She struck her head on the ground, lying there motionlessly. He rolled her over, she had a big mark on the side of her head...but she was still alive. “She passed out when we just went to the park, just taking Penny outside for some fresh air. She was in my hand, then she fell right from me.” Ortega tells her, his memories moved on to when they examined her at hospital. He was sat beside her, and she looked at the screen of her brain with heartbreak filling their eyes.

A tumour formed in her brain...

She was suffering from Brain Cancer, and it was spreading extremely fast. And the damage to her head when she fell has only made it worse for her as well. “She was diagnosed with Brain Cancer...we didn’t have the money to pay for something like that...and support our daughter.” He explains, then Pyrrha understands, realising what he is about to say.

“So you returned to the Acolytes of Lien?” She presumed.

“Yes...they were in need of leadership again...and there was a place for those with experience. I was the foremost veteran that actually survived the Battle of Fort Strong...so they made me the ideal candidate...that and because my grandfather founded the organisation during the Great War.” He explains, since the Acolytes of Lien were formed as a Splinter Group during the Great War, that is what they became afterwards.

Mercenaries.

“I took multiple jobs, stayed in contact with them as best as I could, used the money from my contractors to pay for the medical bills...” Ortega explains, then he pauses with a pained look in his eyes. He presses his hands against the wall, tears forming in his eyes. He remembers it so well, holding his four year old daughter in his arms with horrified eyes as his wife was in the bed, bald head from all the chemotherapy done to her. The heart monitors screaming as her body began to shut down before him, the cancer had done the damage.

He watched as they performed C.P.R to try and bring her back to life...

...but all he heard was the flat line...

She died that day. “September...fifteenth...twelve in the afternoon...she was taken from me.” He says to Pyrrha, and her eyes become glassy for him. She has always been a very compassionate person, but she never expected to feel this much guilt for someone that she is being hunted by. But every person has their reasons for what they do...and she can see that this must be down to a lack of future...he seems to have lost everything. Penny was crying in his arms, watching her own mother pass away as well was heartbreaking for her...just as it was for Darren.

“After everything we survived...she was killed by a damn tumour.” Ortega softly says...the most evil thing that has existed in this world is ironically the smallest thing. Something that kills so many, and is so small and hard to predict.

“I’m...so sorry.” Pyrrha tearfully apologises to him, but then he slams his fist against the wall out of anger, spinning round and storming back towards her cell. He points at her as he yells, tears in his eyes.

“Don’t!” He barks with rage, his voice echoes down the hallway. Clearly the guards must have been paid off for him to be able to shout like that and not get any guards bearing down on him. “You wanna know why I despise you? Why I am hunting you?” He asks her...Pyrrha nods her head slowly. “Then listen.” He coldly says, walking around the room some more. He wipes the tear from his eye as he walks, he has not recovered from losing his wife, everyone would hope that his suffering would end there...but it did not.

In his memory, Ortega is stood above her grave, and it is like a time lapse as he stands there, growing older and older. A beard forming over the years and grey hairs becoming to form as well. Stood beside him is fourteen year old Penny, looking at him as she holds his hand. She rests her orange haired head on his shoulder. He has become more powerful over the years as the Admiral of the Drift of Wandering Star...but it has not, made him happy. Even Penny looks just as depressed as he does. He goes to see her grave every year, every month...every day...

Engraved on the gravestone is...

_In loving Memory Of,_

_Robin Polendina_

_Loving Wife and Mother_

_Taken from us too soon..._

Ortega stands in the detention section of the building with Pyrrha in her cell, and he has his hand pressed against the wall. “I was never the same...after losing her. We worked together, helped each other. When she passed...the memories came back...they still haunt me today.” He says to Pyrrha, hearing the screams of everyone who was killed there at Fort Castle, the taste of blood in his mouth...the fury of war. “But Penny was affected as well. She used to be a little ball of joy and happiness...but when her mother died? She suffered from depression, I could see the effects forming. She had eating disorders, I could hear her cry herself to sleep every night.” Ortega explains to Pyrrha as he stands there, and he sighs heavily, with what sounds like torment in his voice.

He shakes his head and walks away from the wall and paces back and forth, thinking back to a happy memory he had of her. “She was not always that way, though. She had friends...a few...she always wanted to be a Huntress. Wanted to make her mother and I proud...” He explains, and Pyrrha raises her brow.

“I thought you hated Huntresses?” Pyrrha questions.

“Not yet.” Ortega says as he crosses his arms. “She was bullied a lot, though...she didn’t have a lot of friends, the rest of the kids were cruel. Made fun of her because of the freckles she had on her cheeks, for her hair...for the green bow she liked to have in her hair.” Ortega explains with a clenched fist, gritting his teeth with anger. Children can be cruel, like to find joy in making others feel bad...but at the end of the day...that is what the Faunus suffer with every single day, due to what humans are like. Things don’t change...they may never change.

Ortega closes his eyes, remembering a happier memory of his daughter. “I was lucky, though. There were times where I would have to actually leave home and go to the ship on some missions, but I had the Spectre to help me out. He would man it most times.” He tells Pyrrha, the Spectre of all people...perhaps they have known each other for quite a long time. “She always wanted to make sure that I was happy, and I wanted the same. But we were as bad as each other, had the idea in our heads that...if the other is happy, we were happy. Made Christmases and Birthdays so challenging to get presents for each other.” He chuckles, then looks at a bracelet on his wrist. Made from lots of colourful rubber bands and things. He rubs his thumb across it, a tear trickles from his eye, and he sighs.

Years ago...

Penny is asleep on the bed, the real Penny. The fact that Penny does not even know that she was human once is heartbreaking, not even due to her memory damage...just down to the fact that they cannot replicate memories. Penny looks strange with her hair down, opposed to how it usually is, her green bow on the table. She wears her white and pink pyjamas as she lays on the sofa, asleep, until she hears the door open. She opens her eyes and she yawns when she hears her father’s voice as he enters. “Junior, what do you mean we are not getting any contracts?” He questions with a raised voice as he walks in, locking the door behind him, he has not even noticed his little girl is downstairs yet. “We need more contracts to keep the profits – ” He stops when he sees her then speaks in a softer voice. “We need more contracts to keep our profits high, we cannot lose this business. Now do whatever you need to do, find that Torchwick guy and get him to pay some exorbitant rates or something or other.” Ortega demands as he walks into the kitchen, setting his keys down. He sighs as he walks over to the sofa where his daughter lays. “Alright, I’ll come see you tomorrow, alright? Okay, bye.” Ortega says, and Penny yawns again.

“Hey.” Penny sweetly says with a smile as she looks at her father.

“Scoot.” He says to her and she swiftly sits up and gives him a place to sit down. He sits in the sofa and sighs, grabbing the bridge of his nose, clearly he has had a pretty rough day.

“Fun day at work, then?” She presumes, looking at him and he sighs.

“What are you still doing up, anyway? It’s _way_ past your bedtime.” Ortega says to her, without even looking at the clock above them. Penny’s eyes burst wide open and she gasps, climbing up the back of the sofa to look at the ticking clock above their heads.

“Oh no! What time is it?” She asks with a worried voice.

“Like five to midnight.” Ortega says to her, and he is dead right. She smiles as she looks at him.

“ _Buuuut_ , it’s still today.” She squeaks, bouncing up from where she was sat and skipping over to the kitchen to get something.

“Sweetpea, please...I’ve really had a bad day.” He sighs.

“That bad, huh?” Penny asks him.

“Mhm.” He answers.

“What happened?” She asks him as she searches through her school bag, Ortega looks at the table and he smiles when he sees she has completed all her homework. And then some as well, she has always done so well. And was always a fantastic artist as well, she was destined for greatness with work like that. She keeps on searching through her bag, and the exhausted Darren just answers her question anyway.

“Well...remember that guy I told you about? Junior?” Ortega asks her as he sits there, then picks up the television remote and switches it on. He looks at the holographic screen as the news appears.

_NIGHT CLUB LEFT IN RUINS AFTER HUNTRESS ATTACK_

“Yeah, the big guy.” Penny answers, still searching for what she wants to find.

“Well, I got a call today that his Night Club got smashed up by a Huntress, and get this – she was sixteen.” Ortega chuckles when he describes her, little does he even realise...the girl that hit the place, was Yang Xiao Long. Before they ever even got to Beacon, Ruby was still only fourteen at the time. She unknowingly damaged a big source of profits for his business, putting him and his daughter at risk. But Penny still finds it funny, giggling at the fact, finally finding what it is she was looking for.

“Why did she do it?” Penny asks as she skips back to his side, jumping onto the sofa.

“Ugh, idiot thought he could woo her. Guy was always a creep, guess he had it coming. So I guess I’ve got to go there tomorrow and see the damage myself.” He sighs.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Penny says sweetly.

“I wish I had your optimism.” Ortega says, looking at her. His eyes widen when he sees what she made for him. It is the same bracelet that he wears today, and he gently picks it up and looks at it. “Did you make this?” He asks her, and she smiles, nodding her head. He puts it on his wrist and he smiles as he looks at it.

“Ever plan on having kids, Pyrrha?” Ortega asks her in the present.

“I – I don’t know...” Pyrrha nervously answers, she would give anything to have a future like that with Jaune. But she does not know if she will ever be able to due to everything that has happened.

“Well if you win all this and you do...there is one thing you will learn.” He says, looking at the bracelet. “Your little butterfly could make the simplest thing...and you will automatically feel so proud...because you are the reason that they made it.” He says, looking at it, still so proud of his daughter.

Back in his memory he smiles and holds her close, kissing the top of her head gently. “Your mom would be so proud of you.” He whispers to her, and he hears her sniffle into his shoulder.

“Thank you, daddy.” She says to him softly.

“What’s it for, anyway?” He asks her, and she looks at him with a bewildered expression.

“Your birthday, silly.” Penny adorably says and he looks even more confused by that. He then looks at the calendar and sure enough.

_Daddy’s Birthday!_

He chuckles and he shakes his head. “I completely forgot about that.” He sighs.

“I never will.” She says, hugging him again, wrapping her arms around him gently.

“You’re the best baby girl a guy could ask for.” He says to her. Sometime later, she fell asleep on his lap, he picked her up and carried her up to her bedroom. He tucked her in and smiled as he looked at he. “Goodnight, Sweetpea.” He said, walking away as he closed the door.

 

The next morning, a car stops outside of Junior’s Nightclub in Vale. They now live in Vale, and he has just dropped Penny off at school. He opens the door of his car and he exits it, looking at the damaged windows and sparking neon signs. _Junior’s Nightclub_. He was never very creative with the names of his businesses, and Ortega just looks at the damage. He narrows his eyes and then sighs, walking towards it as he closes the door of his car. He walks up the steps and pushes the doors open so hard that they swing back and forth. He steps inside, looking around at the place, seeing wounded Mercenaries groaning on the ground. And an injured Junior sat down with Militia and Melanie cleaning up his cuts and bruises that he suffered. He walks past the shattered supports and the malfunctioning electronics, straight towards Junior.

The fear in Junior’s eyes is very clear, Ortega has a clear presence about him as he approaches. The soldiers back down, looking ridiculous in the clothing that they have, red glasses taken away before him and they take their hats off. Ortega does not even look at them, just at Junior as he walks towards him. Ortega stops in front of Junior, then he crosses his arms, looking down at him. Junior is much bigger than Ortega is, and yet he is cowering with fear from him as he glares at him. Ortega still has not said anything, he just stares down at him. “Ad-Admiral...I can explain everything.” He stammers with fear, and Ortega looks around at the place, walking around and he observes the damage. His eyes flit to the side and he looks at him.

“Who did this?” Ortega questions as he sits there, and Junior stammers, since Yang never did mention her name.

“Sir...I mean...” He stammers, and Ortega stares at him, his eyes burning right into his. Junior looks truly terrified of him as he stands there.

“Sir?” He questions, and Junior stammers more and more.

“She-She told me to call her that.” He answers and Ortega scoffs.

“A teenage girl, kicked your asses, levelled this place, and she demanded you call her sir?” He questions, walking towards him again. He looks at Militia and Melanie and he gestures to them to get out of his way. They do so without question, and Ortega slowly walks towards him, reaching behind his back as he approaches. “Oh Junior...what did I take you for? You see...” He says, suddenly grabbing him and pulling him towards the serrated blade of a knife. The exact same knife he used at Fort Castle, Junior’s eyes widen with terror, his lip trembles. “I thought you were worth my time and money, you claimed to be a Mob Leader, but all I’ve seen is a coward.” He growls with disgust at him, staring straight at him. He can feel the cold steel blade pressing against his throat.

“She didn’t tell me her name...” He stammers and Ortega chuckles, smirking.

“Oh, ain’t that convenient?” He doubts.

“She nearly crushed my balls, man...what was I supposed to do?” Junior strains with fear as the blade is pushed further, he could kill Junior right now if he wanted to. Darren scoffs and takes the knife from his throat.

“Oh, I dunno – all the soldiers in this room?” He shouts, his voice echoing through the building as he holds his arms out, looking at them all. “Disgraceful...call yourselves soldiers.” He says with a laugh.

“She’s a Huntress, what did you think we could have done against her?” Junior coughs, grabbing his neck, and he sighs, turning to face the mob leader.

“Junior, I get it. Huntresses and Huntsmen are a pain in the backside to take down, but listen here, son.” He says, crouching down beside him, lifting his head up by the chin with the serrated blade. “They’re not invincible.” Ortega states, staring down at him. “So, what did she look like?” He questions, and Junior thinks back to the girl that nearly turned his balls into paste.

“She was tall for a girl her age...long blonde hair, purple eyes...pretty. Had these two yellow shotgun gauntlets...thingies.” Junior explains, and Ortega rises back up, still brandishing his impressive blade. He has the information that he needs to know.

“If she comes back here.” Ortega says, looking down at him. “Give her what she wants, we’ve not got the resources or the funds at the moment to take another hit like this.” He orders.

“What? We don’t punish her for this?” Junior questions.

“No.” Ortega answers.

“What? This is bull!” A Mercenary argues, and Ortega stops in his tracks. He slowly turns his head and stares directly at the soldier. He knows which one said that and he walks towards him. The soldier holds his hands up for mercy, because he has killed plenty of examples in front of the soldiers here to keep them in check.

“Wanna know why?” He asks him.

“Wh-Why?” The Mercenary stammers, and he raises the knife to his eye, the point perfectly held where the eyeball is.

“Because we are nearly out of funds. We do not have the time or resources to go wasting our men and money on a girl who could take us all down.” Ortega explains, being very smart about his decision making indeed.

“Then what do we do?” He asks.

“We wait – wait until we do have the resources, the weapons and money. Then...then we will make sure she is punished for this. And her family.” He states, sounding like an old-fashioned gangster, one that understands how the businesses work, unlike gun-hoe gangsters that get killed rather quickly. The Mercenary, however, makes the worst possible decision he could have made.

“I think you’re going soft, old man.” He says and Ortega looks at him.

“What’s your name, son?” Ortega asks him curiously.

“Jackson.” He answers, and Ortega places his hand on his shoulder.

“How old are you?” Ortega inquires.

“Twenty three.” He answers, not afraid for whatever reason...but he really should be.

“Ah, I’m guessing you’ve never been in real combat before, am I right?” He asks him.

“No.” He answers, suddenly Ortega drives the blade of his knife straight through his stomach, so far it actually sticks out of his spine. Jackson gasps with pain, blood tricking down from the blade and his stomach. Ortega pulls him close and whispers into his ear.

“I thought not...take a good long look, son.” Ortega says, turning his head and the light shows the scars he collected from the Battle of Fort Castle. The scars on his neck where the shrapnel hit, the one on the side of his head where the White Fang Militant struck his head. “ _That_ is from war...you dare suspect me of going soft, son? I knew men worth ten of each and every one of the people in this room. If I didn’t own this establishment, I would congratulate the girl that did this.” Ortega says to him, terrifying him to his core. But eventually, the shock and blood loss kills the soldier and he slides off the blade. He scoffs at the body on the ground. “Call yourself a soldier? A real one would have survived that.” He states, and then takes a cloth from his jacket and wipes the blood from the steel blade. He turns to all the scared Mercenaries inside.

He stands there and glares at every single one of them. “Have I made myself clear?” He questions. The soldiers all nod.

“Then get back to work. I want this place back in business before the day is out.” He snarls, turning and walking away. He pushes the doors open, and leaves the Night Club.

This is the part of his job that Penny does not know about.

For good reason.

 

Ortega stands there with Pyrrha, with the same look in his eyes that he gave Junior the day after Yang destroyed his Nightclub when looking for Raven...nearly eight years ago now. Pyrrha looks scared of him now, since he may have a sad story with his family, but if someone gets on his bad side...then my god have mercy on your soul. Unfortunately for them...he is on their bad side. Specifically...she is. “What were you going to do to her?” Pyrrha asks with a nervous voice, and Ortega scoffs.

“To Miss Xiao Long? I would have given her a pat on the back for putting those assholes in their places...” He says, but then adds more to it. “Then I would have taken her and forced her family to pay the ransom or I’d have her throat slit for punishment for what she did.” Ortega explains, Pyrrha gasps from the terrifying statement he just gave her.

“Wh-Why?” She stammers.

“Because she attacked my business.” Ortega casually answers. “Killing her or threatening her family...that would have been simply business. She damaged the place, they would pay for the damages.” He states, and in a way...his reasoning is very understandable. But Pyrrha is still struggling to understand.

“What has any of this got to do with me? I understand you lost your wife and I am sorry...but I don’t see where I fit into all of this.” Pyrrha points out, and Ortega’s eyes narrow with anger. “Am I just business as well?”

Ortega grits his teeth as he walks towards her case. “You can never be forgiven for what you did, Invincible Girl.” He snarls with anger. “You wanna know? Then I will tell you what you’ve done.” He snarls with anger.

He turns and continues to pace back and forth. Only now has Pyrrha noticed that he still has the knife and he has his Chrome Revolver on him as well. “Did you know that my daughter was in the same year as you at Sanctum Academy?” Ortega asks her, looking at the wall where he stands. She can see his hand is clenched and she stammers, because the answer will not please him...but it seems like he already knows.

“Wh-What?” She answers.

“Did you!” He erupts, making her jump with fear, his voice travelling down the halls.

“N-No.” She stammers, and he scowls as he stands there. It is like he always knew that was the answer but he wanted to hear her say it. He turns to face her and he pushes a button, the glass shields slide down and he walks towards her, staring straight at her.

“Of course you didn’t...” He growls with anger.

He then tells her why he despises her so much. “My little girl...she always suffered with depression when her mother died, but she had her friends to look out for her. They helped her during the bullying, and I was always grateful for that.” He explains, and he clenches his hand into a fist. “And then she started to tell me...about this new girl who showed up in her year. Everyone nicknamed her...the _Invincible Girl_.” He says, with repulsion at the name, eye twitching as he glares at her.

“It was at that moment that she realised her friends were only there for her because they felt bad. But none of that mattered apparently when this new badass showed up...so many kids flocked to you...and do you know what happened to my baby girl?” He asks her and Pyrrha looks horrified.

“She was alone...only the bullies were there. But not _for_ her...because nobody would help her.” He explains, gritting his teeth. Tears form in both of their eyes, and he grabs the metal cage with hatred as he stares at her. Ortega still remembers the days where her sobbing daughter would come home, her bags destroyed, bruises on her cheeks and her crafts destroyed. “Her depression got worse and worse by the day, and she started to hate you because you took everything that kept her safe from her. You never thought to help her!” Ortega roars with rage.

“I...I...” Pyrrha stammers, with heartbreak in her voice. She never knew Penny at the time, she never thought that this was happening, she never ever came over to her. She never even saw her because she would never come to her.

“One day...” Ortega tells her, his voice begins to break on this part. “She must have had enough...couldn’t go on...” He weakly says, voice broken.

“She found her sleeping pills one evening...and she took them all. I never saw her do it...because she hid it from me...she never...” Ortega starts to break down into tears...remembering the horrible sight of his baby girl asleep in her bed, but she never woke up again. Her tears in her pillow...the bullies broke her down to the point of taking her own life. Even Pyrrha begins to cry...because even she blames herself for what happened to Penny when she was not Synthetic. Tears stream from his eyes, but then he draws his revolver and points it straight at her head, the glass no longer between them.

His teeth gritted, tears soaking his cheeks. Pyrrha’s eyes widen when she sees the barrel pointed at her, she can even see the bullet in the chamber. “You! She is dead because of you!” He roared with rage.

“I – I never knew...If I did I would have looked after her...I swear!” Pyrrha cries out with heartbreak.

“Oh, ain’t that just great!” He scoffs tearfully, still pointing the gun at her. “You wanna know what I did to them? The bullies? Their parents?” He questions and she looks at him. “I tracked them down after her funeral...I was the only one there...I tracked them...and I killed every. Single. One.” He slowly answers, and that blood may be on his hands, but in his eyes they killed his girl. “You are the final piece in the goddamn puzzle...only then will I accept the end.” Darren cries as he stares at her, his eyes bloodshot from the pain of remembering how his daughter died.

Pyrrha sits there...

She does not even fight anymore. “I’m...I’m so sorry.” She apologises and he grits his teeth. She closes her eyes and the tears stream down. “If this is what you want...then do it.” She softly says and he looks at her with confusion. He then pulls the hammer back and his hand is shaking again, just like it did when he was at Fort Castle. She can hear it shake, and then she hears him roar with anguish.

Then there is a gunshot.

But she did not feel it...

She opens her eyes, and the bullet missed her. He has fallen to his knee with heartbreak, tears streaming from his sobbing eyes. He still holds the gun in his hand, crying into his knee, into the bracelet and the necklace. The only things that remain of his family that he lost. Pyrrha sniffles as she looks at him, feeling so much guilt and real responsibility.

The thing that truly made him not actually kill her there?

Was the fact she accepted it with honour...

The others didn’t, they begged for mercy and they never showed his daughter such mercy. He stands back up and he backs up, pointing at her. “I will...but not today...my superiors demand it.” He says, backing away from her, still broken with tears. She just looks at him sadly and he stammers, storming away from her.

She cries as she remains there. “Penny...I’m so sorry.”

Ortega keeps on going and he walks through the room, where the operatives are. He walks past them, and clearly he has bought his way to get to her. And he still could not kill her, but he stops when he sees the office...

When he sees Penny...

He looks at her and he reaches out to the door...

But then he remembers. “N-No...” He whispers to himself as he looks at the synthetic version of her. “You’re not her...” He says, with so much defeat in his voice. The sleeping girl is the one that starts to wake up unlike the others. Nora is snuggled up to Ren in the corner, Jaune asleep in the chair, Kassius in the corner, the Professors in different areas of the room. Penny sits up and she looks in the direction where he was stood.

But Ortega is gone.

Not every enemy is cruel...

Vir Nominis Umbra is right.

Their enemies are more complex than they realise.

Some are misguided.

Some choose to be evil.

And others...

They are formed from suffering.


	25. The Mirror

**Death**

Embers float across the glowing red sky, the shattered moon hanging over the world. Like a field of asteroids that now orbits the planet, smoke constantly rising from the ground. Bones litter the black soil, the screeches of thousands of pained souls being endlessly tortured. Tall charred trees stand everywhere in the forest, the forest that was once known as Forever Fall. Roses dead in the Ashlands and ghostly mists patrol the lands and the boiling lakes. The Charred Forest is very real, but not in the eyes of the living.

Death stands there, his black cape blows in the wind as he stands there, holding Ferrum Arctus in his hand, the black energy trailing off it. Beside him stands Loss, they have been summoned here for some reason. Despite being unable to see his face, they are both quite afraid to be here at the Charred Forest, hearing the wails of Remnant coming closer. They both stare up at the shattered moon, unlike the one in the world of the living, it is completely blown apart. Just chunks of lunar rock floating away, dust trailing away from it. Loss holds her Bow in her hand, her long white hair blows in the wind as well, she has her black veil pulled back so then she could feel the wind. Loss turns and looks at Death, unable to see what he once looked like due to the Isomacium Helmet that he has for a head now. “Krekras?” She fearfully speaks, wide eyed, and he looks at her. The red eyes look at her but she is not afraid of him, they are not monstrous eyes to her.

“Yes, Starla?” Death asks her, the same voice he has always had but still sounds softer in her presence. Her bottom lip trembles as they stand there, looking at the destroyed world that they stand on, in the distance they can see chunks of land rising from the ground, the planet is quite literally destroying itself, or is being destroyed from the raining burning debris from the destroyed moon.

“I’m afraid...” She confesses with true fear behind her stuttered voice, looking out at the land. Krekras looks at the red sky, it should not be that colour, it is all wrong...no world should have a sky like that. This hell – is truly terrifying.

“I am too.” He softly says to her, tightening his grip on the hilt of Ferrum Arctus. They both stand there, and then they turn when they hear his presence behind them. The sound of the screeches of the fallen rising behind them, so they face him as he emerges. He emerges from the shadows and he approaches them, his bald head and the clothes of a Soothsayer, the terrifyingly kind smile on his face, looking directly at Loss, not Death. He has his hands close together as he approaches them, smirking away, and Starla is afraid, but Death stands between her and Vir Nominis Umbra.

As if that would stop him from doing what he brought them there for.

“Hello, Starla Schnee...” Vir Nominis Umbra greets coldly and menacingly, approaching them. But he walks to the cliff edge and looks out at the destroyed world, the cinders that trail with the smoke from the flames that burn eternally here. Trees on fire in the distance, others just charred already. He looks at the souls of people he has claimed being tortured by their worst fears in the fog, some being swarmed and eaten alive by spiders, others being set on fire.

“Please! Help me!” One of the souls begs with a terrified voice as he is pulled into the ground, being buried alive. He grips onto the soil, trying to save himself from the deathly hands that grab his legs. He wails with terror, as one grabs the back of his head and yanks him into the soil. His screams become more and more muffled until they can no longer hear his voice, where he will suffocate endlessly in his worst nightmare, until he breaks and is under Umbra’s control. The Evil Soothsayer smiles as he looks at the pain and suffering at his feet, and he turns to the two Knights that stand behind him.

Vir Nominis Umbra looks right at Loss, who is practically hiding behind Death’s shoulder with fear. Death glares at the Soothsayer, wanting to strike him down with Ferrum Arctus to stop him from harming her. His metal fingers constrict around the hilt of the black blade, faint howls emerging from the base of the blade of all those he has killed. He stops in front of Death, but keeps his brown eyes on Starla who cowers behind him. “Oh Starla...Starla, Starla, Starla.” Vir Nominis Umbra sighs, closing his eyes and shaking his head, pacing back and forth across the smoking ground. Every step he takes, the ground pulsates as his boot treads upon the hollow soil. “You know, I really had hoped I would not have to do this again. The last time you tried something like this...well...we all remember.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, stopping and turning on his heel to look at them.

Starla stammers fearfully as she stands behind Death. “I...I...” She stammers with tears in her eyes and Umbra approaches Death, looking up at him. Death towers above Vir Nominis Umbra, and yet it is clear that even he is intimidated by the presence that he carries with him.

“Do not hurt her.” Death demands, and a sinister smile grows across the Soothsayer’s face.

“Hurt? I’m afraid you cannot hurt something that is already dead.” He reminds with a smirk, but Death does not move.

Umbra’s eyes set back upon Starla where she stands; she looks so frail and small, keeping her arms close to her chest and her head low. Like she is being judged by the millions, but there is only one man there. “I know what you did, Starla...what have you got to say for yourself?” He asks her, walking towards her, but Death shoves him back to keep him away from her. Vir Nominis Umbra hardly even stumbles, if anything he just steps backwards. He chuckles and looks at Death with a smile.

Suddenly Death is thrown by an unseen force into a tree at the speed of a super car, Death grunts and the whole tree collapses, hitting the ground with a metallic bang. He groans and looks at his sword on the ground, then at Vir Nominis Umbra who slowly approaches her, staring straight into her eyes. There is no anger or detesting look on his face, just the same smile that he had ever since he entered the Charred Forest. Starla looks at Death on the ground a couple yards away and he is groaning with pain, slowly trying to get back up. Vir Nominis Umbra just continues to walk towards her, and she finds herself backing up against a tree, her hands against the black bark that has been cracked and eroded away by time and war. “I’m – I’m so sorry, I just...I just wanted to help them! They are not as cruel as you claim they are.” She stammers with a terrified voice, and Umbra just stands right in front of her, looking at her.

But then...

He smiles kindly, placing his hand on her shoulder as if to sooth her fears. “It’s okay, my dear...I understand.” He assures, but then his eyes turn bright red and Starla lets out a blood curdling shriek of agony, pressing her hands against her head with torment, falling to her knees, and Umbra just looks at her as she writhes around on the ground. Tears gush from her eyes, she feels like her soul is being throttled with burning hot hands. Death watches with horror as he sees her being tortured by Vir Nominis Umbra, who has not even touched her, he just stares down at her.

She kicks and screams with pain, clawing at the floor as she feels the constant stabbing pains across her body, like she is being electrocuted over and over again, but then it all stops and she gasps, breathing heavily on the soil. She looks up at Vir Nominis Umbra who crouches down beside her, looking at her. He gently and terrifyingly pushes some strands of her long white hair from her big blue eyes and he caresses her firm cheek. She is terrified of him, and waits to hear what he has to say next after doing that. “I know how your mind works; you have always been the kindest of my knights.” He says with a smirk. But then he looks at Death as he tries to get back up, picking Ferrum Arctus up as well as he walks towards Vir Nominis Umbra. “If it were someone else I would not have given them this curse you are bound with...” He says and then looks down at her again.

“But you committed a sin...and thus your soul is mine to command.” He states, and then his eyes turn red again, glowing hot and she screeches with agony, touching the places on her body where she feels the horrific pain. She reaches out for Krekras, crying with pain and Vir Nominis Umbra stands back up, looking down at her as she is put through the worse pains that a human being could possibly imagine. Krekras stands there, looking at her and he clenches his hand into a fist with anger.

The reason that she was cursed was due to the affair she had with Krekras, betraying her own family in the process. She regrets it ever since but they do still share some form of love beyond what they have become, because the souls of the people they were must still be in there somewhere. The glowing red eyes of Death burn hotter and hotter as he stands there, wanting to strike Vir Nominis Umbra down right now. “Please! Stop!” Starla wails as she feels her whole body on fire, snakes plunging their fangs into her. Starla Schnee was always terrified snakes, thus Umbra is using that fear to punish her.

“This is the punishment for disobeying me.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, she is being punished for talking to Weiss, trying to help them in the first place. Death sees her crying and then something in him snaps. His huge black Nevermore Wings fold out from his cape and he swings them hard, launching his armoured body towards Vir Nominis Umbra with Ferrum Arctus swinging towards him. Death roars as he launches himself towards the Soothsayer, but Umbra grins.

Vir Nominis Umbra extends his arm out, and he catches the blade of Ferrum Arctus, creating a shockwave from the event, one that makes Starla gasp and her pain ceases for a couple moments. She has sweat trickling down her body from her dismay and the constant agony she was being put through. Vir Nominis Umbra holds the blade of Ferrum Arctus, not even reacting to it and he slowly looks straight at Death. His glowing red eyes replacing the brown ones meet those of Death’s inside his helmet. “Tsk, tsk, tsk – Death...you must remember your place.” Umbra states with a cunning smirk.

Unexpectedly, he twists his wrist slightly, and there is an almighty metallic bang as the blade of Ferrum Arctus shatters like glass. Shards of metal broken away from the sword and they land into the soil, bouncing elsewhere or stabbing into the ground. Black lightning bursts from the destroyed sword, and Vir Nominis Umbra thrusts his opened palm towards Death’s chest. The impact is enough to completely destroy his form, Death roars with agony, a powerful explosion erupts from his spine and a singularity forms inside of him. His howl echoes throughout the Charred Forest, and Starla watches with anguish as she sees her lover being destroyed by Umbra. The chunks of metal bend and break, being crushed into the black hole one by one, until the head is pulled into it and the event horizon collapses with a loud bang.

A rupture in time and space erupts, and Death is thrown from it, a brand new form and he crashes into the ground. He pants with pain, groaning and rolling around. Ferrum Arctus lands next to him as well, his curse has bound him to his sword forever, and they will both be reincarnated in their destructions. And yet they still feel pain just as they would when they were alive. Starla shakes with fear and Vir Nominis Umbra grabs her by her long delicate white hair, and she shrieks with pain, and he throws her into the arms of Death. He holds her close and she buries her head into his chest place, tears stream down her face as they both look at Vir Nominis Umbra fearfully.

They catch a very short glimpse of a different form of Umbra’s, one that is made of smoke. The smoke is the same sort of shape with a fiery glow where the heart would be, glowing red eyes piercing towards him, and then he returns back to his normal form. He speaks, but his voice sounds like it overlapped by a deeper and more demonic voice. “I gave you all the gift of Immortality, do not forget that I could take that gift away from you at any time. I may make you wish you could die, but believe me when I say...I can kill you in the worst way imaginable.” Vir Nominis Umbra threatens with a terrifying voice, Starla terrified of him.

He turns and looks at the shattered moon with a smirk on his face. “Find the Maidens, that is your task.” He demands. “Do not hope you meet me here again before you do.” He threatens again.

They both remain in each other’s arms, and then they see the land crumbling around them as Vir Nominis Umbra sends them both back to Remnant. The land turns red and the trees regain their leaves again, the sky blue as the ocean and clouds gently travel across the sky. Birds flutter overhead and they are both in the exact same place where they were. The cliff face which overlooked the forest there as well, but Vir Nominis Umbra is not there. Nothing but a Crow stood where he stood, then it flies away from them.

Loss remains there and she cries into his armour as he gently hugs her, letting her cry into him. “It’s okay...” Death softly promises, caressing her long white hair with his armoured hand to comfort her.

“I’m here...”

 

**Oscar**

Ruby walks with him, but then she feels a very faint burning feeling in the back of her head, making her nearly fall over. She becomes woozy and has to press her hand against the wall to keep herself from falling onto the ground. She closes her eye to let the pain subside, Oscar stops and turns when he notices that she has been lagging behind. Concern forms over him, and he approaches his girlfriend, reaching out to her. “Hey...are you alright? What’s wrong?” Oscar calmly asks her, holding her by her shoulders gently and she nods her head. Yang stops and looks back at them both.

“I dunno...it’s weird...” Ruby tries to say, shaking her head as she tries to focus her senses again.

“Tell me.” Oscar requests, wanting to listen to her. She remembers what she felt, like someone took a hot iron and pressed it against her head, and she could hear...screaming of some kind, but it was not her own.

“I felt this pain, and I hear screaming...” Ruby describes, unknowingly she heard and felt what Loss experienced – just a highly watered down version of it. A tear forms in her eye, from a sadness she cannot explain. The strange emotion does not last long but Oscar still notices it.

“I really think we need to see Kragen about this, Rubes.” He says to her, caressing her cheek gently, but as ever, she always puts others before herself. Even if it would have dire consequences for her own personal safety later on.

“N-No, it’s okay. Let’s just figure out how to get inside of that Vault.” Ruby says to him, regaining her balance, and thus walking back to the others. Everyone is inside of the Headmaster’s Throne room, searching for a way in which they would enter the Vault from here. A place so secure would only allow entry for the Headmaster, and nobody else. But he had nothing on him that could help them find a door or open said door to the Vault underground.

“Why can’t it ever be easy?” Sun sighs. “Just like a big red button that says – _Super Secret Vault­_ – on it?” Sun requests to the gods, almost begging them. To no avail, because nothing even happens, it all stays the same, he looks at Neptune who chuckles.

“Eh, worth a shot.” Neptune agrees, so they all continue to search. Oscar stands there and he continues to search his mind to try and contact Ozpin.

_Come on, old voice in my head! Of all the times you could finally leave me alone, this is not a good time! We need your help!_

He continues to send messages in his mind in the hopes that Ozpin will return and communicate with him in order to help locate and open the next Vault. Blake and Yang walk around, approaching the throne where the Headmaster would sit all the time, and Blake brushes her hand across some of the dust that has settled on the arm rest. She looks at the many markings, but it is of no use. It is all in a language that she cannot decipher for some bizarre reason. She sighs, turning to Yang and she scratches one of her cat ears. “Do you think the Spring Maiden came through here?” Yang asks Blake, but her Faunus friend seems a little hesitant on the positive answer.

“I dunno, I mean if she did then surely the Knights of Grimm would have more of a presence here.” Blake explains, and she has a good point.

“Then again, the Acolytes of Lien are here as well.” Yang points out, meaning that they could still be working for the Knights.

Blake has an epiphany, and she turns to Weiss who walks with her sister as they search for the entrance. “Weiss?” Blake calls.

“Yeah?” She responds.

“Did Loss say anything to you? I dunno anything cryptic that could be a hint to where the Spring Maiden would end up?” Blake asks her, but Weiss shakes her head. Only one cryptic thing was worth noting.

“Nothing other than – _a great evil is coming_.” Weiss remembers, and they all sigh, since that is no help at all. More something that they should be getting ready for in case it all goes wrong. Winter approaches the bodies of the Pyromancer and the Headmaster, both are in zipped up black body bags and she crouches down beside them.

“There was definitely nothing on them, right?” She asks.

“Definitely, we checked everything. All they had were their scrolls and some Lien Cards.” Neptune tells her, and Winter sighs as she pushes her hand through her long white hair, trying to find some sort of clue of how to get into that Vault.

“Surely Qrow or Ozpin must have shown you how to get inside these Vaults, right?” Sun asks her, leaning against one of the Adobe pillars in the throne room. Winter shakes her head, standing back up.

“No, I was never a part of their stupid inner circle crap. I only learned about the Vaults when I teamed up with you guys.” Winter explains, crossing her arms as she looks around at the place, and Sun chuckles.

“Yeah, I know what that feels like.” He says with a sigh, remembering how at first the only person their age that knew, was Pyrrha.

There seems to be no hope at finding a way in, and with Oscar being unable to get Ozpin to talk to him, they feel hopeless. Until he spots something curious, something that really makes him do a double take. He looks at one of the windows on the building, and on the other end, outside, he sees...

Himself...

Oscar sees Oscar peering back in with a confused expression and then walking off. “What the?” Oscar questions, furrowing his brow. Current Oscar stands there, with a completely confused expression, something that Ruby catches onto. “Oscar? Are you okay” Ruby inquires, a real turn of the tables that now she is asking if he is okay. She follows him as he walks towards what he just saw, like he just saw a ghost. The creepy part, is that the ghost was himself. He walks towards the window and looks around, then he steps outside, Ruby follows him. “Oscar!” She calls, chasing after him as he steps outside and looks around. There is no sign of his copy and he steps past the window, looking for himself. Ruby grabs his hand to stop him and she looks at him. “What is wrong?” She grills, looking at him with a wide silver eye.

“I swear I just saw...” He stutters, but then an idea forms in his mind and his eyes widen. He steps over to the window and he peers back in, and sees himself from the past stood there, and sees the point when he noticed.

“What the?” Past Oscar says, then he moves out of the way, hoping that it would not disturb anything. But of course in Ruby’s eyes, he is acting like a complete and utter maniac, since she does not see what he is seeing. Then Oscar figures it out...

That was him from the future, a couple seconds in the future looking back at himself in the past. Just like those Echoes in Time he has been seeing, but these ones are from the future instead. Oscar looks at Ruby and he holds his hand out to her. “You know I said I can travel through time?” Oscar asks her, and her eye widens with disbelief. “Come on, I think I’ll find the answer that way.” He says to her, and Ruby trusts him with all her heart. She smiles and nods, holding his hand and they both walk onwards. Oscar is following the direction that he watched the copy of himself from the future running off into. They both turn a corner when they see a spray painted arrow on one of the houses pointing to their left. But when they turn to the left, there is a wall. Clearly that wall was not always there, it was put there around seven years prior.

How does he know this?

Because in the same spray paint there is a clock that shows a specific time and the number seven with a minus symbol on it. That is all the information that Oscar needs to travel back in time. Oscar chuckles when he looks at the artwork, because he knows he did that for him. “Good old, future me. Thanks for the help.” He says with a laugh, Ruby looks at him with a confused expression. Time travel was never something she would really expect to have to understand, let alone fall in love with a Time Traveller.

He raises the gauntlet that he has built with the watch built into it as well. The harness made from metal is only a prototype that he has been working on, one that he could try and use to master his abilities. He looks at her and he holds her hand. “This is gonna be...a little strange.” He warns.

“What’s going on?” Ruby asks him, and he looks at the place.

“I can only bring one person with me at a time when travelling...” He explains, holding both her hands. “To do so we need to combine our auras.” He says to her softly, which is a very touching and personal thing to do. But Ruby loves him with all her heart and he loves her just as much. She smiles and she presses her head affectionately to his, then she kisses him, wrapping her arm around him, and he holds her close as well. They close their eyes as they share their touching kiss, then their aura shimmers between them. His green aura glows around his body, and her red one glows as well.

Just as Pyrrha did with Jaune in the Emerald Forest.

They finally break their kiss, feeling their auras combined, she looks into his hypnotic hazel coloured eyes with her beautiful large silver one. She caresses his cheek, feeling the slight bristles of hair where his beard is forming again.

“Okay...I trust you.” She softly assures, smiling sweetly at him. Oscar looks at the watch and he focuses his senses, and then Ruby looks at her own watch. And with amazement, she sees the hands start to spin the other way around, and she gasps as she stands there as they approach the time that was painted on that wall for them. She maintains her grip on Oscar’s hand, grabbing his arm with her other one, holding onto him even though they are not moving, just the world around them us changing. The sun and moon pass overhead countless times, the clouds floating over at the speed of bullets.

Ruby cannot believe this, only this stuff happened in movies...or so she had once believed. “What...what is this?” She stammers as she looks around, and they hear many people speaking every now and then as they pass by. She even catches a glimpse of Old Man Shopkeep at one point walking around, but then he is gone. They keep going and going, and they walk towards the wall, then it starts to get broken down, the reverse of it being built up. They see the builders there and then they start taking the pieces away and then they vanish.

The reversing of time finally stops, and then they both see a chain linked fence replacing what was once there, the Throne Room is not even there anymore, just the C.C.T tower which is much smaller than the one at Beacon and a building where he must have been working inside of at the time. However they are not at the time they need to be at yet, this is simply a way to get past the wall. They look at the fence and Ruby’s eyes widen with disbelief when she sees Oscar on the other side of it, and Ruby climbs over the fence, jumping over. Oscar catches her and Ruby looks at them with an amazed expression. And then they vanish.

“What the hell?” Ruby questions with confusion, seeing her first Glimpse of the Future. Oscar releases her hand and they both walk towards the fence, now that their auras are linked they can both see what they see. Ruby can see the Time Echoes and Glimpses of the Future just like he can, however she cannot travel through time like he can. Through combining aura, they can even feel their thoughts if they want to, their senses together. Oscar jumps up to the fence and he grabs the very top, hauling his body up and he drops down on the other side, looking at her as she stands there.

“Come on, I’ll help you.” He assures, and she scoffs.

“I survived Tyrian, I’m pretty sure I can handle a fence.” Ruby claims with a smile, and Oscar rolls his eyes with a smile on his face. She climbs over the fence and then hops over it. He catches her and helps her down, and Ruby turns when she hears a ghostly voice.

“What...What is this?” Past Ruby’s ghostly voice says, and she looks back and sees the bodies of herself and Oscar stood there, and then they both crumble and fade away.

“But...that already happened.” Ruby stammers with confusion when she looks back, and then she feels Oscar’s hand touch hers, she instinctively holds him and looks at his eyes.

“Time travel, weird stuff. It’s all a loop you see, if I see myself jump in the future, I will end up doing it as well. Sometimes it’s like a guide...other times it is a hint...others it is a warning.” Oscar explains as they walk through the alley, feeling the grains of sand underneath their shoes as they walk. The watch on his harness starts to spin again, and the days pass by around them, day and night all flickering over and over again as they move back in time. But they keep walking onwards to whatever it was that brought them to the time that they are heading to.

Ruby sometimes feels a splash of water where they have just passed by some rain or a storm in the weather, but then it is sunny again. They both walk towards a building as the days pass, and then it lands on one particular day. There is a building in front of them, one that is clearly connected to where the Headmaster’s Office is situated in Shade Academy. They can see the students fighting and working together, they can even see Team N.D.G.O training in the courtyards at the time with their weapons. Before they turned to the wrong side, they both look at the door and they approach it, it has pieces of wood nailed over it to keep it shut for some strange reason.

Ruby looks at Oscar curiously, and they both nod to each other. They both reach forward and grab the two by four plank of wood, and they both yank it backwards with force. It rips the wood from the nail and they both carry it and set it down on the floor. Oscar enters first, and he looks around, Ruby behind him. The Silver Eyed Girl stands beside the Last Traveller and they both look around at the place with amazed expressions.

“What do you mean – _we need more time_? I need information!” Headmaster Theodore argues, and stood in front of him is Professor Ozpin. They both stand there with wide eyes, right in their field of view, but they both cannot see them. Oscar looks back, realising the days have shifted again, because the door is there now, when it was originally kicked down. This must be further in the past from what happened. Oscar steps forward, but Ruby grabs his hand, unaware that they are invisible to them.

“What are you doing?” She whispers, wide eyed.

“They cannot see us.” He assures in a normal voice.

“How do you know that?” Ruby asks.

“Trust me...I know. I am able to conceal us with my semblance.” He says, remembering when he first travelled through time with the help of the entity called Time. By using his mind, he can turn them invisible to people in that time, for they are the anomalies here, not the people. When he saw the first ever meeting of all of Team R.W.B.Y, when none of them even saw or heard him. “I was there when you first met Weiss and Blake. And Jaune for that matter, I went to help you up, but Jaune’s hand went through me.” He explains, looking around and her eyes widen with disbelief. “We might as well be ghosts to them when we are not needed.” He explains.

“I thought you said time is a loop?” Ruby questions.

“It is...but there are some things that we never meddled with, or cannot meddle with.” Oscar explains as they walk past the shifting environment. Lots of men and women are building walls and surfaces in here for the Headmaster, they are building the Throne Room...it is clear, the pathway towards the throne and the pillars are being planned out on tables, then lots of trucks start to come over with sand and cement. Ruby walks alongside him, and she realises something interesting.

“Me and Yang meeting Blake and Weiss was one of them?” Ruby asks with confusion.

“Maybe...I dunno, I’m still trying to figure it all out. All I know is that there are some things we can affect and others we cannot. Sometimes things will always happen no matter what it is that we do.” He explains.

“So could we show ourselves?” Ruby asks curiously.

“I could drop the shroud around us, but we could cause something bad to happen.” He explains. “I was given a scenario by Time, when I spoke with him? He told me once that he saw a person commit suicide when he was little, he jumped off the building to his death. When he mastered his abilities, that was the first thing he wanted to change, but when the man heard him behind him...he fell off by jolting with shock.” Oscar explains, and Ruby realises what he is saying. “He caused the man to fall by accident, but if he never did, he would have jumped anyway. The Past is fixed, we can’t change what happens. By trying we would become responsible for it in the first place.” He explains, walking onwards.

“Like the fence...” She realises, and he nods.

“Like the fence, it is a loop.” He concludes, as they walk through. The Throne Room continues to be built around them, forklifts moving lots of concrete and setting it around the area to build the place. They walk up the steps where the throne is being carried up by lots of people, then they walk behind the throne room, there is an open door. Sat inside is the Headmaster, he has a stress ball in his hand that he squeezes over and over again. He mutters things to himself, like he is going crazy. There are so many pieces of paper on the wall, ones that show the blueprints of the Vault where the Relic would be stored.

“Cannot...Cannot keep it here...” He stammers as he sits there, and they both look at him.

“What’s he talking about?” Ruby inquires.

“It’s whispers...it wants it there...the islands...” Theodore stammers to himself as he squeezes the stress ball. This is the point, the thing they needed to see. Because he is talking about the Relic of Choice, for that one had more sentience than the others did. It was demanding to be kept there, controlled the Guardian Knights to keep it safe at the Volcanic Chain Isles. They then look at the box that is open...

The relic is inside it.

Glowing as it sits there, he is letting the voices get to his head, demanding that he take it back to where they found it. The energy courses across its body, and then he sighs, closing the box and picking it up, like a briefcase. They all watch him as he walks towards the elevator and he stands inside it. The elevator doors close before they can get inside. “Ruby, hold my hand.” He says to her, and she does so. He lifts his wrist up and he rewinds time back a couple seconds. They wait for the doors to open and they walk inside with him. The doors close, and they stand inside with him.

The Headmaster has no idea that they are in there with him. But it is getting clearer and clearer when they see the way he was acting, the Relic was affecting his mind. Feeding ideas to him, making him go insane.

And now Kragen has it at the Dragonspire Keep, the Silver Eyed Warrior Sanctuary in the Mistraalian Mountains.

They both look at each other, she still holds his hand even though she does not need to anymore. She looks at him, feeling so much comfort with him. Then the doors open, and they follow the Headmaster who paces inside with that briefcase that holds the Relic inside. He continues to storm down the deep green halls, Ruby’s eyes are wide when she looks at the place. “This was also under Beacon the whole time?” She questions with disbelief, her first time ever seeing one of these vaults, green flames burning on the torches on the wall. Instead, however, of returning the Relic to the place where they keep it...

Theodore turns and their eyes widen.

There it is...

The Mirror.

Just like the one that Qrow saw the Witches of the Restless Marshlands send the Spring Maiden through. The mirror’s pane ripples like water, with strange whispers emerging from the other side. He closes his eyes as he stands there. “Take me to your home...” He whispers, then he walks through.

Against their best wishes, they follow and they walk in behind him. They enter, and they emerge together on the other side with him. They never hoped to see the chamber ever again, the large statue that held it is right before him. The Guardian Knights stood in their Isomacium Casings around the round platform where he has brought it. One of the Guardian Knights breaks from its slumber and approaches the Headmaster with its sword in its hand. “Protect the Relic!” The Guardian Knight roars, about to attack him, until the Headmaster holds it up to him.

“I bring you your Relic back!” He says, holding it above his head, looking so weak as he does it. The Guardian Knight stops and looks at him, it then picks the Relic up and steps back, approaching the tall Statue that stands there. It holds its hand up that carries the Relic, and it releases the stone. The object rises up in the air and they watch as it returns to where they have always remembered seeing it. The Guardian Knight turns and walks away, returning back to where it was stationed for the past few hundred years. It slams the blade of its sword down into the ground, and returns to its slumber.

Oscar and Ruby both look around...

Remembering their battle here five years ago very well, the battle against the Knights of Grimm, the defeat of Salem, the death of Arthur Watts.

They look at the underground city with awe...

Just as they remembered it...

But now it is just a sunken ruin to be forgotten after their battle.

Ruby and Oscar turn when they realise that the Headmaster is stumbling towards the Mirror, they never realised that one was here after all this time. But they never did have time to examine the area for one, but it is definitely destroyed now, and that explains why it was never at Vacuo to begin with. It managed to convince the Headmaster to take it back, but clearly he never recovered from the whispers it fed to him.

They both follow him back through, and the Relic manipulates the Mirror so then it did send him back home. The three of them stand there, and the Headmaster walks away. Oscar looks at the watch, and he still holds her hand as the time is sent all the way back to the present day. And they are now inside of the Vault. They both laugh with amazement at how they have gotten inside with no trouble at all. Ruby opens her scroll and texts Yang.

_We’re in._

She sets it down and they prepare to figure out if she did escape through here...

Until something whispers to Ruby.

“Ruby...” A whisper calls, and she slowly turns around with a confused expression. She gasps when she sees it.

“Oscar...” She realises.

“Huh?” He replies, and his eyes widen as well.

They have a Visionary Book down here...

 

**Qrow**

Qrow walks with Raven and Taiyang through the city of Ephai, the same one where Cinder and Hazel are currently travelling through via boat. Qrow keeps his sword drawn, looking around at the huge ancient buildings left behind by an ancient era. They are almost Mayan or Egyptian, the way these Arkhoni Ruins are built. They have just been reclaimed by nature, letting their vines wrap around the brick and mortar. Taiyang chuckles as he looks around, scratching his blonde hair. “This is crazy.” Taiyang says with awe, and Raven looks at the place as well.

“Give it to the Arkhoni...they sure do have style.” She says with a smile, looking around more and more. She crouches down by some of the rubble on the ground, they have been following the trails of hoof prints on their way here. The prints are very similar to that of the Nuckelavee, and the Knights Bannermen Riders did look very similar to them. Raven looks at Qrow and she catches up to him as they walk.

“Hey, bro...wait up a second.” Raven says, and he stops, turning to her.

“Yeah?” He asks her.

“What Ruby said...about Salem...” Raven says and she looks at the buildings, getting the feeling that they are not alone here. The calls of countless animals surround them.

“What about Salem?” Qrow asks her, and Raven sighs.

“What do you think happened? I mean you saw it, Tai and I were outside making sure the Grimm didn’t get through.” Raven explains, a good point as well. She did not go inside because they had to hold the entrance, the last thing that they needed was an army of Grimm storming in and attacking them whilst they took the Knights of Grimm on in close quarters combat.

“I don’t know, Salem just – vanished into smoke. Ruby shot her when Cinder distracted her, and she vanished afterwards.” Qrow explains, remembering it very well. The Volcano erupting and sending the chamber that they were inside of airborne was pretty terrifying, like gravity shut down in a way. But they still managed to get the relics and escape.

“You think she’s running the show? Or are the Knights?” Raven asks him, and he shakes his head.

“I don’t even think they are...that Vir Nominis Umbra guy...there’s more to that guy. I just know it, he spoke to Oscar and me and both descriptions have not changed at all in that time.” He explains.

“And a thousand years is a long time.” He states.

“Exactly...whatever that guy is...he ain’t human. Not by a long shot.” Qrow states, walking forwards some more. They see a bridge and they cross over the river. They have clearly found some sort of dock, or maybe even a flood defence to send water elsewhere, the walls are huge. They walk over the water and Raven looks down at the surface of the water, seeing lilies beneath them. Fish swim around underneath them, then one of them gets snapped by a Grimm Piranha. The black fish with white bone armour clamps its jaws down on the body of the little fish.

Raven shudders, remembering the adventure through the cruel sea, especially when they were up against that Dunkleosteus Grimm that attacked them. “You know...I don’t blame Neptune for being afraid of the water.” She points out and Taiyang looks at her.

“Why’s that?” He asks her, since he never did travel in the Tethys with them.

“Let’s just say the Cruel Sea is called that for a reason.” Raven states, remembering all the creatures of Grimm that attacked them. The Sirens, the Sharks, the Dunkleosteus, the Kraken and even the Krastax that they came across when they got closer and closer to the island. Underwater guardians.

“Yeah, remind me to never suggest going underwater ever again.” Qrow says with a heavy sigh.

They get to the other side and they look around, and Taiyang sighs with relief.

“Okay, I think we’re clear.” He says, and he leans against one of the moss covered walls. Qrow, on the other hand, is not so convinced. He keeps his eyes peeled.

“That’s what you think.” He says, looking around. They walk around, then suddenly...

A fire coated Wyvern roars as it flies directly overhead, smoke trailing behind it as it flies over. The roar echoes for miles, and their eyes all rise up to where they heard it. It flew past the tallest tower, like a Mayan Pyramid that is barely holding together. The Wyvern banks round and flies towards the very tip of the building. The body shifts, fire burning hot and the legs extend and two arms form from the torso, and the head rises up as well. He slams one of his fiery axes into the building to lock himself onto the building. The impact is loud, and chunks of rock roll down the side of the structure. His wings are still spread out as he hangs up there, growling so loud that they could hear him.

Qrow stares straight at him from down there.

He knows who that is.

“Fury...” He says, scowling at him.

From their boat, nearby, Cinder and Hazel look up at him as well.

“Uh-Oh...” Cinder says.

Fury slams his axe further into the top of the building as he moves up the side of it, his burning hot orange eyes fixated on Qrow and the others. His jagged molten teeth are pushed tightly together as he snarls, and on his left is the massive undead Bat form of Fear that screeches as it flies towards him. The wind whooshes through the holes in his wings and body then he transforms. The wings shift and so do the bones, cracking and bending into a human form. The wings wrap around him like a set of robes made of skin, and he grabs onto the building as well, looking at him with his glowing gold eyes. “Axzura!” Fear exclaims, and Fury looks at him as Fear calls him by his real name.

Fury’s eyes meet his. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...but Qrow and his family of warriors are here to take the Spring Maiden!” Fear explains, sounding aggressive and almost feral as he speaks. Fury looks down at the ground as he hangs there, thinking on what he just informed him.

Then he realises.

“They know Yenna must be here...” Fury realises, then the flames burn hotter and hotter and his eyes glow brighter with the fire and magma in his body. “We must find her before they do!” He roars, and Fear transforms back into his Bat form, flying away from the building. Fury turns to the City of Ephai, and he roars.

“Knights Bannermen! Let the hunt begin!” Fury bellows, his voice travels for miles, sounding monstrous as he speaks.

They all turn when they hear something.

Suddenly black portals begin to open across the river from them, smoke pours from them along with beings from the Charred Forest. “Any chance they’re on our side?” Taiyang asks.

“Yeah, I doubt that.” Qrow scoffs, spinning his sword through his fingers.

Metal bound skeletal figures emerge from the darkness with glowing red eyes, all speaking with demonic tongues that they do not even recognise. They all use different weapons, bows, swords, and some are even carrying modern day firearms as well. They are all from different times, and a couple of them are riding the same Horses that the Nuckelavee was made with. Their glowing red eyes can be seen all the way from over there.

But then...

One more portal opens amongst the fifteen Knights Bannermen Warriors.

A horse-like creature with an equine main body and a skinless humanoid creature is fused with it emerges from the black portal. Its forelegs are shaped like claws and it has hoofed hind legs that leave a characteristic hoof print. Very similar to the one that they have been tracking and the other horse Grimm they have been following. The humanoid body has long curved horns on its head, a mouth that looks almost sewn shut, and two long elastic arms each with two clawed fingers. On the back of the human torso are bony spikes along its spine and a variety of weapons from previous battles stuck in it.

When walking on its equine legs, its attached humanoid portion hangs limp to one side, making its arms drag along the ground. Once the equine portion stops to stand still, only then does the humanoid portion of the creature seem to come to life, doing so with a spasmodic twitching movement. The creature riding the Eques stares at them, twitching with bony cracks as it moves, then lets out a haunting raspy roar and howl, throwing its long arms back.

It’s a Nuckelavee...

Qrow’s eyes widen when he sees it and hears the roar. “You’ve gotta be kidding me...” Qrow utters with fear in his voice.

“Is that what I think it is?” Taiyang asks.

“Yeah...it is...and I had hoped to never see one again.” Qrow states.

The Nuckelavee rears back, the horse roars and it charges towards them with the Knights Bannermen charging with it.

Straight for them...


	26. The Nightmare Returns

**Qrow**

The Nuckelavee charges straight for the river where they are, then it leaps, vocalising a demonic bray as it jumps over the ford. It lands on its hooves directly in front of them, the humanoid body rises up from where it hung limp, then it cracks and twitches, the long arms shuddering as it stands there. The three Huntsmen stagger back from the powerful landing of the huge beast, eyes glowing bright red and smoke trailing from its jaws. Then the body rises up, and the head pulls back. Unlike the Kuroyurian Nuckelavee, this one is clearly much younger than that one was. The horns are nowhere near as long and it lacks the arrows and weapons lodged in its back from the countless battles it had one. But it would still be old to reach the size it is at now. The Nuckelavee’s horse snarls as it stands there, and the rider glares at them, then lets out a deafening screech, like something straight out of a horror movie.

The howl that Qrow had hoped to never hear ever again after the last time he saw one. Qrow spins his sword through his fingers exceptionally fast, pointing the huge blade of his sword at the Nuckelavee. The monster rears back, roaring monstrously as it kicks its clawed feet that replace the hooves back and forth. It slams its feet back down and the imp growls, swinging one of the stretched out limbs towards the trio. They all leap out of the way just in time as the hand smashes through ancient pillars made from stone, swampy moss stuck to the claws. They have to retreat from the creature as it walks towards them; it is two powerful for them to take down quickly.

And the Knights Bannermen are advancing towards them, skeletal warriors coated in tough black metal plating. Their eyesockets are both filled with glowing red energy which represent their eyes, smoke pouring from their mouths. One of them sprints extremely fast towards the river and jumps across it, rolling across the slippery and moss coated cobblestone ground. The sound of all that metal crashing into the ground echoes, sounding deep and horrific. The Bannerman holds its sword by the hilt, the blade is jagged, made from dark metal as well, serrated edges sharp enough to cut through steel. The Bannerman charges towards Raven and she gasps, her eyes widening and she blocks with her Odachi, a powerful clang rings out and the Bannerman strikes again towards her with its sword. She thrusts forward, their blades collide once more, and they stare at one another.

Raven’s eyes widen with shock and fear when she sees the skull inside again, the faint howling voice behind it can be heard as well. The Bannerman forcefully pushes down at her, and the blade scrapes across the floor, cutting clean through stone and it kicks her in the flank to stumble her. The Bannerman creates a haunting snarl, like multiple growls overlapping at once, but its eyes focus on the other Huntsman that sprints towards it. “Get away from my fiancé!” He roars, Taiyang charging straight for the Bannerman, he jumps at it and clenches his hand into a fist. His Semblance engages, hardening his fist and making it strike even harder. He punches the Bannerman directly in the side of the helm, denting the metal and the being staggers back from Raven due to his attack he just made. The Bannerman swiftly swings around with the sword, cutting clean through the air and narrowly missing him as he hops back. Raven hells, swinging her Odachi straight up, and the blade cuts right through the chest of the Bannerman, dealing fatal damage.

The Bannerman roars, and their eyes widen with amazement, unlike Grimm it does not just turn to smoke or disintegrate like they usually do...

The Bannermen seem to collapse into themselves, a powerful explosion can be heard within this one’s armoured body, and the plates of metal break apart, along with the bones. It appears to be some sort of portal, one that forms inside of the Knights Bannerman and there is a faint red glow to it. Smoke and embers pouring out from it as it sucks the pieces of the warrior back in. The Bannerman roars, piece by piece being pulled in, until nothing remains and the portal collapses violently with a pulse. Taiyang stands beside his betrothed and he pats her on the back, feeling relieved that she is okay. Raven smiles and she says with a laugh in her voice, “Had it under control.” She exhales.

“Oh yeah, that’s why you were stumbling around?” Taiyang asks her.

“Just wanted...to make sure you’re still being protective, it’s attractive.” She says to him with a wink, until they remember that Qrow is being challenged by the Nuckelavee still. He slashes his blade at the arm that lunges towards him, slicing it aside and the Nuckelavee shrieks with agony, but it does not seem to back down. Smoke leaks from the deep cut he inflicted in the arm of the imp, and it glares right at him with a twitch in its head.

Qrow stares at his two chatting teammates with a bewildered expression, even the Grimm monster looks confused as well, looking at them and then at Qrow again. “A little help?” Qrow asks, pointing at the monstrous Creature of Grimm. The Nuckelavee wheezes, then it extends the arm towards Qrow once more to attack him.

Qrow guards himself with the blade of his sword as the Nuckelavee goes to attack him, but the monster latches onto his sword and yanks it from his grip, throwing it out and launching it into one of the buildings. The blade sinks deep and wobbles where it hit the wall, cracking the stone, making the pillar quite unstable. Qrow’s eyes widen, and the Nuckelavee senses the realisation and a slight modicum of fear in his body. Like a shark which reacts to a droplet of blood in the ocean, it seems to go berserk, grabbing Qrow with its arm and throwing him into one of the buildings. Qrow grunts as he falls into it, chunks of rock falling with and around him as he rolls into the building. He lands right next to a skeleton from the Arkhoni Era and he looks at it and chuckles. “Hey.” He says to the thousands of years old skeleton that is chilling out beside him.

The Nuckelavee’s horse scrapes its hoof into the ground as it prepares to charge, but the Imp that is bound to the horse turns its head swiftly as Taiyang jumps towards it and punches the creature straight in the face. He grabs onto the neck of the creature, and the Imp screeches with anger, the Horse reacts by kicking its legs back and forth, like he is trying to tame a wild horse. He holds onto the Imp as best as he can as the Horse jumps around like that, and Raven sprints towards the belly of the Nuckelavee and she slides underneath it, slicing the long red blade through the stomach. Black smoke pours from its fresh wound, and the Horse growls as it stares at her. Raven looks at it and he gasps as the jaws of the Horse clamp down towards her, just missing her. She hops back from it, the bony bang from the jaws colliding like that echoes through the buildings that they fight around.

The Imp snarls, twisting itself around to find where Taiyang is holding onto, like he is attempting to choke the Grimm out. The arm crackles and crunches, twitching as it rises up and swings towards Taiyang. His eyes widen and the creature smashes him down into the stones, Raven runs towards the wrist and cuts across the black skinless hide. Black smoke erupts out and it howls again, retracting the arm from him, and Taiyang gets back up.

Qrow rubs the dust from his face, feeling exhausted and like he has just had a severe hangover from how hard his head was smashed into the brickwork and stone that stood between him and where he was thrown by the beast. He looks around, only just remembering his sword has been imbedded in one of the buildings across the Nuckelavee from where he has been launched, then he hears the metallic and bony movement of something clambering up the side of the building.

He turns, wide eyed, as a Knight Bannerman jumps up the side of the building and lands right in front of him, the bones cracking underneath the armour plating where it stands. The Bannerman wields a spiky mace in its hand, it roars in an almost tribal way as it smashes its mace into the ground. Every roar is short but with a certain tune, terrifying to hear as well. And Qrow has nothing to fight this one with, but his bare hands. He raises his fists and he stares straight back at the Bannerman and he narrows his eyes.

The Bannerman erupts, charging directly at the disarmed Huntsman with the mace and swinging it directly at him. Qrow ducks down, just missing the mace and he punches it in the lower torso. He feels a shock of pain in his hand and wrist after foolishly striking the armour plating, going fist to fist with a Bannerman is simply an imprudent idea. Qrow dodge rolls, just missing the mace as the Bannerman strikes downwards, cracking the stonework where he was stood, snarling as it stares where he stands.

But he is very lucky, ironically. He turns and sees that this building was once a Blacksmith’s Workshop, meaning that there are in fact still weapons left behind. Not in great condition but it is better than nothing. He quickly reaches forth and grabs a sword that is under some rubble and he swings towards the Mace, bashing it aside with some sparks. The Bannerman keeps in pace with Qrow Branwen, holding the Mace down by its side, ready to strike another time. Qrow holds the sword, feeling very unfamiliar with it in comparison to his much larger one, but it will have to do. He holds it with both hands as he keeps his eyes on the Bannerman that circles him.

These are not normal Grimm Forms...

They are highly intelligent and strategic, unlike most Grimm that attack through bloodlust. The metallic scraping of plates of metal fills the building as the Bannerman walks around, then it strikes, grunting as it attacks Qrow. He leans backwards, just missing the round spiked mace that the Bannerman attacks with, then he rolls aside as it smashes downwards again. Qrow quickly stands tall and brings the blade of his sword upwards, cutting right through the metal plates and sending sparks into the air. The Bannerman staggers back and raises the mace defensively.

Qrow is being extra careful, he does not have the useful benefits that his sword has, but the Bannerman does not seem to care as much. It rushes at him again, swinging back and forth with the mace to kill the Huntsman, and Qrow jumps backwards to avoid the weapon, and he slashes the blade of his sword across the helm of the Bannerman. The blade cuts deep into the helmet, leaving a deep gash inside and cutting across the brow of the skull inside. Smoke leaks from within the skull and it growls with rage, immediately attacking again and again. The Skeletal Warrior smashes the mace into the table where he was stood, just missing Qrow when he dashes out of the way. Qrow thrashes the sword across the exposed vertebrae of the Bannerman, then he yells, kicking it in the back and sending it plummeting off the building. It clips one of the other buildings by an inch, the armour fragments into little pieces and then it keeps falling, most likely ending up like the other one did.

Qrow smirks. “Still got it.” Qrow cockily says with a smile, proud of himself, then he sees the Nuckelavee attacking his team.

The Nuckelavee charges towards Raven who stands there, the humanoid body hangs limp by the horse as it charges towards her, and then she smirks, vanishing into one of her red portals behind her. The portal closes and the Nuckelavee stops and looks around, until suddenly a sword is thrown into the shoulder of the creature. The Horse reacts in what appears to be panic, rising upwards and kicking its legs back and forth with a screech. It turns in the direction it came from, but nothing.

It has no idea that Qrow has transformed into his Crow form, flying towards where the sword has been imbedded in the tower. He flies upwards at it then transforms back, grabbing onto the hilt. He pulls the switch and smirks, the cogs all rotate round extremely quickly and the blade shifts backwards and forms from blade into Scythe. He drops down towards it at great speeds, the blade held right behind him and he falls straight for the monster. The limp body’s eye notices the Huntsman diving towards it and it groans, then the arm twitches and it launches the arm towards him.

Qrow spins through the air, slicing straight through the arm that it had rushing towards him. The arm is cut clean in half, the clawed end falls from the wrist of the arm and there is an almighty screech of agony, smoke pours from the glowing red stump and it staggers back with pain. Qrow then slashes right across the Nuckelavee’s side, leaving a huge gash in its side, smoke just bleeds constantly and it kicks back and forth with distress, even starting to retreat to recover its strength.

Qrow goes to pursue, until another demonic horse’s bray erupts from behind them, and they turn, seeing a Bannerman approaching on its horse. The Bannerman draws its sword and points at them, clearly some form of Captain, the leader of their forces here opposed to the Knights of Grimm that watch from above. Taiyang even notices the huge undead Bat that flies through the clouds above them, distant screeches as he commands them.

They also have absolutely no idea that Cinder and Hazel are also here in this city.

 

**Cinder**

Cinder stares at Fury where he holds on, her one amber coloured iris filled with anger when she sees him there. Her hand touches the place on her sternum where he left the scar on her of his handprint, the mark that is never going away anytime soon. Or perhaps ever...but that doesn’t matter, Hazel stands up and he draws his blade and clenches his hand into a fist when he hears the combat in the distance. “The Knights...they’ve sent something to attack someone on the other side.” Hazel states as he stands back up, flicking the massive dagger through his fingers that he uses so effectively, and then Cinder stands up as well, her eyes glow fierce orange with anger as she stares at the Knight stood upon that Pyramid.

“You go help them, Fury’s mine.” She says, with a lust for payback on her mind. Hazel’s eyes widen and he looks at her with a worried face, and he reaches out for her.

“Cinder, wait!” Hazel begs, but she blasts away from the boat, and she spins through the air as she forms the dust from her dress underneath the fluffy coat she has been wearing over it this whole time. She drops the coat and she continues to fly towards the pyramid, the dust forms her swords and she blasts towards the Knight. Hazel sighs, lowering his hand...until he hears movement to his side on the bank and he turns. He stands there and his eyes widen when he sees the masks of the White Fang Fanatics in the brush, aiming their rifles at him.

He jumps towards them and rolls across the cobblestone when they fire, and he punches one of the White Fang in the mask so hard that it shatters like glass. He picks the soldier up and uses his body to block the bullets from hitting his aura and he drops the bloodied body when he sees who shot at him. Stood across the cobblestone path from him are two Faunus with hoods pulled up, smirking as they stand there with their soldiers beside them. The Foxes smirk as they aim their blades with forward facing crossguards, ones that have dust charging bolts of energy that they fire from the corkscrew shaped blades.

Fennec and Corsac Albain, the last descendants of Demetrius Albain himself.

Corsac chuckles when he looks at the human and the White Fang loyalists surround him with their weapons raised at him. He looks back at them and then at the two White Fang Fanatics. “I think it’s time we show this human what happens when he pushes the Faunus down, brother.” Corsac states and Fennec chortles.

“Yes, brother! I believe I’m inclined to agree.” Fennec says as he keeps the dagger pointed towards Hazel. A normal person would stand down and accept they have been beaten...but clearly they have not met Hazel Rainart before.

“I’ll be impressed, if you can take me down...Albains.” Hazel says as he holds his blade forward and keeps his other hand tightened into a fist. Fennec and Corsac both stare sinisterly at the Human Huntsman and they turn to the soldiers.

“Kill him!” Fennec demands, and one of them lunges for him with two cutlasses, but Hazel swipes his leg across the legs of his attacker, then smashes the blade of his dagger directly down into the ribs of the soldier. He stabs him down so hard and fast that the blade pins his corpse into the ground, and he looks at them with a smirk.

He warned them...

 

Fury stands atop the Pyramid, completely unaware of who flies straight for him as he watches the Nuckelavee battling Qrow, Taiyang and Raven in full scale combat, roaring as it swings its huge arms towards them. But then his fiery eyes expand slightly when he realises, hearing her screech with rage. “Fury!” Cinder blares stridently, her voice echoes for miles as she darts towards him. Fury turns and meets the fist of Cinder and she punches him in the side of the face, knocking him through the tip of the Pyramid. Chunks of rock shatter and plummet with him, and then she flies down towards him and grabs him by the throat, dragging him through the Pyramid as they both fall and she punches him straight in the head over and over again as they fall. The wings of the Knight fold outwards from his cape and he flaps them with force, gaining height and then he grabs her and slams her into the bricks as well.

They both plummet into the interior of the Pyramid, crashing through ancient tablets that where inside, the pillar that they fall through crumbles into dust from their impact. Cinder crashes into the ancient marble floor, ruining the perfect architecture and Fury lands on both feet, his inflamed wings folding back away into his cape. Fury chuckles menacingly, pointing one of his axes at Cinder as he stands there, heating the place up, she lifts her head and stares right into his eyes, her long black hair drooping down the side of her face. She grits her teeth with anger, and Fury stands firmly as he looks at her. “Cinder Fall...I guess you really have given in, haven’t you...my dear?” Fury questions with his rough monstrous voice as he stares at her, the jagged teeth forming a smirk as he speaks. He does not seem to forget or even regret giving her that mark that Salem ordered him to inflict. “How’s the print? Still showing well as I hoped?” He asks her sarcastically and that throws her over the edge.

Cinder screams with blood boiled rage, blasting towards him by using her powers to attack him, her eye is actually tear-filled as well when she leaps at him with both swords held in her hands. She swings them towards him and Fury laughs monstrously, smashing them into hers and the axe heads catch her blades, and he towers above her. He leans forward, staring down at her, the head is causing her to sweat from the flames. “What next, Cinder? Are you gonna run away again?” He asks her, and she snarls with rage, channelling her magical abilities into her hand and blasting wind into him, pushing him back and actually extinguishing some of the flames around his body. Not for long though, because they reignite from the constant rage that consumes him. She spins her swords round her fingers as she stands there, so then the glass blades are pointed towards Fury and he smirks as he stares at her.

“I’m done running.” She states, firmly and certainly, also now fully committed to the cause against Salem.

Fury stands there and his burning wings extend outwards from his back and he walks towards her. “We will see.” Fury says, then accelerating into a jog and then a spring, using his wings to propel himself above her, then dropping down with the axes pulled all the way back, then slamming them down right in front of her. The axes crash down into the ground with full force, and Cinder jumps backwards slightly from the powerful impact, then she spins round and slices across the side of his head, to make him stumble. A plume of volcanic ash and sparkling orange embers trail from the deep gash that she had just inflicted on the Knight. He swings his wings towards her, blasting one powerful gust of hot air towards her, and she pushes her shoulder into it, and keeps on attacking him with her swords, blasting flames from her palms every now and then as she attacks. She jumps at him and kicks him in the head a couple of times as she attacks, but then he grabs her after throwing his axe onto the ground and throws her through the wall of the Pyramid.

Chunks of rock and concrete are completely blown apart, but she manages to stabilize herself, using her Fall Maiden powers to hover where she was thrown, her eyes glow bright as she glares at the Knight. He charges at her jumping and grabbing her by the throat with his burning pumice and obsidian built hand. They both fall into the woods on the other side and he slides across the ground, burning the grass as he pushes his feet downwards, still got Cinder in his grip. Fury bellows as he spins round as he slides and throws her with all his might, sending her crashing through a large boulder that ended up there. The boulder explodes, and the Fall Maiden tumbles across the ground

Cinder groans with pain, her aura is still strong but that still would hurt quite a lot to experience that. She pushes her hand through her long black hair, touching where she feels the pain in her head. She pushes her against the ground as she stands up, then looks ahead at Fury as he storms towards her, forming the axes in his hands from the fire he summons. Fury chuckles as he approaches her, and she narrows her eyes, picking her glass blades back up. “Let us see what kind of Maiden you really are.” He snarls, charging towards her, and she screams with rage, throwing herself towards him, slamming her swords into his axes.

 

Back where she left him,

Hazel uses his aura and his forearms to deflect the blows from the Albain Brothers’ blades, Fennec sprints at him and slashes the blade across his muscular arms. He backs up and keeps on blocking their attacks, Corsac rushes him and goes for his chest with his blade, but Hazel sends his boot into the head of the Fox Faunus, tumbling him backwards. Hazel catches the wrist of Fennec and he lifts him off the ground and throws him into one of the trees, shattering the tree upon impact. Another one of the White Fang loyalists charges at him with his spear, plunging it towards him, but Hazel catches the spear and rips it from the soldier’s fingers, throwing it into the river. The soldier is pulled off the floor from the action and right into the other hand of Hazel’s, of which he choke slams him into the hard ground, taking him out instantly. A Spider Faunus lands in front of him, wearing a mask that covers his eyes and he has white webbing that covers his arms, like veins almost. He opens his palm which reveals the opening where he launches the webbing towards Hazel. Rainart’s eyes widen and he lifts his forearm up, letting the web wrap around his arm and he stands there, staring straight back. He reels the Faunus in, and he realises his mistake as he pulls him closer, drawing the blade that he uses whenever he needs to. He pulls the Faunus with force, throwing him straight into the blade, lodging it right through his stomach.

Fennec charges right back, jumping high and he kicks at Hazel’s face around three times with precision, making him stagger back from the fast attacks, and Hazel growls with anger. Corsac aims his blade at Hazel and fires the bolts of red dust towards him, and he uses his aura to deflect the bullets, and he sprints at them, throwing a punch that Fennec slides underneath and he punches. Corsac performs an incredible back flip, striking Hazel up the jaw and landing perfectly on his feet. Fennec jumps at him and wraps his legs around the shoulders of Hazel, slamming both elbows down onto his head to stun him.

Hazel’s eyes narrow with anger and he reaches up and grabs Fennec by his pointy ears, he screams with shock and pain from the feeling and he slams the Faunus down into the ground with all his might. The ground cracks and Hazel goes to plunge his sword into the Albain Brother’s chest, but he rolls out of the way and kicks Hazel in the side of the head. He then aims his weapon at him and fires it at him swiftly and repeatedly to wear his aura down. Corsac smiles as he and Fennec both run at him with their blades, slashing towards him with both at the ready, and he uses his huge forearms to block the blows, but they are so aggressive.

Then...

His semblance is engaged.

Everything seems to slow down in his eyes, and his hazel coloured eyes have begun to glow, however he is not slowing down time. His Semblance is much more unique, he is able to heighten his senses to the point of identifying someone’s weaknesses immediately, which is exactly how he is such a confident fighter and only has a blade as his weapon other than his superior strength. He sees the two Albain Brothers attacking, they both have a very well planned out fighting style. They overwhelm their enemies by attacking at once, making them harder to fight. But he still manages to figure out where their weaknesses are.

He examines them both, and as they are both brothers, Corsac is the older one and Fennec is the younger, therefore this can identify their similar weak points, due to the lack of armour that they wear, their weakest point to strike would most undoubtedly be their abdomen. He even is able to time his attacks much better as well, and then he completes his assessment. He smashes his fist so hard into Corsac’s abdomen that it sends him flying directly into the ground at full force, spreading cracks across the ground from the impact, creating one big boom as well. Now there is only Fennec, he is smaller in comparison to his twin brother ironically, but he can still identify his weakness. He is lighter and weaker than his brother but faster, and he knows his weakness is his throat. He grabs him by the throat and then slams him straight into the ground, then kicks him in the side extremely hard, making him roll to the side of his brother.

Hazel stands there, his eyes still faintly glowing as he stares at them both. A Faunus runs up behind him to attack, and without even turning he just raises his fist, knocking him out instantly. They both lay there, then their eyes turn to the sky, and the shadow darts over Hazel, and he notices it as they do. They both smirk as the shadow approaches, he turns around and the two brothers retreat, running away. He looks back at them as they flee, _cowards_...but then he turns back when he hears the wind whooshing through the holes in the wing membrane.

The Undead Bat punctures through the clouds as it flies towards him, screeching as it approaches. It then transforms, the wings wrap around its body and the bones shift and crack as it changes, bending and changing. His legs extend and he lands on them, making the ground shake as he lands, is head folds out from the rotten flesh and his arms extend from the bones, then the humanoid body is formed as he pulls his hood up. His eyes glow piercingly gold as he stares with a mad smirk at Hazel, drawing Formido Falcem, his Scythe of Fears.

Hazel draws his knife, he is outgunned and outmatched in this fight, but he will try his damndest against him.

 

**Qrow**

Qrow rolls out of the way as the Bannerman attacks with his sword, just missing him. Taiyang blocks the fists of the Knight that attacks him, metal coated knuckles that he swings with, and he blocks with his arms. The Bannerman smashes its fist down into the ground with force, bellowing aggressively through the cracked teeth in the damaged skull. Raven forms a portal behind one of them and she plunges her Odachi through its spine. The Bannerman roars, the portal forming inside of its armour and collapsing it into itself, sending it back wherever it came from. She turns and blocks the bullet from a Bannerman that attacks her, wielding an Atlesian Rifle, firing charges dust rounds towards her. Her red blade flashes bright as the bullets collide, and then she jumps towards it, slashing her red blade so fast there is just a red blur. Sparks erupt from the rifle as she severs it in half, she then kicks the Bannerman in the leg to bring it down to one knee. The Knight looks up to see the sword swinging round towards its face, slicing the skull clean into two halves. The body bursts, collapsing into the singularity formed within it.

Qrow rolls backwards, deflecting the swings from the Rider that left its horse, and the Horse neighs demonically, rearing back and slamming its hooves onto the ground with force, so hard that the ground in fact shakes. Qrow slams his sword straight into the blade of the Bannerman and then his blade folds downwards, the shotgun extends out from it and he pulls the trigger, launching heated shell shrapnel into its skull. The Bannerman howls, collapsing into itself as it is destroyed by the shotgun shell.

Most of the Bannermen left are the Archers, taking position in some of the towers, firing arrows at them from above. The arrows zoom down from above, stabbing into the ground, wobbling where they land. Qrow spins round and blocks one from hitting him, seeing Taiyang fighting the Eques that challenged him. The similar Horse that the Nuckelavee is a combination of snaps its skinless jaws at him, he smashes his powered up fist into the leg of the Horse, snapping its leg. The Eques cries out with pain, black smoke pouring from where the bone armour has snapped like the branch of a tree. Taiyang leaps up to catch the jaw of the creature, he then ploughs his glowing fist down into the top of the creature’s skull. The cranium collapses, and it falls to the floor with a heavy bang. He nods to Qrow as the smoke flows around him where it has been killed, then they hear the familiar howl return.

The Nuckelavee is back, due to it being a Grimm, it has not regenerated its arm yet, but it has regained its confidence and it stares at them as the body rises back up the side of the horse, its neck cracking as it twitches at them. The Eques scrapes its hoof into the ground over and over, preparing to charge towards them, breathing through the skeletal nostrils with aggression. The Eques rears back, roaring as it charges towards them at full speed, the Imp hanging low by the legs of the Horse. Raven dashes out of the beast’s way, and she slashes the Odachi across its side, black smoke trails from its body as it passes by her, roaring with agony. The Nuckelavee turns round as it passes, stood by the river as it rushes past it, snarling assertively despite missing a hand. Raven and Taiyang both turn to Qrow, since he is the only one who has faced a Nuckelavee before, and luckily that one was much older than this one appears to be. “Qrow! What do we do?” Raven calls, stood there as her hair blows with the wind, and the Eques paces back and forth in front of them, waiting as the body hangs down beside the beast.

Qrow stares at it, remembering back to what Team R.N.J.R did to defeat it...then it comes to him, he was barely conscious when they fought it, but he did see its death after all. And they told him anyways, a good thing that they did. He can still remember the sight of seeing Ruby darting around and slamming Crescent Rose down onto one of its arms, Jaune stabbing the other with Crocea Mors. And Nora crushed the head of the Horse with Magnhild, Ren finished it off by severing the head of the Imp. He stares at the creature, they can still use the same tactic...but they need four people to take this thing down. Taiyang could kill the Horse with his Semblance, Raven and Qrow can take down the arms, but then they have the Imp to take care of.

_The Blacksmith’s Forge..._

Qrow looks at the forgery where he got that sword from to fight that Bannerman and his eyes widen. “Tai! Go over there and find one of the old swords, it should be enough to kill the imp! Raven! We need to pin its arms to the ground!” Qrow explains, and he has also noticed that the damage he did has made the Nuckelavee go berserk when it retreated. The spines on its back have extended and the sewn up mouth has been ripped open, it does not seem to be messing around anymore.

Taiyang turns to the Blacksmith’s Forge, and he nods at Qrow, turning and running in that direction as fast as he can. The Nuckelavee growls as it stares at them, the trotting hooves could haunt them from how constantly they can hear it, that combined with the distant explosions from Cinder battling Fury and Hazel fighting Fear...it is enough to make it feel like a warzone. Raven nods to her brother and they both raise their swords, running around the horse as it walks forward, the Horse stands still, and the Imp rises back up, howling as it lunges for them, it is using the one hand as it usually does, but the one without the hand as a whip. The Nuckelavee swings straight towards Raven and she jumps over the long black arm, only just missing it. Qrow transforms into his bird form as he flies into the sky and he rises high and then returns back to his human form, diving towards the creature with his sword held forward. The Nuckelavee Imp looks around and then sees Raven stood there, and then it lunges forward to attack her, Qrow crashes down and stabs clean through the arm that it attacked with.

The Nuckelavee shrieks with torment, twitching more and more, the horse jolts from the pain that it feels, black smoke bleeds from the wound inflicted upon it. The Nuckelavee writhes, attempting to free the arm from Qrow but he has stabbed straight through the stone, keeping it still. Taiyang enters the building and he searches for one of the swords, when a Bannerman leaps up behind him with a sword, there is still another grounded one, unlike the Archers in the towers around them. He rolls backwards, picking up a slab of concrete and throwing it straight at the warrior. The heavy chunk explodes against the being, and it stumbles, he then sees an old rusty piece of rebar and he throws it towards the Bannerman. It lodges into the skull, it staggers back and falls like the other did and he sighs with relief. He turns and picks up a sword, the same one that the Bannerman was using.

He turns and starts to climb up the side of the building. Not as tall as the one Nora jumped off to take down the other Nuckelavee’s Horse, but it will have to be enough to kill it. He runs as fast as he can, Raven is having a harder time pinning the other arm down because it is not lunging forward like it did with its other arm. It is swinging it at her, making it harder to stab down, she looks around for something to pin it against, and her eyes widen. There is a wall near to her, she could get it to swing at her, then use her portal semblance to quickly get there and pin the arm to the wall. She stands there, bouncing on her toes as the enraged Nuckelavee swings its arm towards her, she jumps and then opens a portal, falling into it and emerging beside the wall, the arm slams right into it. It hits the wall hard, shattering the stone that it smashed into, pebbles bouncing onto the floor upon contact. She spins her Odachi through the wall and pushes it horizontally with the arm, until the hilt is pressing the blade skinless arm, black smoke pours out from it and it screeches with agony.

The Nuckelavee pulls as hard as it can to free itself from the predicament it is currently in right now. Qrow looks up at Taiyang who is ready, and he holds the sword in his hand. “Tai! Now!” Qrow yells, and he nods, jumping off the edge of the building towards the Eques that roars at him. He charges his fist up, channelling his aura into it and he slams his fist extremely hard into the dome of the Eques’ skull, smashing it into the ground. The Imp twists round and stares at him, and before it could screech one more time...

Taiyang spins round and carves the blade right across its neck, the head shoots off from its shoulders and kills the beast instantaneously. The head bounces and rolls across the ground, smoke pouring from the head, and eventually...it disintegrates before them. And then the body of the horse does with it, a huge plume of smoke rises into the sky where it fell, leaving nothing behind. Qrow and Raven both pull their swords from the ground where they once had the arms. Qrow chuckles, stood tall and he looks at them. “That’s two Nuckelavees now.” Qrow says with a chortle in his voice, and they sigh with relief, but they bought is far from over.

There are still a bunch of Archers to take care of and they have two Knights of Grimm, and Hazel needs help. Qrow stands there, and his eyes widen when he sees Fear grabbing Hazel and throwing him across the river, and he smashes into one of the old statues that holds a spear. Fear laughs maniacally, dragging his Scythe behind him as he pursues, but he also remembers seeing Cinder attacking Fury as well. She is strong but he is so aggressive it makes him skilful.

They need to split up to help take them down, then Cinder can take down the Archers with her abilities. “Tai! Raven! Help out Hazel, I’ll go help Cinder!”

 

**Hazel**

He groans with pain, being beaten down by Fear, pressing his hand against his head, hearing his ears ringing endlessly after the attacks that the Knight has so relentlessly thrown his way. He looks forward to see Fear walking towards him, smirking constantly as he drags the scythe behind him, his eyes glow bright gold, and then he feels his hairs stand on end as he approaches. “I know what it is that you fear...Hazel Rainart.” He states with a terrifyingly scratchy voice, Hazel stares at Fear and his eyes widen when he cannot fight the hallucination that he feeds into his mind. Fear’s body begins to transform as he approaches him, still smirking as he gets closer and closer.

His entire body transforms into something else before his eyes. Fear’s pale grey skin shifts into a light brown complexion, fair skinned, with shoulder-length, straight brown hair. He forms a beauty mark below his left eye, which is changing colour as well. The clothes are shifting too, into a long, green hooded cloak on top of an off-white blouse with a brown vest, corset and pants. He also forges a gold bracer on his left arm, two gold bracelets on his right wrist and a pair of golden armoured boots. He also forms a golden pauldron on his right shoulder as well as a shoulder strap with some pouches slung diagonally across his body. His gender has changed into a woman’s, she is a slender and very attractive young woman with large and beautiful brown eyes. She picks him up by the throat, with ease despite his massive body in comparison, and his eyes widen.

“Look familiar?” Fear asks her, he can still hear his voice behind her tender and loving voice, which makes it even more terrifying. “Or does this?” Fear asks him in the form of this woman, then a mark forms over her eye, the same one his partner once inflicted on her.

“Amber...” Hazel weakly utters. He chokes Hazel with his hand, using the form of his own daughter to scare him, he is not scared _of_ Amber, he is scared of _failing_ Amber. He wants to make sure she gets justice for what happened, he wants Ozpin to pay the price for making her become the Fall Maiden.

Hazel then notices her eye darting to her left, then suddenly the boot of Taiyang’s strikes her face and she staggers away from Hazel, releasing him and he falls to the ground with a heavy and wheezy cough. The form that he took before Hazel has now returned back to his real form, and Fear yells with excitement, slashing the two lovers with Formido Falcem, so hard it takes them both off their feet. Taiyang tumbles across the ground and Raven has to drag her sword into the floor to slow herself down, her eyes fixed on him. Raven glares at him, she already has a history with this Knight in particular and he laughs. “You know, my dear...you and I really have a habit of meeting when your daughter’s life is at risk.” Fear says with a laugh, pointing at her with his rotten finger, and she grits her teeth.

“My daughter is fine!” Raven shouts.

“For now...but not for long.” He warns as he smirks away at her, and Raven grits her teeth with rage. Taiyang stands back up with his fists raised up as well.

“Game’s over, Fear.” Taiyang states, coldly as well as he glares at him. They both notice that the poncho around his rotten body begins to move slowly, revealing the ribs and dead organs inside and they hear him laugh, enough to give them the chills.

“On the contrary...I believe the game is only just beginning!” He laughs, his wings spread outwards and he flaps them hard, rising above them and he draws his Crossbow, aiming it at them as he flies above them, swinging his wings back and forth as he flies high. He laughs maniacally then fires a crossbow bolt laced with his Fear Toxin towards them both, they both jump right out of the way to avoid the bolt which bursts into a cloud of gas. He hovers there and they see him spin his scythe through his fingers as he attacks them. He swings his wings hard, and launches right at them like a bullet, and he attacks with Formido Falcem, only just missing them in that attack as well. They both jump out of the way, and he rises back up again.

Raven looks at him as he hovers high above them, he is too high for them to make an attack. Unlike when they fought him in the Library and the Volcanic Chain Isles, he is able to use his wings to his full potential. Hazel pushes his hands against the ground and he looks up at the Knight of Fear who confidently flaunts his superiority to them all, flying high overhead with that mad smirk on his face. He darts straight for them, slashing Formido Falcem at them, but this time, Hazel smashes his fist into the left wing of Fear, knocking him out of the sky and he crashes to the ground with force. The ground gets torn up from his shoddy landing, and he lies there, slowly getting back up and his wings are still folded out. The three of them rush towards him to do as much damage as the can. Raven slashes her Odachi across his body and Taiyang smashes his fist into his spine, cracking the vertebrae that are completely visible to them all. Hazel plunges the blade of his dagger into the back of Fear and he screeches with agony, then he smashes his wings into their bodies, knocking them backwards. He staggers back and his wings wrap around his body again.

He stands before them as they all start to get back up and he laughs maniacally. “You’re nightmares are my playground – it’s time for me to have my fun!” Fear laughs, and his eyes glow bright gold and he holds the curved blade back, his jaw begins to stretch as he creates a nightmarish groaning sound that gets louder and louder. It sounds like it goes right through them, then he suddenly blasts towards them. He moves in a lightning speed towards the Huntsmen. He slashes his Scythe directly at them, and Raven slashes across his back with her Odachi, and he roars with pain.

He staggers forward and he growls with frustration. They can hear the sound of his bones cracking and bending, muscles shifting and tearing as he transforms. The Bat-Like skull forms from the ribs of his body and his human head folds backwards into his spine, the wings extend outwards from his back, spreading out wide. His wingspan is enormous, and the membrane of flesh is torn in countless places from time and the maggots that drop from his flesh. His arms and legs remain in the same place, this is a different form of Bat than they have faced, his Ultimate Form, one that is lethal. Fear Toxin trails off his body and his eyes are constantly glowing bright gold. Long razor sharp fangs protrude from his jaws and his ribcage flexes open, similar to Fury’s Berserk Form, he has his Ultimate Bat Form.

A combination of both.

The Undead Bat hovers above them and they hear his demonic voice howl.

“Auuuggghh! Whichever false idols you pray to, I bid you pray now!” Fear howls demonically.

This is going to be one tough fight...


	27. Ephai Battle

**Qrow**

Fury stands back up after Cinder slammed her fist into his fiery chest, a powerful blast throws him through the trees, he smashes both heads of his axes down into the soil. The blades dig deep into the soil, igniting the grass and dead leaves that have fallen from the trees. Fury grits his jagged molten teeth into a smirk, rising back up as he glares at the Fall Maiden who stands there, he paces back and forth, pointing one of the duel wielding axes at her as he paces. “You have grown stronger since we last met...” He chuckles, his demonic voice echoing towards her. Cinder has her large amber eye squinted with hatred, teeth pressed down and flaring her lips at him. The fire channels across her bare forearms and into her hands as she stands there, her long black hair blows in the wind around her.

Smoke trails from the flames formed from the fire that he had just set off from that landing he performed. Fury cracks his neck made from pumice and obsidian, laughing as he stands there. But then Cinder’s eye widens when she gets the feeling of someone is behind her, and Fury sees him walking towards them. Qrow spins his sword through his fingers, holding it to his side as he stands beside her. “Qrow? What are you doing here?” Cinder questions, for she never even noticed that they were even here. They only heard the combat in the distance when they fought the Knights Bannermen and the Nuckelavee that was summoned.

“Long story, you?” He asks her.

“Long story.” She repeats, they both stare at Fury as he stands before them, dwarfing them in comparison. Qrow chuckles when she repeats the same thing that he had just said, ironic that their past enemy has become their friend. Not all of them yet, but most of them have forgiven her for her past transgressions due to Salem brainwashing her. Qrow looks right at Fury, stood beside Cinder, his red irises meeting the burning hot fiery sockets of the Knight’s. Fury chuckles menacingly when he stares straight at Qrow, holding Insanus Tristis Erinys in his hands, flames and embers trailing from the sharp blades.

“Corvus...I was wondering when we’d meet again.” Fury snarls, pointing one of the axes at him as he paces back and forth, never breaking eye contact with him. Qrow scoffs, keeping his eyes on the unpredictable Knight as he walks before him, his cape of fire and smoke flowing behind him in his movements. Ready to transform into his Wyvern Wings whenever he needs them two.

“Yeah, I’ve totally missed you.” Qrow sarcastically says, and Fury snarls a smirk, his growl is like that of a giant animal. One to be feared, hard to believe that he used to be a human being once.

“You can try to stop me from taking them, Corvus...but you will fail.” Fury states with a monstrous tone of voice.

“Wanna bet? Why the hell do you want the Maidens anyway? You’re strong enough.” Qrow points out, hoping to get some information out of him, and Fury laughs, passing by a tree and setting the leaves alight. Smoke rises from the burning tree, already beginning to form a forest fire in the city of Ephai.

“He will make use of them.” He snarls, spinning his axes through his fingers, ready to battle now.

“He? The Soothsayer?” Qrow questions, trying his best to try and trick Fury into talking, but he is not that foolish. Fury chuckles, then his eyes narrow antagonistically towards the pair of warriors.

“I’m afraid we’re done talking.” Fury growls, and Cinder’s dress glows in different areas as she forms her swords in her hands, spinning them through her fingers. The orange dust all compacts into the glass blades, then she points them both towards Fury, and Qrow gets ready as well. He will not be an easy one to take down, he can take a lot of hits. Just as all the Knights can.

Fury is the first to strike, launching himself towards them, roaring as he flies towards them, blasting the round open where he once stood. He pulls back with both axes behind him, then he swings towards them. Qrow rolls out of the way and Cinder jumps towards him, crossing the blades over one another to block his attack. The impact blows the leaves from the trees, Fury stands above her and he raises the axe to attack again. Cinder slashes him up the chest and then she throws one of the swords into his shoulder. The blade cuts straight through, wobbling where it hit. Fury recoils back slightly from the impact, but he clearly does not even feel the pain that anybody else would feel. He looks at the blade and the fire on that portion of his body burns brighter and much hotter. The blade made from glass increases in temperature, melting down his arm and onto the grass. He scoffs, staring at her. “You’ll have to try harder than that.”

Fury sprints towards them both and Cinder forms another sword, deflecting his axe with the glass blade, sparks burst out from the impact. Qrow sprints towards Fury and he slashes across Fury with his sword, cutting through the armour, causing orange ashes to burst from the pumice he cut clean through. Fury snarls, slamming his heated foot against Cinder’s chest and causing her to fly backwards from the impact. Fury immediately spins around and starts furiously swinging his axes over and over again at Qrow. The Huntsman has to back up constantly from the attacks, swinging the long blade of his steel sword around to keep the axes from getting anyway close to even hitting him. Fury bellows as he jumps in the air, raising them both above his head.

Qrow jumps backwards just in time to avoid the explosive eruption of fire that he creates when the axes hit the ground. Cracks form in the soil, causing fire to burst upwards from beneath like hell is awakening beneath their feet. Fury does not even react, but Qrow jumps towards him and kicks Fury across the cheek, making him stagger slightly from the impact. Qrow snarls, sprinting towards him and spinning through the air when he jumps, dealing a fair few slashes into Fury’s casing. Fury staggers from the impacts until he catches his sword, striking one too many times before falling back into a more defensible position. He lifts Qrow off the ground and throws him into the ground with force, going to smash the axe into his chest.

Cinder shrieks, blasting towards him as she begins to use her Fall Maiden abilities against him, she tackles him and she carries him away from Qrow. Qrow looks with surprise as his sword lands next to him, he looks ahead as Cinder carries Fury across the ruined city of Ephai. They both crash through the Pyramid that he was stood atop initially once more, blowing huge chunks of rubble across the area and into the river. Cinder slams him down into the ground, passing by Fear as he fights the others. She scrapes him into the ground, tearing up the soil itself as she punches him in the face over and over again. “You never should have tortured me!” Cinder screams with rage, flashing memories of the agony she went through when Salem humiliated her. When Fury smirked as he pressed his burning hand against her naked chest, leaving the scarred print there forever. Fury builds up a monstrous growl of enmity, smashing his fiery head into her face and they both crash into the city, rolling across the ground. Fury bounces and he scrapes his huge molten boots into the ground, leaving a superheated trail behind him that smoke rises from. Cinder tumbles and she rolls, not landing as gracefully as her foe. Rocks roll past her from the damage that he made in the ground, finally sliding to a stop in front of her.

She looks at him as she sees the wildfire manifesting from his hands and forming the axes that he dropped when she launched herself into him. Smoke constantly trails from his body and she pushes her hands against the cold floor to stand back up, feeling the heat from the devilish Knight before her through the floor. She stares at him with animosity, pure resentment for him after what he did to her. Her and Blake really do have something in common, a shared hatred for the Knight of Fury. Axzura Vex stands before her, waiting for Cinder to stand back up, he wants a fight, not an execution. Cinder glares at the Knight as she stands there, and Vex speaks to her with a mocking voice. “Despite how much you have grown since we last met...you still have so much to learn.” Fury snarls with confidence behind his words, but then he looks up when hearing the sound of thunder cracking above him.

The clouds shift and they begin to crackle with lightning within their dark forms, his eyes focus onto Cinder and she smirks at him. “Oh I’ve learned some things alright.” Cinder assures, when suddenly a lightning bolt crashes down and explodes against Fury. Another falls atop Cinder and she charges that energy into her palm, firing it straight into his chest. Fury grunts, being blasted back from the electrical impact, crashing straight through some old pillars which once held structures up. The pillar explodes into chunks of rock and old concrete, and Fury rolls back onto his feet. He smirks, cracking his burning neck when he stares at her.

“Not bad, Cinder Fall.” He snarls, his wings fold out from his cape and they swing downwards to grant him lift-off, he flies above her and he catapults one of his axes towards her. The burning axe burns bright as it falls towards her, and Cinder gasps, jumping and cart-wheeling away from the explosion that follows the axe as it lands before her. Chunks of land are thrown into the air, and Cinder stares at him, forming her swords once more as she stands there. Fury remains above her, and he flies straight for her, swinging his axe at her, his wings fold away and he lands right behind her as she ducks down. He roars monstrously as he spins round and slashes at her with the axe, fire trailing from the blade. The beak of the blade just misses her and she kicks him in the back of the leg, following up with one powerful blast of flames into his back, knocking him forward.

He laughs, for flames do not harm him as they would the other Knights. He raises his weaponless hand, then a cloud of flames shoots at her, just like she could do. Her eyes widen, realising her main form of attack that she has learned will not do much against Fury. Cinder dashes away from the flames, for they will harm her on the other hand. She raises her hand up in the air, as the leaves that fell from trees and even chunks of rock rise up from her telekinetic abilities over her head. She freezes them and launches them all towards Fury.

Vex forms both Battle Axes and he spins them through his fingers unbelievably swiftly to cut them all into tiny pieces, jumping at her again, grabbing her by the throat and then throwing her down into the ground. They both land, he smashes her down into the ground and he goes to punch her in the head, but he keeps her pinned down by the throat, lava leaking from his eyes almost. Cinder struggles from the strength of her enemy, her aura keeping her safe from the burning hot hand. “You ready to give up?” She strains, and he snarls with rage. Fury roars animalistically at her and a blast of fire erupts from his jaws when they open, she has to move her head aside just in time to avoid it. The ground is scorched just next to her head, her eye wide with shock from that.

Fury releases her forcefully and he forms his axe in his hand again, lifting it over his head to smash it between her eyes. Fury howls, about to kill her, when suddenly Qrow’s sword appears and blocks it from happening. Fury glares at the Huntsman and Cinder takes her chance, slamming her hand into Fury’s chest, using her powers to send the Knight flying backwards. Fury crashes into one of the buildings, not straight through the ancient structure but enough to damage it. He stumbles out from it but looks straight at them, he seems to be enjoying this fight. “Thanks.” Cinder appreciates, and Qrow smirks as he spins the sword through his fingers.

“Any time.” He promises.

 

**Hazel**

He looks straight at the Knight of Fear in his Ultimate Form, the huge wings spread out from his spine with torn open membranes inside. His long arms with sharp claws extended and the razor sharp teeth in his mouth. But his voice is still there, unlike when he transforms into the Bat completely. He does not seem to be using his weapon here, which does give them some form of an advantage. However...Fury did not use his axes when he went berserk either, and they were very lucky. He might not share the same weakness that Fury had when he was a Berserker, but now they must face his form. He has become the full representation of what he is...nightmares of millions.

Fear blasts towards them as he uses his wings to throw himself straight at him, slashing the claws at Hazel and Taiyang who stand there. Raven rolls out of the way and she backs up, watching the Knight as he flies above them, the screeches of the monster are well and truly terrifying. She stands there, trying to figure out how to fight this thing that Fear has become. But before she can even come up with a plan, something starts to happen to Fear as he rises into the air.

They hear the sound they would only expect to hear from either their nightmares or from a horror movie. A deep unnatural howl of multiple screams builds up from the mouth of Fear as he holds his arms together and smoke begins to pour out from the fissures in his body where he has rotten away. The howl grows louder and louder and then suddenly, he erupts into swarm of Grimm Bats that all blast towards them at once, knocking them all on the ground. The bats all converge above their heads and he rebuilds his body. Fear drops down between the three Hunters and he slashes up Raven’s chest, throwing her in the air from the impact. He swiftly spins around and slams his huge bony hand down at where Taiyang is, the shockwave knocks him over and he feels the punch of Hazel in his back. The monster turns to face Hazel, eyes glowing fiercely and he smashes his long wings across his chest.

Raven stands back up with her Odachi held tight in her hands, staring at Fear as he glares at her. Fear growls through the fangs he has extended from his jaws, he then forcefully strikes his long claws together. He repeats the action three times, sparks erupt out from the action as he sharpens the claws in three swift motions, sharp enough to cut through steel. Fear rushes towards Raven and he towers above her, thrashing the claws at her and she grips the Odachi with both hands, twisting to deflect the attacks, flashes of light burst from how hard he hits her. He keeps on attacking and attacking, making hauntingly guttural sounds. “Your daughter will suffer in the evil that comes for Vacuo!” Fear roars, his voice far more fiendishly morbid in comparison to his normal voice. Like he is constantly foaming at the mouth, growling and has a lust for human flesh.

Raven yells with anger, swinging her Odachi across the flesh, and this time he has become more armoured than he used to be. Similar to Fury but he was completely damage resistant opposed from the weakness in his ribs whenever he charged. Fear is tougher but not damage resistant like he was, he has simply become more dangerous than he already was. “What the hell are you talking about? What evil?” Raven yells, falling to one knee when Fear lunges towards her and smashes his claws towards her, she has to push her hand against the other side of her blade to keep Fear from sinking his fangs into her neck.

Fear cackles maniacally as he stares at her, the jaws stretch back into a smirk as he glares down at her. Saliva drools from his jaws and onto her face, she coughs with repulsion when she feels the hot fluid on her face. “Something they will never be able to outrun!” Fear howls, as he suddenly slams his head into hers and pins her to the ground, reaching his jaws over to her neck. Taiyang suddenly leaps in and punches Fear in the skull, getting him away from the woman he wants to remarry. Fear staggers back and Raven coughs with relief from how close that was, Taiyang thrusts his knee up into the lower abdomen of the creature, making him stagger. Taiyang yells, swinging his charged up fist into the side of Fear’s skull, sending shockwaves right through his head. The skin ripples from the impact, cracking bones and throwing saliva from his teeth. He goes to punch Fear again, but he catches his hand, staring at him. Taiyang’s eyes widen and Fear roars demonically, a snake-like tongue emerges from his mouth as he roars, going to bite into his neck as well.

Until Hazel sinks the long curved blade of his dagger straight into the skull of Fear, then punching him in the chest. Hazel rips the knife from his head, knowing that it was worthless against him, and grabs onto the exposed Vertebrae and throws the beast across the courtyard. Fear crashes into the ground and then rolls, the wings covering over him. Fear stands back up, his wings are thrown back with his arms, stretching them out to their full wingspan. Fear releases a thunderous howling screech that echoes for miles as he roars, fear toxin bursts from his bones and they hold their breath as it passes by them. Inhaling any of it will make them hallucinate, they also cover their noses as well just in case.

Fear swings his wings hard downwards, the downdraft actually creates cracks in the ground as he takes off above them, flapping them back and forth as he hovers above them. Raven stands back up with her Odachi in her hands as she walks carefully, watching his every move in the sky. Hazel keeps his hand clenched and hand tightly held onto his blade as Fear hovers before them. Fear suddenly dashes towards them again, scraping his clawed hand across the stones to attack them, only just missing Raven but hitting Taiyang in the process. Taiyang yells with distress, thrown back from the impact and he crashes against the side of the fountain. Fear glides past him and circles around the tall church tower which is hardly even in good condition anymore. He accelerates as he flies towards them, smashing straight through the steeple of the tower, blowing it to smithereens as he does it, screeching like some monster. The huge bronze bell is thrown from the building along with tonnes of concrete and stone which crash down into the ground. Plumes of dust pass by them and Raven coughs when she inhales it, Fear blasts through the dust and slashes at them.

Raven yells, swinging her sword across his chest and Fear roars with pain as he feels the red blade slicing deep through the flesh and the bones. He does not plummet, though, she needs to hit the wing in order to knock him out of the sky. Fear flies straight past them, decayed blood bleeding from the wound she just inflicted upon him and he rises back up, his arms and legs held out as he hovers before them. He begins to repeat his attacks, meaning that they can use that to their advantage against him. Fear’s body explosively transforms into the swarm of bats that all blast towards them all, Raven and Hazel both leap aside and roll out of the way of the bats. They manage to avoid the crippling attack, and the bats all converge in the air, and he reforms back into his physical body. Fear hovers there, then he flies towards them again, slashing to try and cut their aura down.

Hazel bellows, jumping up and grabbing his wing, throwing him straight into the ground with all his might. The impact of Fear crashing into the ground with such force makes the area shake, rocks fall from the damaged buildings that surround them, Fear groans animalistically as he slowly gets back up, pushing his hands against the ground. The long claw-like nails scrape through the stones and he snarls, staring at them. Hazel runs at him and punches Fear in the head, the clap from the punch echoes and he punches straight into his exposed spinal cord. Raven yells, swinging her Odachi across his body in order to deliver more and more damage to him, cutting away chunks of flesh and armour. Fear roars, swinging his wings outwards once more, launching himself back into the air with a metallic gurgle in the roar. He lands back down after doing so, and he swings his clawed hands straight at Hazel and Raven.

Fear’s claws thrash across the green aura of Hazel and he grabs him by the throat, using the wings on his back to throw his body towards the building again, smashing him up against it and pinning him against the wall. Fear stares right into his eyes and he snarls, saliva leaks from his mouth, rows of jagged sharp teeth alongside the fangs he has. He roars as he lunges for his neck, and Hazel has no other choice but to stick his arm into the jaws of Fear. Fear’s teeth plunge into the skin, breaking his aura down and he shakes his head around like a dog, ripping the skin and blood pours from the wound. Hazel bites his lip to hold back the excruciating pain as he feels the teeth scraping against the bone in his arm, sucking the blood up like a vampire.

Hazel smashes his knife right into Fear’s eye with all his might, so hard that the blade protrudes out the other side of his head. Fear screeches deafeningly to the sky with tormented affliction, grabbing his head as he staggers back. Hazel falls from the wall where Fear had him pinned, blood drips from the teeth of the Knight as he rips the knife from his skull. Hazel growls with pain, grasping onto his arm with his hand to stop the bleeding, and he is now vulnerable with his aura completely diminished. Fear turns and stares at him with a smirk on his face, tasting the blood in his mouth. “Do you fear death, Hazel?” He questions with bloodlust in his voice, and Hazel just glares at him.

“No...” Hazel answers, and Fear chuckles.

“Good...because your blood has just given me a new appetite.” He says, lunging for him, until Taiyang strikes him with his semblance engaged, knocking him through the statue that Hazel was thrown against. Fear roars, grunting as he tumbles across the ground. Silt and dust falls from his body when he stands back up, his wings shaking the silt from his body. He flares his teeth as he stares at them.

“Hazel, get to safety. We can handle this.” Taiyang orders, and despite Hazel’s wishes to help them. He knows he is right, so he gets up and limps to the safety of the buildings when Raven joins her fiancé. Fear steps over the rubble of the statue that was destroyed from his impact.

“You would risk your lives for someone who tried to kill the girl you raised?” Fear questions with mockery in his voice, pointing directly at Taiyang as he stands across the courtyard from him. He is huge in this form, that combined with the wingspan of the extra limbs he has to his advantage, he looks gigantic. Taiyang raises his fists in the fighting stance and Raven points her red Odachi at the Knight.

“Things change.” Taiyang answers, narrowing his eyes, and Fear smiles.

“Indeed they do.” He agrees. Fear throws himself towards them again, and they get ready to fight him.

_We just need to cut off his wings..._

_Then we take down the rest._

**Cinder**

She slams her fist down against the face of Fury, and he staggers back from her with an enraged snarl in his voice. She blasts a bolt of yellow lightning from her hand that she has learned, also using the wind to her advantage as well. The powerful cyclone of wind pushes him back and the flames across his body are extinguished temporarily as well. Qrow sprints towards Fury and he leaps at the Knight, spinning round as he cuts across the body of the Knight, fracturing some of the pumice mixed with obsidian armour around his body. Cinder dashes forward beside Qrow and she slices her two swords in her hands effectively, almost like a dance as she jumps and thrashes them around. She cuts crossways with them and then swings directly upwards with one of the swords, cutting a mark right up his left eye.

Fury staggers back from that one, then the glowing orange hue of magma within his body returns and ignites the fire around him once more. He grits his teeth and he roars with rage as he forms the axes. He smashes them both towards the Hunters, and Cinder jumps onto his arm and she pushes off it. She jumps off as he slams the axe into the soil and she kicks him up the jaw with her boot, upper-cutting him and Qrow drives his sword forwards into the ribs. Fury snarls and he spreads his wings out and he swings them both forwards, blasting unbelievably hot flames into them both and knocking the pair backwards. The heat would burn their skin if not for the aura that protects them, Cinder raises her hand and she forms a field that stops it from affecting her, whilst Qrow spins his sword round like a propeller.

Fury’s wings remain extended out like how Fear’s have become, but he is not in his Berserk phase, clearly that is something that he cannot just trigger whenever he needs to like Fear is capable of doing. Fury can only do that when he becomes so enraged that he can no longer control it. He walks towards them and he slams his hand into the ground, cracks spread towards them with lava bursting out beneath like a volcano has just erupted. The damage from Fear slamming through the church steeple surrounds them all, he swings towards Cinder to weaken her but she has become very flexible with her learning her skills. Her slender body seems to worn around the axe, and she kicks him in the side of the head, then draws her bow and fires three arrows at his feet. She still has access to the eyes that explode through her abilities, and Fury looks at the ground, realising. The screech from the swirling eyes erupts around him and he swings his wings hard, just escaping the explosion and landing behind them both.

Fury bellows as he slams the axes into them, sending them both flying from the impact, rolling across the floor. Cinder groans and looks at Qrow who is helping her out. Fury sprints at them again, his footfalls make the ground shake and he slams the axes down at Cinder over and over again, whilst she crawls back from him. He tears up the ground, chunk by chunk as he repeatedly smashes the axes into the floor to try and kill her. She rolls backwards and onto her feet to blast another beam of lightning into him, but he deflects it by spinning his axe round and sending it ricocheting into one of the towers. The top of the tower explodes when the golden bolt of electricity hits it, chunks of debris plummet down from the surface and into the ground around them. Fury runs at her again, completely ignoring Qrow and going for the Fall Maiden.

He realises that he is trying to knock her unconscious and take her away somewhere, and if his theory is correct...to Vir Nominis Umbra. For whatever reason he wants the Maidens for. Qrow chases after the Knight and he leaps onto his back, despite the flames constantly damaging his aura. He grabs the end of his blade and pulls it into Fury’s neck, and Fury roars with rage, staggering back as he grasps the steel blade and reaches back for Qrow. Cinder takes her chance and she rushes towards Fury with her swords, slicing away at his chest over and over again. She strikes fast and hard with her abilities, damaging him faster than the magma within him can repair it.

Fury swings his head back into Qrow and he spins round and punches him extremely hard, so hard that the Huntsman does a full back flip and lands on his face from the attack. Fury grapples onto Qrow’s slicked back black hair and he lifts him off the floor, staring at him and admiring the beard that he has grown. “You’re getting old.” Fury chuckles menacingly, and Qrow’s eyes narrow.

“Don’t ever call me old!” He yells, squeezing the lever on his sword and the blade pieces all shift and begin to curl round into the scythe form. The long handle extends and he spins it right across the arm that holds him up by his hair, cutting it clean off. Just as Kali Belladonna did when they first ever saw a Knight, now that feels like ancient history. His hand falls onto the ground and cools into pumice before crumbling into dust. Fury bellows with agony, grabbing his wrist as the magma slowly rebuilds the damage.

Fury has not even noticed though, that Qrow did all of that to completely distract Fury. Fury turns and realises that Cinder is not on the ground. He looks up when he hears and feels the rumbling as Cinder rises into the sky, forming a powerful charge of fire and Fall Maiden energy in her hands. Her dress also glows bright orange in places as well as she charges her most powerful attack up. She screams with rage when she pushes her hands forward, eyes bleeding with fire. A thick and powerful blast of fire with rings of solar energy shoots towards Fury and lands right in the centre of his chest. Fury staggers back and he roars with pain as it tunnels its way through his body. Qrow leaps out of the way, even Fear turns when he notices that Cinder has just done this. The same action she did against Ozpin in their battle in the Vault.

Fury roars with pain as the fire erupts from his back, cracks begin to form across his body and light bursts through the cracks formed in his body. His eyes glow brighter and brighter, until he suddenly erupts into a blast of fire. The explosion blows them all off their feet, even Fear staggers from his destruction, the echo from the blast echoes for miles. The blast eventually fades away, and Cinder floats there, then her eye rolls back into her head, falling unconscious. Qrow’s eyes widen and he jumps, catching her before she hit the ground, sliding across the ground with the young woman barely conscious in his arms. He looks at her and brushes the hair from her eye. “Hey! Cinder! You alright? Still with us?” He asks her, gently tapping her cheek to wake her up.

“Urgh...I don’t remember doing that being so...exhausting...” She groans. Qrow chuckles then he looks at Fear as he stands there, looking fearful of them, but then he smirks, his wings spreading outwards. Clearly he was intimidated for a second, but he has not retreated. Qrow turns back to the young Fall Maiden.

“Just rest, we’ll handle Fear.” Qrow says to her and he lays her down in the corner by the rocks, Hazel limps over to her and keeps his eyes peeled. There are still Knights Bannermen Archers around them at the moment.

 

**Qrow**

He walks towards the battle scene against Fear, as he walks back and forth in front of them, his golden eyes staring straight at them as he walks before them with that cunning smirk on his face. Qrow points his sword at Fear as he stands there, even noticing that Fear does not look like he normally does in the past. “What the hell happened to you?” Qrow questions as he stares at him and Fear laughs, still having complete control over his body and actions unlike when Fury goes berserk.

“Oh this? Yeah this is something I have been saving for a good fight.” He answers with a smirk.

“The Volcanic Chain Isles wasn’t good enough?” Qrow questions. _That was no walk in the park that battle._

“Sure, that was fun. Probably would have done a little transformation if it weren’t for that damn hot-headed ginger gal blowing me to pieces.” Fear remembers, they all remember Neptune charging Nora up to the point of becoming a nuclear bomb against him back there. Fear’s reaction was to just say – _ooh this is gonna hurt_ – only from a Spirit that cannot be destroyed from terms like that would say that when about to be _killed_.

“What the hell are you two doing out here? Why are you hunting the Maidens?” Qrow questions and Fear chuckles, walking back and forth whilst still in his Ultimate Form. Like Fury’s, he cannot change back until his body is destroyed, so if he does kill his enemies in this form, he destroys himself to go back to normal.

“Oh why aren’t you the curious one?” Fear coos as he points at him with his long curved claw.

“Can’t help it.” Qrow retorts, shrugging his shoulders.

“I always liked that about you.” Fear honestly states, he constantly seems to smirk as he stands there. “Well if you must know...our superior has plans for them.” He states, and Raven scoffs.

“ _Plans_? Do these plans give them any choice in the matter?” Raven questions.

Fear smirks and chuckles. “What do you think?” He asks her, his wings suddenly spread outwards and he extends his claws so fast that they sound like swords being pulled from their scabbards. “And now I will take the Fall Maiden, if you don’t mind.” He says, acting polite as he stands there. The three Hunters stand between the Knight and Cinder, she looks at them with surprise in her eye. She can see that they are protecting her because of the gifts that she has, but from the way that they choose to protect her...it is like they care for her now.  Fear smirks, like he is glad they didn’t step aside. “Good...I was hoping for a grand fight.” He says, blasting towards them and slashing straight towards Qrow.

Qrow backs up and deflects the claws with the blade of his sword, sparks burst from the impact and the three of them move around, watching him fly around with that horrible screeching roar that he creates. He decelerates and hovers before them, then he begins to shift, Raven and Taiyang’s eyes widen. “Get ready to move!” Taiyang warns Qrow, but he can already tell what he is doing from the sound that builds up and the smoke that pours from his body. Fear erupts into the swarm of bats that blast towards them, they all roll aside and just narrowly miss the attack.

They all congregate together and rebuild the form of Fear as he flies above them, preparing to attack again. He swings his wings with force, darting straight for them and slashing, his claws cut through the air like knives through butter. Qrow parries the attack, the cling echoes from his sword and Fear decelerates in the air, hanging above them again. He waits and waits, now that he has figured out his pattern. Fear lunges towards him again, then Qrow fires the gun inside his sword, hitting the wing of Fear and knocking him out the air.

The monster plummets from the sky and crashes down into the ground with force, ripping the floor apart and just missing Taiyang in the process. Rocks and dust are stuck to his body and he growls with anger. Fear sprints at Qrow and the Huntsman slices across the chest of the Knight, then swings directly upwards, cutting right through the bones in his wings. The wings break off as he cuts them clean off, Fear roars with agony, blood pours from the stumps where his wings were once attached. He snarls with pain grabbing his back with his hand as he staggers. He snarls then turns to face Qrow again, he bursts into the bats as he dashes towards him, creating a shockwave that blows Raven and Taiyang onto the ground. Fear jumps towards Qrow and he slams him down to the ground, pressing him against the cobblestone ground with his huge bony hand. Fear then sinks his teeth into Qrow’s neck, breaking through the red aura of his drinking the blood.

He pulls back and roars to the sky, blood squirts from his neck and leaves a deep bleeding mark. Qrow strains with pain and he presses the sword against the chest of Fear, firing and sending him flying back. Fear bursts into Bats and they all fly around. Qrow sits up and presses his hand to his neck, holding the bleeding back and he coughs, Raven rushes to his side and keeps him upright.

Raven looks ahead when she sees Fear manifesting from the bats, but something is wrong with him. Fear groans with pain, falling to his knees and snarling with pain as he grabs his throat. “Wha-What have you done?” He roars with pain, his body becoming dry and eroding away as he falls to his knees. Qrow chuckles when he looks at him.

“A little gift from the Witches.” He reveals.

Before they left, the Alchemist brewed him something as extra gratitude to use against Spirits that feed on blood, including the Knight of Fear if he ever does. It is a vial that he put in his flask, he is trying to quit drinking, but every now and then he has a swig of it. But nowhere near the amount that he used to drink. He put the potion in there and took a drink before they arrived at Ephai, they were warned that Fear could be nearby, luckily they were right. The potion works on Grimm too. It breaks down their bodies and makes them extremely weak, essentially paralyses them.

Qrow throws the vial across the ground and he looks at it. Raven takes her chance, transforming into her Bird form as she flies towards him and slashes straight across his weak abdomen. She cuts him clean in half, a deafly howl of agony erupts from him and then she spins around and brings the Odachi down onto his neck, beheading him. Fear’s body erupts into a swarm of Bats and Crows that all fly away, squeaking and echoing as they fly away into the sky.

And finally...peace...

Taiyang looks at the towers where the Knights Bannermen Archers were stood, but they have all suddenly started to collapse into themselves. As soon as Fear and Fury were both destroyed, they all fell as well. Meaning that they can only exist here if the Knights that are with them are destroyed as well. Qrow groans, hand still pressed to his neck with pain. “Qrow...use your aura, you still have some.” Raven tells him and he sighs, closing his eyes. She looks at the punctures where Fear plunged his fangs, which were bleeding heavily, but the red aura flickers around it. The punctures repair themselves, sealing the wounds that were bleeding so heavily at the time. Leaving some scars behind as if he were bit by a Vampire. Hazel has done the same, leaving the scars of a bite behind, he carries the tired Cinder over to them and they all look around at the City of Ephai.

If this place was not already a ruin.

It is now.

“Come on, let’s get her to safety. We need to rest after all of that.” Raven says to Hazel.

 

**Jacques**

The Business Man looks out at the landscape, not very familiar to any of them. However it looks like it is ancient Arkhoni Ruins, it does not look anything like Ephai and he is definitely not in Vacuo. Jacques Schnee has shaved the beard and now looks like he did five years ago, proud and proper with his small glass of whiskey in his hand as he looks at the ancient overgrown city before him. The ice cubes clink against each other inside of the glass and the orange liquor. He turns though when he gets a call from someone, he turns and looks at the holographic young man that appears.

The Young Man has white hair and light blue eyes with a fair complexion. His hair is mostly pushed to left, although he does have a cowlick. He is fairly tall and is quite slender. His attire consists of a short-sleeved white dress shirt, the sleeves fastened just above his elbows by navy blue cuffs, each with twin gold buttons. Over his untucked shirt he wears a light blue vest, with a black handkerchief in his right breast pocket. He also wears a black necktie, navy blue trousers and black dress shoes. He seems very formal about his attire and his posture. He usually has at least one hand behind his back. Although he has not shaved the stubble he has grown unlike his father. “Hello, Whitley.” Jacques greets as he looks at his son.

“Good evening, father. Or is it morning where you are?” He asks curiously, and Jacques Schnee chuckles.

“Morning.” He informs.

“Ah, I presume the weather is nice?” He asks his father.

“Better than I was informed, the information we could learn from these Ancient People could be the key to what we have been searching for so long, Whitley.” Jacques tells him as he walks over to the railing by the window, gazing out at the destroyed city that remains before him. It is an ocean of flora that has reclaimed the massive landscape, clearly he must be speaking of the Arkhoni and their ability to control the Grimm for centuries.

Clearly he missed the part of their downfall. The fact that Salem took control of them and the amount of Grimm in their cities wiped most of the population out when they did not expect them to lose control.

“How are things at Atlas, son?” Jacques asks him, turning to his son again.

“As good as can be expected, the plan is moving along swimmingly.” Whitley tells him, his hand behind his back and the other near his tie as he speaks. Jacques smirks, walking over to his table where he sets the glass down on the coaster.

“That is very good to hear. Merlot has been working very hard on the projects we have given him, the Serum is stronger than before and even the blueprints to your Knight Armour you wish to create is going well too.” Jacques Schnee explains, bringing up the blueprints of the Deimos Suit that Whitley had been planning on creating five years ago. A sinister smirk forms on Whitley’s face...he has hated his sisters for so long, it is not surprising that he wants this. Most likely wants to use it to get back at them both. For his own little payback for being so isolated during his childhood, only having his father around to indoctrinate him.

“Do you know when it will be happening?” Whitley asks him.

The mysterious... _it_...

“Soon, Whitley...” Jacques assures.

“Hopefully, Weiss and Winter are both in Vacuo. I am hoping that they are caught in it as well.” Whitley states, with what seems like pure bloodlust in his voice. Whatever it is that is coming to Vacuo soon...it will be catastrophic.

“They will be...that is the plan. And we will have what we need from Atlas very soon, the Politicians will never know what hit them.” He says with a cunning smirk on his face.

“What happens then?” Whitely asks him, raising his brow.

Jacques chuckles when he turns to him, taking a sip from his glass of whiskey. “Then that’s when I come in.” Jacques assures, then noticing that there is somebody stood in the shadows of his office where he has been hanging out inside of. Jacques’ eyes spot him very quickly and he sighs, turning to Whitely and setting the glass back down. “We will speak again later, Whitely. I have business to attend to.” Jacques concludes and Whitely bows his head respectfully, most likely how his father taught him to.

“Of course, father.” Whitley says, his hologram vanishes and Jacques sighs, stood there and waiting for him to reveal himself.

“I was wondering when I would see you again.” Jacques Schnee says to the mysterious man. An ominous snigger emerges from the shadows, and he emerges with his hands clasped together, looking right at Jacques Schnee, hair completely shaved from his head and eyes brown with a faint glimmer of red behind them.

“You have been a great help in this process, Jacques Schnee...I must say you might be my best investment.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells him, walking towards him and his desk, looking at the abandoned destruction of the city that stands before them.

“Didn’t expect to see you again so soon, though.” Jacques explains, and Umbra chuckles.

“Well, I like to keep people on their toes.” He says.

“Well, Vir Nominis Umbra...to what do I owe the pleasure?” Jacques asks him as he takes a seat and threads his fingers through his hands, looking at him where he sits. He pours him a glass of whiskey and pushes it over to him. Vir Nominis Umbra accepts the drink and takes a swig, not even reacting to the alcohol in it like others would.

“The next step of the plan is approaching...is everything ready?” Umbra asks him, still looking out at the destruction with what looks like...admiration. It would not be surprising if he can hear all the screams of everyone who died that day.

“I have been told that all the soldiers in Atlas have been given the vaccinations, and the work is done at Vacuo and Atlas. We are just waiting for your call.” Jacques Schnee assures, and Vir Nominis Umbra laughs with the sound of a man who is actually impressed.

“Not bad, Mr Schnee..not bad at all.” He admits, finishing the glass of whiskey he was drinking.

“May I ask you something?” He asks the mysterious Soothsayer, and Umbra turns to face him, smiling away.

“Of course.”

“What is your gain here? Everything happening...I like the sounds of it anyway. The Faunus should be controlled after all, they are animals. But what do you get from all this?” He asks and Umbra smirks.

“I like the challenge, you see. Challenge creates opportunity, and opportunity brings chance. I like games of chance, you see.” He says as he approaches the table where he sits. “You can lose...just as easily...as you can win.” He says, then looking at him. “I am curious to see who will win out of those little _heroes_...” He says.

“You mean survive?” Jacques questions, and Umbra leans forward.

“Aren’t they one of the same?” He asks, he turns and begins to walk away, clearly he only came by to talk to him about whatever it is their deal is. He stops and looks at Jacques again. “I prefer tea, if I’m being honest.” He says, walking away from him, leaving Jacques in his office.

Even he is intimidated by him...

But the question is...

What is the Evil that is coming?


	28. A Knight's Memory

**Ruby**

Her large silver eye stares directly at the Visionary Book, whispers travel towards her like the enticement of a fish by the lure of the rod. Oscar stands beside her, looking at her then she sighs, because she knows that she needs to see what is on the other side. She walks towards the book across the room from them, mysteriously held in the chamber. But Oscar gently holds onto her hand and pulls her back slightly. Ruby turns and looks at him with a bewildered expression, as if she wants an answer to why he is so reluctant to approach it. “Wait...” Oscar requests as he holds her hand, she looks at him then at the Visionary Book. It is another key to solving the mystery on how to defeat the Knight of Grimm once and for all. Ruby has always been the curious one, and it has always tended to get her in trouble in the past. Take Mountain Glenn for instance, she got captured because of that inquisitiveness. Ruby sighs, closing her eye and then she looks right at him.

“What is it?” She sighs, since they both know how important the information hidden inside of that book could be.

“I – I just think maybe I should use it...you know in case if something bad happens.” He says, as selfless as ever, which makes Ruby smile. She gently caresses his cheek and kisses him, then she slowly walks towards it, him beside her.

“It’ll be fine...” She assures, with shaken breath. She has never accessed one of these before, but now she can. She approaches it; all of them are filled with so many questions, why are the Vacuo Headmasters securing an Ancient Visionary Book? There must be an answer for this, but they do not have time to dwindle on such things. Ruby exhales, and she slowly raises her hand towards the book. The huge book of thousands of ancient pages swings open, multiple pages passing over as it lands on the page with a handprint. It practically replicates her own hand.

She’d be lying if she said that she was not scared, the thing truly does terrify her. The pages and the dark magic that must have been used to craft such a monstrous device is completely unpredictable. This kind of magic is practically alien to them all, they have no idea of what kind of effects that it could have on them in the future.

But it matters not.

Ruby breathes deep and exhales through pursed lips. She holds her hand above it and Oscar ever so gently holds her wrist to calm the shaking down, she smiles when she looks at him. Her large silver eye stares at the book, hearing the whispers from the mysterious object. “What could go wrong?” She asks, and Oscar takes his hand from hers, as she presses her hand upon it.

Suddenly there is an almighty flash of magical energy, so powerful that it actually creates a pulse that launches Oscar off his feet and sliding across the ground. He tumbles across the ground and he stares at Ruby with widened eyes. The same sort of shards of energy that he uses and sees with his semblance have just encased her, freezing her in this point of time from his eyes. He stands up and approaches it and attempts to touch her, but the barrier of frozen time is too thick. “Ruby!” He calls.

She cannot hear him...

Her eye is wide with shock as she is taken from her body, little does she even realise that both her eyes are actually in her body where it takes her. She stands there, staggering as she looks at her body, still wearing the same clothes and at the same age, but she can see through both eyes this time. The book has taken her aura from her body, allowing her to see the memories of the aura fragments that have been bound here. Shards of time float around her, and she looks up at the sky. “Oscar!” She calls out fearfully, her voice echoes endlessly through the mysterious realm that is the innards of the Visionary Book. He cannot hear her cries, but she hears something else. Two faint voices, and the sound of waves crashing against the wooden skin of a boat.

Then the shards all begin to take shape around her, hardening and changing colours into the brown wood that makes up the body of the ship. It is incredible, she can evil feel the air and the floor, as she bends down and touches it with her fingers. She can feel the indentations in the craftsmanship of the ship. There is carpet on the ground as well, along with a mirror on the wall and multiple cupboards as well. The door is shot, most likely locked as well, and Ruby walks towards the window of the room that she is inside of. She presses her hand against the wood, looking out at the ocean that is before them. Cloudless skies and no signs of any Grimm Activity in the oceans either.

Then she hears the voices again, a young woman’s giggling laughter and a man’s. She turns to the bed, only just now noticing all the clothes that are on the floor. She sees the couple that share the bed, fully unclothed after they had their fun. The woman is beautiful with large blue eyes and ice white hair, snuggled up to the man who has his arm around her, gently caressing her back. She has no scars on her body unlike him, who has multiple on his chest, back and arms. Even a couple on his face. He has dark black hair and green eyes, then Ruby realises when he sees a Sword and a Bow leant against each other on the wall. Her eyes widen when she sees them and figures it all out.

It is Death and Loss...

Or as they were known before they became the Knights of Grimm – Krekras Blackridge and Starla Schnee.

Ruby never expected this, for them to be having a romantic relationship together, but then she remembered...they both had spouses already. Starla has children at this point in her life, and yet they both were having an affair together. But this clearly was not some sort of fling; they clearly have been in love with each other for some time. The looks in their eyes and the smiles on their faces proves that. Otherwise they would have been having sex due to physical attraction, nothing more than that. She listens to what they both say to each other, and Starla has such a tender voice. “Well...I didn’t expect that...” She giggles.

“Well, you know me...always like to surprise.” He flirtatiously smirks as he looks at her.

“Oh yeah?” Starla asks him, he leans in to kiss her, until they hear the intercom blaring. It is strange, the boat looks old fashioned, but it has technology that is higher than anything that they have. These boats are capable of turning into Submarines at a moment’s notice, but they kept the old fashioned style instead of making it look all futuristic.

“Vanguards! On deck.” The voice of the captain demands. They both sigh, disappointed that their fun has come to a close for this day. Ruby looks away when they both get out of the bed and pick their clothes up and putting them on. She looks out at the ocean, then she realises where she is. Her eyes widen due to never wanting to see the place ever again. The storm barrier surrounds the islands to even back here. Clouds swirl around the islands where Axzura fled from them.

“The Volcanic Chain Isles...” Ruby whispers with disbelief when she sets her eyes on the location. The flashes of lightning flicker for miles and miles. The waves continue to slam into the outer hull of the vessel over and over again, echoing through the ship and across the ocean itself. Ruby turns when she hears the door open, and Krekras has the door open, letting Starla walk through first. Of all the people to be cheating on their family, she never would have expected Starla Schnee, a Schnee to do so...then again...Willow Schnee did with James Ironwood.

Weiss would never do something like that, she is better than that.

Ruby follows them into the hallway of the ship. It is quite tight and she walks into one of the Arkhoni Crewmates, literally passing straight through him. At the end of the day, she is just watching these events, only walking around in the memory. She cannot affect anything that she sees happen before her. The smell of the ship is quite repulsing, all the scents of fish being held in the cargo bay and multiple men and women serving on it leads to a rather disgusting scent in places. She walks past more and more crewmates, following the two Vanguards as she stands onto the deck. There are soldiers onboard with their weapons in their hands, ready to battle anything that comes their way. Ruby even notices that the same Warden that was trapped on the islands when she and the others were there is still on this ship. She never did see it, but she remembers the descriptions that they told her about. The ancient mechanical guard that was trapped under some branches in a river just woke up.

Then Penny rescued them.

Ruby shadows Krekras and Starla as they approach the captain of the ship. Oscar had seen him before, but Ruby has not. He stands at the very front of the ship with his mace on his shoulder, staring directly at the islands ahead of him. He has short brown hair and brown eyes with a scruffy stubble on his chin and mouth. He also carries a scar down is left cheek as well, by the looks of it; it must have been delivered by a blade. Not by a Creature of Grimm. “Wymerus, so Vex is in there?” Krekras asks him as he stares at the swirling storms around the islands. Captain Wymerus turns to him and nods.

“Looks like it; he must have a Submergible similar to ours.” Wymerus deduces, similar to what they all did to get into the islands to rescue Ruby five years ago. But that was a perilous journey with countless foes waiting for them in the deep. It all makes sense why Neptune would be so scared of the depths of the ocean, of water...when you go down there and see the demons of the deep...then you would be terrified as well.

Ruby turns, feeling her hairs standing on end when she hears his oh-so familiar voice. “Wymerus! Why’d you wake us up? I was having a wonderful beauty nap!” The upbeat voice of Rylen Vazquez calls, and Ruby’s eyes widen when she sees him approach with his hand rubbing his eye like a child. This is Fear before he became a Knight; clearly his personality has not changed in the slightest. Wymerus stares at him, he clearly does not share the same enthusiasm that the rest of the Vanguards have before him, and he just rolls his eyes and looks on ahead. Wymerus presses his hands against the wooden railing, feeling his hairs stand on end from the electrical charges coming from the distant lightning bolts in the storm. Rylen looks past the grumpy captain and then he sees the storm wall that protects the Islands, and perhaps where the Relic was being held before it was taken by someone into the Vault in Vacuo.

What other reason would it want to return? Other than the islands are its home...now the home of the Relic is Dragonspire Keep.

Rylen stands there with narrowed eyes and Starla walks over to him, she and Krekras are both wearing their combat gear now. She has her hunting robes and armour plating around her willowy body, and she looks at Rylen. “What’s made the Captain so grumpy?” Rylen wonders as he looks at him as he stares out. Starla, the most compassionate of the Vanguards, whispers into his ear.

“His wife was killed on one of the ships that Axzura Vex attacked.” She whispers to him, and Rylen quickly appears to understand the nature of his anger in his face. They can see the pressure in his fingers where he grips the railing so tight. Rylen turns and looks at her, deciding to change the subject to try and lighten the mood.

“How’s your sister doing?” He asks her.

“Raala? She’s okay; she’s taking her children and her husband to Ephai. She has some business there with the scientists working on the Grimm.” She explains to him. Clearly Raala Schnee was interested in science instead of business, like how the Schnee Name has become now. Raala was the one that survived and became the only remembered Schnee ancestor, Starla was sadly forgotten. Most likely due to the Curse that was cast upon her.

“What do you think we’ll find in there?” Rylen asks, but then another man answers. He is a young man with an Isomacium Staff in his hand, walking past them.

“Lots of Grimm and hopefully Vex and his Crew.” The man says, little do they even realise that the young man is actually Kragen Nox. His silver eyes looking at the two Vanguards as he passes by them both. He walks back over to his men and he stands beside them with his arms crossed. Ruby follows him and she looks at who he speaks to, there is a young man with Silver Eyes as well who is stood there with his sword in his hand, swinging it back and forth. He is around the same age as he is, and then he looks at him with silver eyes as well. He has a square shaped jaw and rather muscular arms. He wears a suit of Knight’s Armour, plates of metal all welded together around him and vambraces that have bits of bone armour from Grimm attached.

Incredible, the Arkhoni have even learned how to harvest materials from them. Most likely because they have learned how to control of the Grimm...for a while anyways. Kragen leans against one of the crates, looking at the Silver Eyed Warrior. “How are you feeling, Kannix Volantis?” Kragen asks him, clearly that must be the name of the man who stands here beside him. He sighs as he swings the sword back and forth slowly.

“A little nervous...my first fight after all.” Kannix nervously admits, his voice is stammering with intimidation of what they are about to face.

“Well, just think about what you are fighting for. Got anyone back home? A lady perhaps?” Kragen asks him with a smile, nudging his elbow with his to calm him down. He is a very good leader, making sure that he is ready for anything. Kannix smiles and he nods. “What’s her name?” He asks him.

“Her name is Cynthia Nikos.” He answers, and Ruby’s eyes widen when he reveals that. Cynthia...that is the name of the girl that tried to seduce Oscar that time. And Vir Nominis Umbra offered him the choice with the potions, either take one and take pleasure with her without even remembering it, or to trick her with the other and only let her believe that is what happened. Either way, none of them would have expected that from her...perhaps then she is not exactly what she claimed to be for Oscar. “She is beautiful...I mean...I haven’t asked her out yet...but I want to if I come back from this.” He admits, quickly destroying the theory she was calculating in her head. So Cynthia did not try to cheat on him behind his back, because they are not together.

“What does she look like?” Kragen asks him, with his arms crossed.

“She has...beautiful red hair, and large green eyes...she looks like an angel.” He tells him with a smile, and Kragen chuckles, patting his shoulder. “What about you? Do you have anyone out there waiting for you?” Kannix asks him curiously and Kragen picks his staff back up and turns to him.

“Not that I know of!” He calls back to him.

“Then what do you fight for?” He asks him, and Kragen smiles.

“The thrill of the hunt!” He replies, truly surprising her to her core. Young Kragen was nothing like the man that they all know now...something big must have changed him after this event on those islands. He was not with the Vanguards, he said that he was with his soldiers and he lost them all. Perhaps Kannix was one of those Silver Eyed Warriors. When Kragen was young, he was a lot like Yang, he did not become a Warrior to help people or to be a hero, but he wanted the adventure. He wanted a life where he did not know what tomorrow might bring...and thus it seems like something must have happened as it did to Yang. Something changed his perspective on things...he saw what the real world has to offer.

Ruby stands there, feeling some droplets water hit her hand and a puddle forms at her feet. She looks down at the puddle at her own refection...despite here in this world she is scarless...in the reflection she can see her real face. The patch that covers the blown open eye from the battle at Mistral. She closes her eyes and sighs as a tear falls from her real eye...all she wanted was to be a hero.

She may not have heard him...but Umbra was so right.

_When are the heroes ever happy?_

Her sadness is broken however when she hears the voice of the Captain calling out to the crew of the Dauntless. “All hands!” He roars, his powerful voice echoes across the whole ship, and all the soldiers stand to attention. Even Kragen is standing like that, they would never see him do that nowadays, he does not believe in that kind of leadership. He has always believed in leading through creating friendships and trust. They all stand to attention and Wymerus points back at the islands that they are approaching on the ship. “We are soon going to hit the Storm Wall that protects the Islands! Dark forces are at work here on this land, and Axzura Vex has been using it to hide from us after his attacks! We are going to put them to a stop no matter the cost!” He bellows to them all, and the soldiers pound their fists into their chests. He turns and points the end of his mace directly at the storm wall.

His booming voice calls out once more. “Retract all sails! Engage Submersible Systems!” He orders, the workers swiftly run over to the controls. One of them pulls the levers back with all his might, and it finally clicks into place with a bang. The tall wooden masts start to descend, folding away into the Dauntless’ Deck itself, and the sails also fold into the wooden masts. They enter the vessel, then a high-tech dust powered device rises from the deck, and a bright light is emitted from it. It projects a powerful shield that surrounds the whole ship, and then the Dauntless sinks into the ocean. Ruby’s eyes widen as she looks around, seeing the blue rising around them, then they are completely submerged. They can all hear the robust propellers spinning through the salty water, along with distant calls from Whales and perhaps other monsters of the deep.

The Dauntless moves across the ocean and they enter an area that the others know quite well. A sunken city... clearly this means that the city was indeed sunken long before this ever happened. “What is this place?” Kannix asks as he looks at one of the destroyed buildings.

“A failed attempt.” Wymerus tells them.

“Attempt of what?” Kannix asks him curiously, still brandishing his sword.

“We tried to build cities that would be able to submerge with the same technology that we are using here.” He explains to them, and Kannix looks at the place, seeing the Creatures of Grimm lurking inside. The Krastax are in here somewhere, probably watching them from the buildings as well, the giants of the deep.

“What happened?” He asks him.

“The Grimm broke the shields, and flooded the entire population of the city.” He tells him, and their eyes are wide.

“How long ago did this happen?” Kragen asks him, strange to hear Kragen be the one asking the questions. But at some point he would have done this.

“One hundred years ago.” Wymerus answers, looking at the area. Suddenly a Krastax Warrior bursts from the rubble of a building, its huge bony mandibles open wide as it howls at them, the bioluminescent spines on its back glow bright red with aggression. But the Dauntless blasts a bunch of underwater flares towards the creature, scaring it off and back into the deep. The brightness of the flares seems to deter them, but the Tethys did not have any, only torpedoes and dust powered cannons on the hull. They continue to pass through the remnants of the city, it is much larger looking in this time than it was when they came searching for Ruby five years prior in the present day. Most of it now is rubble or has even turned to sand, or been taken over by coral reefs.

Ruby looks around, able to see multiple Krastax watching them from the buildings, swimming around the area with barnacles and pieces of coral actually growing off their black armour plating. She can hear the haunting snarls and howls of the creatures that stalk them, but the shields can protect them for now. Kragen stands there, spinning his staff through his fingers and his silver irises shimmer faintly.

Ruby can feel the current getting more and more aggressive as the journey continues on, passing over the barrier of powerful storms. Hurricanes, water spouts and cyclones battling endlessly around the islands themselves. Krekras stands there with his sword in his hand, not Ferrum Arctus but simply a lethal blade that he is capable of using. Ryle picks up his spear and his crossbow that he fits onto his left shoulder in order to draw it quickly with his right arm, his shooting arm. Starla holds her bow and has an arrow at the ready if she needs to, and Wymerus is ready to battle against anything that waits for them on the other side. “We have passed underneath the Storm Wall!” The pilot of the craft calls and Wymerus turns to him.

“Surface!” Wymerus demands, and the Dauntless rises up the ocean at some speed, the water rushes around them, then it busts up from the water like a balloon that was held down there for some time. The water splashes everywhere, and the Dauntless floats atop the water, and the shield powers down. The Sails and Masts rise from the deck and the long wooden planks shift aside so then they can rise and the sails can fold and extend outwards. The Dauntless slowly approaches the docks where Ruby’s saviours docked five years ago. Beside them is his ship, docked there as well.

But suddenly, a powerful lightning bolt shoots down from the sky and burns directly through the centre mast, the heat fractures the wood, as the electrical energy finds its path of least resistance.  Shards of burning hot wood are thrown everywhere, Ruby staggers but the wood could not harm her anyways. She gasps, seeing a man getting his throat cut open by a shard of wood, severing his jugular and making him struggling to keep the heavy bleeding at bay. He screams through chapped lips, blood pours from both his mouth and neck as he falls over to the ground, unable to scream anymore as his larynx gets flooded with blood. Ruby watches helplessly as he suffocates on his own blood on the ground, writhing with agony before finally dying. A couple others were killed from the shrapnel, some pinned to the wall by bigger chunks, and one was hit directly in the skull and another through the sternum. Blood everywhere from it, and the Dauntless is now completely disabled. Without the mast, it cannot escape and the shield generator has been blown to pieces from the electrical charge.

They all look at the ship that belongs to Axzura Vex; it seems that something similar has happened to his. “What the hell? This can’t be his base! Not if his ship is scuttled!” Kannix exclaims, stumbling across the deck as he slips on the blood and the water that washes onto the deck.

“That is not his ship!” Wymerus assures.

“How do you know?” Kragen shouts over the thunder that rumbles above their heads. Wymerus stares at them, and then looks at the destroyed ship that suffered the same fate as the Dauntless just did. A well shot lightning bolt that blew the mast apart and destroyed the Shield Generator for the Submerging Feature.

“Because I watched his vessel disappear into the fog when he destroyed the ship my wife was on.” Wymerus tells him, staring directly at Kragen’s silver eyes. Kragen watches as Wymerus leaps overboard and onto the pier. He lands on both feet, with his mace in hand as he steps onto the island. Krekras, Rylen and Starla look at him, then at each other before they follow him. The three of them jump down before the Silver Eyed Warriors do, and then the Knights follow with some of the soldiers that would be manning the Dauntless. Now they have no choice but to follow them.

Ruby looks at the mountains...hoping she would never have to see this place ever again. She sighs and begins to follow them off the Dauntless and into the island. This time, however, she is the one entering on foot opposed to being on the Drift of Wandering Star. The others had to make this trek through the landscape, and they keep moving onwards through the brush. Tall grass soaked through with rainwater. Kannix touches some of the blades of grass with amazement in his eyes. “How can plants be growing here if it is constantly in the middle of a massive storm? There’s no sunlight.” Kannix questions, bringing up the same point that anyone would rightfully ask when walking through the mysterious island.

“It’s that tower over there.” Krekras tells him, pointing with his sword at the huge tower that stands in the distance. He pulls his Isomacium Helmet down, and now Ruby sees the Knight of Death. He may not be a Silver Eyed Warrior, but it is powerful armour anyways and he can channel his aura into the armour and his Isomacium Based Sword to make his attacks more lethal. Little does he realise that his aura will become so attached to the armour, that it will be all that remains of him when he becomes one of the Knights of Grimm. Rylen, Starla and Wymerus however do not have that kind of armour, so they are getting drenched in the ceaseless icy cold rain that falls around them. Kannix follows the long Isomacium Sword that belongs to Krekras Blackridge, and he sees the Storm Barrier Generator Spire, the same one that Jaune fought and defeated the Onyx Phantom on, and brought Pyrrha Nikos back.

All of this...

It is like a bad dream...

So many people lost their lives on these islands; the battle was so intense and bloody that over two hundred good men and women lost their lives to save Ruby Rose and the Relic of Choice. Watts may have died here and Tyrian lost his life later on, but the consequences still seem to affect the world today. The Dragon is out there somewhere, it did not die...and Ilia’s death still sits in the minds of Adam Taurus, Blake Belladonna and Kassius Locke. “Gods...it feels like we are being watched.” One of the Silver Eyed Warriors describes as they walk into the area, the huge Warden walks past him. Massive sharp legs stabbing into the soil as it walks past, creating mechanical thrums and faint blaring horns as it searches for any signs of Grimm Activity.

That Silver Eyed Warrior walks and walks...until something grabs him, and he screams with terror as it pulls him into the tall grass. They all jolt with shock, even Ruby does with widened eyes as she looks around. His sword is on the ground and they can hear his screams as something rips him apart from the tall grass. His screams are silenced when there is a loud ripping sound. Then his head is thrown towards them, blood trailing behind it. “Keep your eyes peeled!” Wymerus orders, backing up with his mace held up, they can hear the faint snarls and whispers of something running through the woods around them. Ruby stands there, listening carefully as well, because whatever lurks here must be very dangerous.

A clicking growl appears from the grass, until another Knight is attacked. He wails with agony as the razor sharp bony claws dig through the metal and into his leg, pulling him away from the group. She saw what it was, it looked almost human with those long claws it had. She can see the long flowing hair, like the thing is underwater despite it being up here. There are faint ghostly screams around them, like raspy breaths that keep on growing and growing.

Until it changes.

Ruby can hear the sound of a woman crying in distress from the grass. Curious, she investigates the sound, walking through the grass as she finds something there. She gasps when she sees a young woman on her knees, sobbing into the soil. She has her hands over her face to cover the tears. She stares at her then crouches down beside her, looking at her. “Hey...” She softly whispers, and then remembers she cannot hear her.

“Hey...” A Silver Eyed Knight says to the woman, and Ruby turns to the guy, seeing him kindly reach out for her. The woman turns and looks at him, she is a beautiful looking woman indeed. Long black hair, and she is barely got any clothing on her body, most of it has been torn up, only just covering her up. She looks at him with teary eyes and he carefully approaches her, and then she nervously reaches out for him. She touches his hand, and then a monstrous smirk appears.

Her cheeks decay before him and long fangs extend from her upper jaw and lower one. The woman lunges straight at him, creating a haunting screech that echoes through Ruby’s soul. The creature grabs the Silver Eyed Knight and it rises above them, holding him in its arms. The knight wails with distress, and then the creature savagely sinks its teeth into his body, and then rips him in half, blood raining down over them all. Kragen’s eyes widen when he sees the Creature of Grimm, then the lower jaw decays more and falls from its head, leaving only the tongue and the upper jaw. Her legs break apart, leaving only the wrappings floating behind her. Then it bursts towards Rylen Vazquez. “Whoa!” He exclaims, the long ghostly claws of the creature slashes across his chest and launches him backwards. Krekras spins his sword through his fingers, ready to fight the creature.

It looks like a woman with long black flowing hair, glowing red eyes and a long tongue that sticks out from its jawless head. The woman is nearly naked with fibres of clothing that have been torn up around her body, trailing behind her nearly skeletal body. “Noonwraith!” Kragen warns, spinning his staff round and his eyes glow bright silver as he channels the energy into his staff, lighting up the markings. His Silver Eyed Knights do the same with their swords and armour, the pieces of metal all have markings that start to glow white as they engage their gifts. The Noonwraith roars, floating towards them at great speeds, instantly swinging the long curved claws, made from nails, at them. Krekras deflects the attack and it shrieks at him, the blast from the shriek is so loud it actually blows the Vanguard backwards.

Starla draws her bow and launches an arrow straight at the Noonwraith, but the spirit just darts out of the way before the arrow could even hit it. The Noonwraith’s glowing red eyes fixate on her and her eyes widen now as it moves towards her, Wymerus bellows as he underarm swings his mace into the creature. The Noonwraith shrieks with pain, being launched backwards from the impact, ectoplasm bursting out from the body. The Spectre rises back up, injured from Wymerus, and it stares at the Silver Eyed Knights. The Noonwraith darks in a zigzagged way towards a knight, plunging the claws into his eyes so hard that the claws protrude out the back of his skull. It roars as it throws the dead man into another, then lunging towards him. The Knight wails with terror as the Noonwraith bites into his head, ripping his head from his shoulders.

Kragen stands there, wide eyed as he watches his trained soldiers being ripped apart helplessly from this thing. Then anger channels into him and he roars with pure rage, his eyes glow bright and he blasts a powerful beam of white light into the creature. The Noonwraith turns, and the beam of light impacts the Spectre, and it shrieks, trying to retreat. Stone encases the form and it freezes in place, he sprints for the monster and immediately smashes his staff into it, shattering the body into thousands of pieces.

The Warden stands tall, blaring the mechanical horn as the sound of more creatures scuttling towards them appears, and they all look around. Kannix stands with Kragen, and they back up towards the rest of them, hearing more Grimm coming from the grass where they cannot see them. A Beowulf lunges towards Kannix and he cuts the creature’s head clean off with his sword, then another Beowulf goes to attack Krekras, he instantly plunges his sword into its chest, pinning it against the ground. A Creep comes up behind him and bites onto his shoulder with force, but Rylen shoulder charges the beast backwards off Krekras’ back. Krekras spins round and smashes the head of a Grimm Terror Bird so hard it breaks the creature’s neck, killing it instantly. A Beowulf leaps from the grass with its claws extended with a monstrous roar, until an arrow shoots into its chest, knocking it out of the ground.

Wymerus bellows, slamming the mace directly downwards into the skull of a Lesser Deathstalker that goes to stab him with its glowing yellow stinger. The mace crushes its head and he immediately spins round and whacks the Ursa Major behind him in the head. Starla snaps the Bow in two so then it is her Tonfas and she sprints at one of the Beowulf Alphas, and she slams both blades into its torso, black smoke pours from its back. The Beowulf roars with agony, staggering back from the impact. She slits its throat and then jumps off it, kicking it up the jaw before slamming both blades back together. She draws the bow back and fires an arrow that flies right in between the Alpha’s eyes, causing it to disintegrate.

Kannix slices a Creep’s head off, killing it instantly. Suddenly something grabs his heel and he screams as he gets pulled into the  bushes. “Kannix!” Kragen yells.

“No! Stay with your men!” Krekras orders, sprinting after him, Wymerus, Rylen and Starla follow him in the direction that they can hear his screams. They are pulling him into the grass, towards the mountain where Axzura’s Treasury is. Ruby stands with Kragen, looking around as the Silver Eyed Knights all stand back to back, all the Crewmates have been ripped apart and some of the Knights have been killed. These are the strongest of the Knights, working together. Every blast of Silver Eyed power lights up the forest of Grass.

The Warden stands with them, blasting powerful red energy into the Grimm that channel towards them in the thick grasslands. Ruby looks at Kragen...but she needs to know about the Knights, so she chases after them, letting the Silver Eyed Knights fight off the Grimm as best as they can. She can hear them running after him. “Kannix!” Starla calls out through the grass as they run up the hill. They run for a few minutes, nearly twenty as they follow the sound of his voice as he is dragged off.

Then...

The grass leads straight to the open doors of the structure, and they all walk inside. They walk into the building, Ruby follows them all. They can still hear Kannix screaming with terror and pain from whatever has taken him. Ruby has noticed that Rylen is quite hunched over, injured from the first attack that the Noonwraith had dealt to him, must have broken something in him. And yet he is still going in with them, fair play to him for managing to do that. Krekras is bleeding from some of the attacks he suffered during that fight, it must have lasted longer than Ruby saw, because that run did not take very long.

Starla has a few cuts on her face and Wymerus looks pretty worn down as well. They walk through the mysterious halls, then their eyes widen from what they find. The bodies of all of Axzura’s crew...all been massacred by something. But there is no physical damage on them...it is like they all just dropped dead instantly. Their corpses are cold, they have been here for a while. Then they turn a corner, and they see the mountains of golden coins layered everywhere in his Trove. Krekras takes off his helmet when he sees Axzura leant against the golden coins, grabbing his side where he has been bleeding. Claret stains some of the coins but that does not take away their value.

Wymerus storms towards him and he goes to stove his head in with the mace, until Krekras catches his wrist to stop him. “Hey! That is not why we came here!” He sternly reminds, staring at him with angry eyes, and Wymerus stares straight at him.

“This irrumator praetor murdered my wife and children!” Wymerus roars with anger, wanting revenge on what happened. He holds the mace high above his head, teeth gritted together and Axzura looks up at him, but not with anger or wanting to kill him. With what appears to be acceptance of his end. He sighs after he coughs up some blood into the gold. He touches the gold with his hand, looking at it with awe. A tear trickles from his eye as he looks at it, because that is all he has left in his life. And now all of it is gone forever, never to be seen again.

“Then let him be punished for everyone else he killed as well.” Krekras states, since they did come here to get him out of this place.

“What happened here? I heard you owned this island?” Rylen questions, confused of why the Grimm and something else have killed all his forced and attacked theirs so aggressively.

“We did have control...but...something changed. We had the Grimm on the whole Island under our command, until today. Something made them turn against us.” He strains, struggling to speak to his capturers.

“What about a young Silver Eyed boy? He was dragged in here, we heard him...” Starla attempts, and he looks at her, and he looks around at the mountains of gold that he has made his home in.

“I have not seen any silver eyed lads here...” He weakly answers. Krekras turns to him and he looks down at him.

“Axzura Vex, we have been sent to take you back to Arkhonex to pay for your crimes against our people.” Krekras tells him, staring directly at him. Axzura looks at his wound that he has been inflicted by something and he groans with agony, the claret covers his hand. He coughs again, feeling the wound taking its toll over him. He leans his head back into the gold, groaning with pain as he lays there in his winnings from all those raids that he lead.

_I wonder if it was all worth it._

“I’m afraid...I doubt I’d make it off the island.” He gravely states, and Krekras turns to Starla.

“You can fix that, right?” He asks her, and she nods. She crouches down beside him and he looks at her, seemingly mesmerised by her beauty. She crouches down beside him and she looks at him, doing something that no Schnee ever knew was even possible. She opens her hand and forms a tiny glyph, and she ever so gently presses her palm against his side. He flinches from the icy cold touch of her hand, like all Schnees she has the Glyphs and tends to have pretty poor circulation. Weiss and Winter are both the same, Neptune never stops pointing out how cold her hands are.

But then...

The wound seems to heal, the deep gash in his side begins to repair itself as she uses her semblance to fix him up. And eventually, it does so. She feels the pain recede and he looks at her again, but she just stands back up and returns back to Krekras’ side. “Ready to leave now?” He asks him, and Axzura looks around at the place.

“All this...for nothing...” He sighs, then he stands back up and Rylen ties his hands up. Ruby honestly did not expect that. She expected that Axzura Vex, the man that became the Knight of Fury to have put up a fight against them. But he did not, he went with them willingly to face his punishment that awaits him. He walks with them, and they walk down a different path than the one that they entered through, a more discrete path as they walk down and go to return.

They walk down a lonely pathway through the woods, as they slowly return to where their team are. The rain still heavily pours onto them, until a man emerges from the trees and walks towards them. Krekras stops then and he draws his sword, pointing it straight at the man that humbly approaches them with his hood held over his head. “Stop!” Krekras demands through a very commanding tone of voice. The man stops and he looks at them with his hands in his pockets. “Pull the hood down and tell us who you are.” He demands.

The man takes a second, then his hands emerge from his pockets and he slowly pulls the hood down to reveal his face. His head is shaven and he has a smile with small inviting brown eyes. They do not know it, and neither does Ruby yet...because she has not seen him yet. Only heard of him. “I am but a humble Soothsayer and Merchant.” He tells them with a smile.

“Vir Nominis Umbra...at your service.” He greets as he takes a bow before the Knight who keeps the long blade of his Isomacium Sword pointed at him. Ruby’s eyes widen when she sees him there...now she knows what he looks like and what he sounds like. And what’s more terrifying? Here he stands thousands of years ago in the past and he has not even aged a day, meaning he really is not human in the slightest.

He is something more.

Much more.

“What the hell are you doing on this island?” Rylen questions, then flinching from the sharp pain in his back after his attack from the Noonwraith, then Umbra leans over and he looks at Axzura Vex.

“That man there...he invited me to come along, see if I can find him a good buyer for all that gold in there.” He tells them, pointing at the entrance to the Cavern where he has stored all the jewels and gold. Starla looks back at him and he sighs, water dripping from his head as he nods his head.

“I did, he was there and he insisted on coming along.” He confesses.

“You just let a merchant come aboard?” Krekras questions with disbelief.

“Believe me, this guy knows people.” Axzura assures, then Krekras looks at him again, and the Soothsayer looks at the state of them all.

“Well, well...” Vir Nominis Umbra says as he leans over and looks at them, the damage on their bodies and also their weapons as well. “You lot look the worse for wear.” He points out with a smile, Krekras still does not seem to trust him. And for good reason as well, when a random merchant just appears from the woods, it is quite mysterious.

“We’ll be fine.” He assures, still not buying his act, but it is Starla that convinces him.

“We should at least hear what he has to offer.” Starla whispers to him. Krekras – eventually – lowers the sword with a sigh, and Vir Nominis Umbra rubs his hands together, ready to make some bargains with them. Ruby can even hear the old story of the Knights of Grimm in her head that Kassius told back at Mistral, the one that clearly has been miss-told over the years. The first thing that he looks at is Krekras’ Isomacium Sword.

“An Isomacium Sword? Very nice...although I feel you could most certainly improve it.” He states, and Krekras scoffs.

“Oh yeah? How so?” He questions.

“With magic of course, you oaf.” He replies, and he holds his hand above the blade and he looks at him, then casts the spell upon the blade. Markings form, etched into the sword itself, and he takes it back when he offers it to him. The blade feels much lighter and blade is definitely sharper. “Now, I have given your sword easier manoeuvrability in combat. And not only that, every soul you strike down will make it stronger.” He states with a smile, then winking at him. The story said that his sword was fractured in the blade, clearly they took out the part of the Isomacium in it, where that is nearly impossible. And now he has Ferrum Arctus, black energy flows through the blade and the hilt.

Umbra now approaches Rylen, who is still in agony from the pain in his back. His spear is broken as well, it snapped when he fell onto the ground, which is the first thing that he finds. “You look like you good have a good pick-me-up...and a new weapon.” He says, as he reaches into his bag, and as told in the Tale, he holds a small Gardening Scythe which has been enchanted with a Spell. He hands it to him and they all look at him.

“What is this? Some kind of sick –” Before Rylen could get angry with the Merchant, the blade extends and the handle becomes much longer. He has to hold it in both hands, then feels the displaced bones in his back shifting back in place, it grunts with pain but then feels much better, standing tall again. The hunched over act must have been used later on in his life when he became Fear. He holds Formido Falcem with awe, it too is so light and easy to swing despite the size of it. It gives them all the chills when they look at it.

“Ah...now that is what I call a weapon.” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he looks at the massive War Scythe that he holds in his hands. He now approaches the smallest and prettiest of the five, looking at Starla Schnee and his eyes widen with amazement at her beauty. Little does she realise that he heard her singing when Oscar was there, he watched the whole thing. But this whole act, he denies ever seeing her. “My, my...wow! What is a beauty like you doing with these grunts?” He asks her, hand on his chest, and she timidly smiles, and the guys all look at each other, feeling slightly offended by that.

“Well...They wouldn’t survive without me...” She giggles nervously and he chuckles.

“Isn’t that the truth?” He asks her with a smirk, then he looks at the bow and that is what catches her eye. “Ooh...you’re an archer, huh?” He asks her.

“Yes, I have been learning ever since I was tiny.” She admits.

“Protective Father, I presume?”

“Very”

“Well, I bet you have never missed a single shot, huh?”

“I’m good, but not that good.”

“Would you like to be?” He asks the self-effacing woman, and she looks at him. She just saw the badly wounded Rylen Vazquez recover as soon as he was given that Scythe...the magic must really work. If her superior aim could help so many, then how could she say no? She does not want anyone to suffer with sadness and loss in their lives, so if she can spare them? She will...and that is what he is counting on.

“I...I guess so...” She gently answers and he holds his hand out to her, and she gives him the bow and arrow. He holds the Compact Bow in his hand and he gently slides his hand across the wooden frame of it, then he casts the spell, his eyes glimmer red as he does it. The only one to really notice was Wymerus. The markings form on the bow and he gives it to her, all the markings are different and are of a language that is far more ancient than Arkhoni...that is something far more sinister.

She holds the bow and she smiles as she holds it and steps aside as he approaches Wymerus. He looks right at him with a neutral expression and Umbra crosses his arms. “Well, I can tell you are a man of honour like the leader over there.” He says, pointing back at Krekras and he scoffs.

“What could you possibly know about me?” He questions.

“I know that you are one of the best warriors that Arkhonex has to offer, I know that you named your first son after yourself, I know that you have always dreamt of being a teacher one day, and I also know that you first fell in love with your wife simply because she was different to the other whores.” He lists, and Wymerus is truly surprised...because all of that was completely true. He wife was once a Whore, and he first met her when he bought her services. He grew to like her and they both ended up falling in love. She got out of the bad job and got a more respectable one as a worker on ships, earning lots of money. And obviously she ended up losing her life because of Axzura’s Raids. Umbra leans forward, hands still clasped together as always. “How am I doing?” He asks him with a smirk, and Wymerus stammers.

“Spot on.” He admits and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles menacingly. The Soothsayer looks at him and he can feel the want for Vengeance in him and then he looks down at the mace that he holds.

“What a boring weapon.” He says with a sad sigh and Wymerus holds it up before him.

“It has gotten the job done.” He states.

“Maybe, but...wouldn’t you rather something more powerful than a flimsy mace?” He asks him curiously, and Wymerus lowers the Mace.

“And what exactly would you be willing to give?” He asks him and Umbra thinks...ponders actually, on that.

“Well it could be anything. Power of Lightning, fire, earth, wind...you name it. The Creatures of Grimm and any other foe would definitely see you as a force to be reckoned with.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains with a smirk still on his face...the urge is there and he cannot resist. The lyrics do describe him perfectly, a smile so irresistible that you cannot fight it. He sighs and gives him the mace, looking down at the floor. Umbra smirks as he holds it, then casts the spell, markings form and electrical energy begins to spark around the weapon. He holds it in his hand and he looks at the Mace in his hand, it looks far more powerful now than before, like he is the hand of Zeus.

Now...he approaches the last one.

Axzura Vex.

Vex looks at him with his hands bound with rope and Umbra smirks when he looks at him. “It was fun, wasn’t it? The journey and the laughs we had?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks him.

“Of course it was.” Axzura sarcastically answers with pure anger in his voice.

Which Vir Nominis Umbra senses. And he reaches into his bag and pulls out a pair of old axes that he fits into his back, of which have been already casted on with the spells. Meaning it only takes a certain event to light them. He walks away from them with a smile and they all look back. “Wait! Where are you going?” Wymerus questions.

“My time is not done here!” Vir Nominis Umbra calls, so they keep on moving. Ruby stands there and looks at them as they walk away.

Until...

Umbra stares straight at Ruby and he smirks.

“It is rude to pry, Miss Rose...”

Ruby screams with terror when Vir Nominis Umbra slams his open palm into her chest, launching her back. The landscape around her collapses and shatters into shards of time and memory, then the field around her bursts and it launches Ruby away from the Visionary Book, and right into Oscar’s loving arms. She hyperventilates with shock.

_...he saw me...he saw me in the Visionary Book, in somebody else’s memories..._

_How is that even possible?_

“Whoa, whoa...it’s okay...I’m here.” Oscar whispers into her ear as he holds her, and he carefully sits down with her. She hugs him, burying his head into his chest as she holds him, shaking with fear. “In...and out...” He soothingly says to her, and she follows his words, breathing in and out slowly. “It’s pretty disorientating so take your time.”

“He saw me...”

“Huh?”

“He saw me in their memories...How can he do that?”

“Who did?”

Ruby looks at him with terrified eyes, because now she knows who he is.

Who has been following them.

“Vir Nominis Umbra.”

 

**Sienna Khan**

Sienna Khan stands in the large White Fang Base of Operations, with her hands pressed against the table as she looks over the Map of Remnant. She can tell that things are happening right now, she has marked large trade routes being used constantly by Atlas for some reason. Moving things into the Kingdoms in different places...even into Atlas itself. _An attack wouldn’t make sense...why would they both attacking their own Kingdom?_

Although before she can ponder some more, a Faunus White Fang woman approaches. She does not wear a mask and she looks at Sienna with a datapad. “Ma’am?” She asks her and Sienna turns to her.

“Yes? What is it?” She asks her.

“You need to see this.” She says, and Sienna takes the datapad, and looks at it. Her eyes widen from what she sees.

It is the footage of Ruby cutting down Dew in public.

_ARE THE HUNTSMEN AND HIUNTRESSES PROTECTING OR ATTACKING US?_

The headlines are most likely beginning to spread panic now. She slowly lower the pad with widened eyes...and she sighs, closing her eyes. “Ma’am, what should we do?” She asks her, and Sienna looks at the young woman.

“Send a message to Blake Belladonna...I must speak with her immediately.” Sienna orders, and the young White Fang woman runs off to do so. Sienna looks at the bloody footage and she sighs.

“Things are going...so wrong...”

“Another great war is coming...”

“I just know it...”


	29. Something is Coming...

**Ruby**

Still in the arms of her boyfriend, she contemplates over what she had just experienced. She saw the capture of Axzura Vex, and the start of the Knights of Grimm. The beginning of the end of the Arkhoni Empire itself, and if they fail – the end of everything that they know and love. She exhales to calm herself down; Oscar gently caresses her long black and red hair as he holds her in his arms. She buries her head into his shoulder, closing her eye, now having to get used to having only one again. “You’ve spoken to him twice, now?” Ruby asks him curiously, obviously asking about Vir Nominis Umbra.

“Yeah, he revealed himself to me when Time sent me to Arkhonex thousands of years ago. And then at that Tavern earlier...” He explains, unable to get the thought out of his head. The point that the Soothsayer made about him knowing them all, from the very beginning but they never realised that he was there. “How could we have missed him for so long?” He questions, and clearly she knows that point as well. He has already informed her on this very important piece of information.

“We would have never suspected, he has made a very good disguise...I’ll give him that.” She admits with a sigh, she presses her hand against the floor and she stands back up, looking around the Vault that they are both inside of. They look around and Oscar stands with her, when she was in there, he did investigate the Vault during the time that Yenna was said to have emerged. But nobody ever did, so there is no way that she came through this Mirror. Meaning that Qrow and the others are closer to her and Summer than they realise. They must be in the City of Ephai somewhere.

Oscar looks at her and Ruby sighs, brushing her hair aside with her hand and she picks Crescent Rose back up and attaches it to the magnetic strips of tech on the back of her tactical suit that she wears now. She also picks up the Electrical Dust Magazine that fell from her strips on her leggings as well, no longer wearing a combat dress like Weiss does. They all stick to her comfortably and quickly, able to come off just as easily as well for quick usage. “She didn’t come through here, did she?” Ruby inquires, as if she could see the future like Oscar seems to be able to...and Vir Nominis Umbra can.

Oscar shakes his head gravely. “No, nobody came through the Mirror.” Oscar answers, scratching the back of his neck with his hand. Ruby turns and she looks at the elevator and she walks towards it, and he follows after her as they leave the Whispering Lexicon behind. Oscar nearly has to catch up to her as she walks on, and he has to bring up the thing that is on his mind. “Ruby...I’ve been thinking...” He says as he follows her, she keeps her eye focused on the elevator doors as she walks. She does not say anything but that does not mean that she refuses to listen. She is listening to every word that he says. “I think we need to see Kragen, think about it. I mean with some of the information we have found, we could ask him for some help. He knows more about the Arkhoni than we do.” But he does not expect the response that she gives him, a sigh and she rolls her eye.

“Is that the only reason?” Ruby questions, and Oscar slows down and he stares at her.

“Sorry?” Oscar questions with a confused expression, she sighs again and turns to him again.

“I know the main reason, Oscar. Because of what happened with Dew?” She questions, and he sighs.

“Look, he can help you focus better.”

“I have more than enough ability to focus, thank you very much.”

“I know that, but that was not like you, Ruby! I know you told me what happened and I believe you, I support you! Which is why I am saying we need to see Kragen again, he can help you.” Oscar states, hoping to get through to her in their argument, but she is still as defensive as ever over this information.

“I don’t want help!” She yells at him with anger, her voice echoes down the Vault’s thick marble walls back and forth. She stares at him and her iris glows a faint hue of white as she gets that angry with gritted teeth. Oscar sighs, because she has only just proven his point even further. “I don’t want to be the one that drags the others down because I _need help_! I am fine.” She attempts, still hearing the whispers of Roman in the back of her head. The slow clapping emerges from behind Oscar and he has no idea that Torchwick walks around him as he laughs.

“You see, little red! We don’t need his help! We are doing just fine on our own, aren’t we?” Roman asks her, leaning against her shoulder. She cannot feel the weight of his body but she still has the urge to shove him away. Oscar knows her so well that he knows whenever Roman shows himself to her, he can tell just from the fact her eye will always latch onto him whenever he appears.

“Getting help does not make you a burden.” He says as he walks towards her, and holds her by her shoulders so then she can focus onto his stunning hazel coloured eyes. “Refusing it does.” He states, looking straight at her, and she is almost awestruck by his eyes, despite being in a relationship with him for five years...she always falls in love with him all over again whenever he does that. She feels her hand shake and she grabs her wrist, looking at the faint scars where the fire burned her skin and the scars from Tyrian’s torture still remain on her. Ruby gently touches her forehead to his and closes her eye as she holds him there, then when she opens her eye she turns to where Torchwick was.

And now he is gone.

For now anyways.

One of Kragen’s lessons to drive him out of her head was to focus on something that she loves in her life. It is her friends, her sister...or him. Deep down, she knows that he is right, but she still has something that is holding her back. Not the whispers of Torchwick in her head where he wants full control over her mind itself, but something more to her personality. “Oscar...we can’t go yet...we have a duty.” She says to him timidly. Ruby has always felt that way in her life; she would feel it would be selfish of her to do something for herself opposed to finishing the job where she is.

“The others can handle it, Ruby. We need to get Kragen updated on everything; he is the best one to talk to about these Visionary Books.” Oscar explains, not even mentioning the fact that Ruby needs help with her P.T.S.D issues. Ruby sighs, and she finally agrees to go with him and venture out to Dragonspire Keep, they can take an Airship to Mistral and then trek through the Mountains in order to get there.

They both walk towards the elevator and he opens it, for it can be opened easier on the inside than it would be on the outside. They stand in there and the elevator rises back up there are some speed. Ruby holds her shaking arm, unable to stop it for a couple of seconds at times. Oscar looks at her as the elevator moves up to the top, and he knows that he needs to close the loop. “You know where to find any black spray cans?” He asks her curiously, and that actually makes her shaking hand stop, taking her mind off it.

“Um...” She mumbles, quickly remembering the message that Oscar gave them both from the future to do all of this. Then an idea hits her, she smiles when she remembers. “That old man Shopkeep is here, I remember seeing him.” Ruby points out with a gleeful smile again, which makes Oscar smile as well. If she is happy, then that is enough for him. The doors open and Ruby does not see their past versions of themselves. Because Oscar has rewound time slightly in the past by a couple hours in order to make the message for them to follow. They walk into the large Throne Room that Headmaster Theodore created for his own mad honour. Essentially becoming a False King in his power, because it seems to have become too much for him to handle with that Relic whispering into his mind.

They both walk outside of the building and towards the market stand where the old man stands. His grey hair parting over the years and eyes are hardly even open, wrinkles all over his face. He has a weak voice as he speaks to them. “Hello, little ones. Can I interest you in any of my wares?” The Old Man asks them both curiously. Funny how the same man owns so many stores at once.

Even in different Kingdoms.

“Yeah, do you have any black spray cans?” Ruby asks him politely with a smile on her face. She is not able to woo people as well as Yang, since Yang definitely has the more strident features than Ruby does. And due to the eye patch, it is harder for her to do what Yang does. And she does not have the same confidence as her sister. The old man chuckles and nods his head up and down.

“Ah yes, here you are!” The Old Man answers, taking one of them out and setting it down for them.

“How much for that?” Oscar asks him, holding his wallet with his lien cards inside.

“Hmm...Fifty lien.” The Old Man bargains, which is a ridiculous price for a spray can.

“Fifty?” Oscar questions with wide eyes at the shocking price.

“Times are tough out here in Vacuo.” He excuses, and Oscar sighs, obliging and handing fifty liens to him on his table. He takes the spray can and turns and walks towards the wall in which where they saw the message sprayed on there. Ruby walks alongside him and he shakes the can, spraying the black ink onto the concrete wall in front of them. He writes the date of which they need to go back in and the exact time for the watch to land on.

“How often have you done this?” Ruby asks him curiously, since she would never know.

“I couple times.” He admits.

“Like?” Ruby inquires curiously.

“Well for one instance... when you misplaced your hairdryer? I had to go back in time to when it was last there and I figured out where you put it.” He tells her and she raises her brow.

“Where I put it?” She questions.

“Yep, it was you.” He tells her.

“I highly doubt that.” She states.

“Believe me, Ruby, I saw you put it down by the bed and then you completely forgot you put it there. And then you yelled at me.” Oscar remembers, almost vividly from how he did that. He must have done the same thing here with a book instead of a wall. Ruby gently touches her long black hair with red highlights.

“I searched for ages.” She quietly says.

“Well I found it in the end, only took time travel.” He says and then he chuckles. “You know when you say it like that it really sounds ridiculous.” He chuckles and Ruby giggles at the idea of it as well. Going back in time to find something that they misplaced. He finally finishes creating the message on the wall and she looks at it.

“Impressive artwork, honey.” She sarcastically comments with a smirk on her face and he sighs.

“Oh ha-ha. Don’t get me started on your cooking skills.” Oscar pokes with a smirk on his face and she growls with annoyance.

“Once! It happened once, okay?” Ruby exclaims as she follows him, only making him laugh more and more. Ruby unfortunately is not the best cook though, that has always been Oscar’s forte.

“Yeah, once was too many times.” Oscar chuckles.

“Oh come on, it wasn’t _that_ bad.” Ruby states with a shrug.

“Ruby, you nearly burned the whole dorm down.” Oscar points out, as if he was having Vietnam Flashbacks of the whole event, the curtains set on fire, a huge pan fire bursting out from it. Ruby didn’t help it either by throwing water onto the flames either, that is the worst thing you could do. “Good thing Weiss was there, used her Glyphs to extinguish the fire.”

“She’s no better at cooking.” Ruby defends, looking at the floor.

“And you want to teach her?” Oscar questions.

“Once!” Ruby repeats, pointing at him and making him chuckle. “Weiss has messed up way more times, I have messed up once. All because I forgot how long it was cooking for.”

“Oh believe me, I know that. I heard more than one story about her cooking skills by Neptune.” Oscar states, physically rolling his eyes about that story he told over and over.

“Well – I can bake, and I can cook...I just need to make sure I don’t lose track of time.” Ruby sighs with a defeated tone as she walks over to the dumpster where he crouches down. She crouches down beside him and he holds his other hand out and she holds him. He engages the clock and he waits and then they return to the present, only one second in the future. They sit there and they see themselves stood at the wall.

“Good old future me, thanks for the help.” Past Oscar says as he looks at the wall, and Present Oscar chuckles.

“You’re welcome.” He whispers, making Ruby giggle softly. They both watch their Past Selves as Ruby looks at Oscar and holds his hand.

“This is gonna feel...a little strange.” Past Oscar tells her.

"What's going on?" Past Ruby asks him, and he looks at the young woman.

"I can only bring one person with me at a time when travelling..." He explains, holding both her hands. "To do so we need to combine our auras." He says to her softly, which is a very touching and personal thing to do. But Ruby loves him with all her heart and he loves her just as much. She smiles and she presses her head affectionately to his, then she kisses him, wrapping her arm around him, and he holds her close as well. They close their eyes as they share their touching kiss, then their aura shimmers between them. His green aura glows around his body, and her red one glows as well.

Just as Pyrrha did with Jaune in the Emerald Forest.

They finally break their kiss, feeling their auras combined, she looks into his hypnotic hazel coloured eyes with her beautiful large silver one. She caresses his cheek, feeling the slight bristles of hair where his beard is forming again.

"Okay...I trust you." Past Ruby softly assures, smiling sweetly at him. Oscar looks at the watch and he focuses his senses, and then Ruby looks at her own watch.

Then they both fade away before their eyes.

And the Time Loop has been completed.

They both stand up, seeing the Time Loop be complete and they both walk towards the entrance where they would have just left. They both walk inside, still holding hands and Yang turns and looks at them. “Find anything?” Yang asks them, because for her only a couple of minutes have passed. She looks at him and she smiles, looking down at the floor shyly.

“We found the Vault.” He tells them, they all stop in their tracks with confused eyes.

“Come again?” Neptune questions with wide eyes.

“I used my semblance, took Ruby with me and we found a way inside the Vault through Time Travel.” Oscar briefly explains, also learning as well that the Headmaster was definitely not in the right mindset.

They all look staggered by this information, but Blake of course is the first to actually ask a question, as curious as the animal her D.N.A is partially linked to. “What did you see? Did Yenna come through?” Blake inquires.

“No...But there was something else.” Ruby begins.

“What?” Weiss asks.

“The Mirror was down there, and we followed the Headmaster. The Relic was manipulating him, it was here once, but it forced him to send it back to the Volcanic Chain Isles. He used the Mirror to go back there, and we followed him.” Oscar explains to them, making it clear of how the Relic of Choice managed to end up at those Islands in the first place.

“That wasn’t all...” Ruby says, and she tells them what she saw. “There is a Visionary Book in that Vault.”

Yang’s lilac eyes widen, she remembers very vividly what it was like to see the memories of the Knights like that. It is not a feeling anyone can truly describe in a way that gives it justice. “One of those Books we found in the Emerald Forest and that Library?” Sun asks, presuming so.

“Yeah...I saw the Knights before they turned into what they are now. Death and Loss...they were having an affair.” Ruby tells them, and Weiss now understands what Loss meant by holding onto Neptune as long as she can. To not betray him like she did, it all makes sense now.

“What else happened?” Winter inquires.

“I saw them enter the Volcanic Chain Isles to get Fury, Kragen was there as well. They attacked but a lot of them were killed by the Grimm that lived on those islands. Then...” Ruby stammers, remembering the Soothsayer that emerged from the trees, but she leaves them on that and they crave for more. If they were sat down, they would be on the edge of their seats.

“Then what?” Blake asks her, and Ruby exhales.

“I saw him...” Ruby whispers with widened eyes, able to see the grin on his face and the flicker of red energy from behind those sinister brown eyes of his. Yang walks towards her little sister, concerned when she hears the real fear in her voice, the trembling in her breath as she utters the words.

“Who?” Yang asks her.

“The Soothsayer...” Ruby answers, and their eyes widen, since that is the first she has ever seen him. Ruby looks at Yang, right at her eyes. “Vir Nominis Umbra...” She tells her sister with fearful eyes.

“We need to tell Kragen about this, Ruby and I have come to an agreement. We need to go to Mistral and tell him what we have found. He knows the Arkhoni better than any of us, and I don’t know if even he knows of his existence.” Oscar explains, getting their attention.

“What about Cardin?” Sun asks them.

“I don’t know, but Ruby and I need to get this information to him.” He states.

“Good idea, the rest of us can stay here and keep searching.” Yang agrees, putting her trust in them both to do it. But before they are even able to move, Blake feels the vibrations from her scroll in her pocket. She pulls it out and raises the scroll to her ear.

“Hello?” Blake responds, she stands there and they all look at her, seeing the change of expression on her face. She went from neutral, to concerned very quickly. Sun approaches her when he sees her face drop like that, feeling her heart beating heavily. “O-Okay...I’ll be there.” She assures, lowering the scroll and hanging up, looking shocked from what she just received.

“What’s wrong?” Sun asks her, and Blake looks at him with a fearful expression.

“Sienna Khan wants to talk to me...alone. This cannot be good.” Blake stammers with nervousness in her voice.

“I’ll come with you.” Sun says.

“No...You can’t...she only wants me to come. The person made it very clear that I have to come alone.” Blake explains, still sounding very worried.

“But I can –”

“Sun, we need you here.” Neptune states, sounding hurt that he has to say that as well. Weiss nods as she stands beside her boyfriend.

“He’s right, Sun. You know Vacuo better than any of us. We need your help.” Weiss states, and they all know that whenever Weiss says something that honest to Sun, then it must be true. Because she is rarely that honest with someone when it comes down to something like this. Sun stammers, looking at Blake because he wants to support her.

“I can get the three of you there quick.” Winter states as she walks over to them, looking at Blake, Ruby and Oscar. Because they all are headed to Mistral.

“How? Your ship was blown to pieces.” Oscar questions.

“I have a pass on my scroll that will give us instant access to all Airships in the Kingdoms, courtesy to General Ironwood. We can board an Airship and be at Mistral in a day, tops.” Winter explains as she holds her Scroll up to them, fitting it back in one of her pockets. She presses her hands on her hips; they feel like their fates are constantly being sucked right back to Mistral over and over again. Winter stands there and the three Hunters that need to leave look at her and then at the others.

“Stay safe, we will be back before you know it.” Ruby assures with a kind smile.

“We’ll keep searching for clues, stay in contact.” Weiss assures, smiling back. Yang cannot help it, she runs to Ruby and wraps her arms around her little sister, hugging her so tight that she swings her back and forth.

“Yang!” She exclaims, like a little kid, kicking her legs.

“Just stay safe, okay?” She demands, pointing at her like the mother she has always been to Ruby. Yang then looks at Oscar, but no words are needed, he just nods and she sighs, nodding back. She watches her little sister walking away and Weiss stands beside her with Sun as well. Sun pats Yang on the shoulder, turning and walking back to the crime scene and Yang remains there with Weiss stood beside her.

“She’ll be okay, right?” Yang asks her, looking down at Weiss. The Ice Queen watches as Ruby walks with Blake, Winter and Oscar and she smiles.

“Yeah...she’s strong. Stronger than our enemies are.” Weiss points out, and Yang laughs.

“Yeah, and our enemies are quite tough.”

 

**Kassius**

He holds the necklace that he crafted in his hand, his amber coloured eyes staring at the data stick that is attached to it. A strange thing to make a necklace out of, but clearly that stick of data has something valuable to him. Something very important to him that he has kept on his person for years. He rubs his thumb across it as he looks at it, still sat down in that seat in the office. Ren looks at him and he sits upright, the others are all still asleep at the moment. But morning is slowly approaching, and Ren is usually the first up. Until they met Kassius, because he struggles to sleep anyway. “Didn’t get any sleep?” Ren asks him, Kassius turns his eyes and looks at him and he chuckles.

“Nah...” Kassius answers, tapping the side of his head with his cybernetic finger. “Hyde makes that a little difficult.” He sighs as he lowers the necklace down and sits it on his legs which are rested on the desk.

“He still bothering you?” Ren inquires, which makes him chuckle.

“Hyde’s always bothering me, it’s what he does.” Kassius tells him.

“How do you even put up with him?”

“ _Hey! I can still hear you!_ ” Hyde exclaims from within Kassius’ head, but he ignores the entity that lurks within him.

“I mostly try to ignore him, easier said than done when he is in your head.” Kassius answers.

“What was it like when you were young? Did you have trouble with your semblance?” Ren asks him curiously, similar to the issues that Yang had. Basically extreme temper tantrums that could blow people away in the process. Luckily she has learned how to control it...Kassius is still trying to figure out how. Unlike Yang, his rage has its own personality and consciousness, making that much harder to control.

“It felt like I was a ticking time bomb. So many people, kids in particular, thought I was insane. _The kid with his crazy imaginary friend_...I gave him the name when I read the book on Jekyll and Hyde...thought it was a good name to give him.” Kassius explains, still remembering the tough times that he had. He might not have had much time in school due to the death of his mother and the lack of money to remain at the school itself...he still remembers the few years he was there.

“I’m sorry, it couldn’t have been easy.” Ren apologises, and Kassius looks at him.

“Hey man, we’ve all suffered. My way of thinking is to just get on with it, leave the past in the past.” He says, ironically considering the lust for revenge that controlled him over Ilia. But her death does seem to scar him, changed his view on things quite effectively. Ren’s eyes focus onto the necklace that he has, and that makes him even more curious about him. Since he has never actually asked what it is.

“What is that? The necklace?” Ren inquires, and Kassius lifts it up on his fingers...staring at the data stick. He sighs when he looks at it, swinging the chain around his hand and the stick lands in his palm.

“A promise I made.” He answers.

“Vetra?” He asks, presuming it is the girl he once loved, but he shakes his head.

“No...I made a promise to my mom...that I would give this to Cinder whenever I had the chance.” Kassius tells him, taking his feet off the table and he sits forward, setting the necklace around his neck, letting the stick hang down. He picks up his Stetson and fits it onto his head firmly and he exhales.

“Why haven’t you done it yet?” He asks.

Kassius sighs. “Haven’t found the right time, yet.” He answers honestly. Kassius turns his head when he notices someone very familiar, so familiar that he actually stands up with a surprised face. He walks into the Operation Centre of the room outside their glass office with his arm held behind his back, white hair combed to the side and with a smug smirk on his face. Ren stands up beside Kassius, sharing the same expression.

It’s Whitley Schnee.

“Whitley...what the hell is he doing here?” Kassius questions, none of them truly trust him. The publicity has shown Whitley as a changed man, apparently somebody who wants to repair what his father did to the Schnee Dust Company. But they know better – Weiss knows better – he has always lived in his father’s shadow. And he will do everything he can to constantly impress his father, even if that means taking people’s lives away from them. Ren crosses his arms as he looks at Whitley, he speaks to the operatives inside of the Operations Centre, and they cannot hear him.

But it cannot be good for them.

Jaune was passed out in his seat with his hand supporting his head where his elbow is currently rested on the mahogany wooden table. He wakes up suddenly when he slips from his hand, and his blue eyes instantly dart to the screen where Pyrrha is asleep right now. Nobody noticed that Ortega entered the room and could have easily murdered her right then and there, but he couldn’t. All because there is most certainly some good left in him...he just needs help in finding it. Penny also comes back online; she was letting her systems relax for a bit, the same as sleeping for her as everyone else though. She sits upright as she looks around, and the others begin to wake up as well. “Wha-What’s happening?” Port slurs, as he looks around.

Kassius answers with one simple statement. “Whitley Schnee.” Jaune stands up, his wheeled chair rolls back as he walks over to Kassius and Ren who stand there, staring at him. It is unclear if he knows that they are glaring right at him or not, but they do not break the stare.

“That can’t be good, that little brat has always been a thorn in our side.” Jaune remembers, anyone who sides with Jacque Schnee is a thorn in their side. And there is no clearer snake than that boy who stands there, speaking with the soldiers inside. Thaddeus opens the door to his office and he walks towards Whitely, speaking with him. Kassius leans forward, pressing his hands against the metal railing, watching intently.

Hyde might be a bit of a dick at times, but sometimes he can be very perceptive. “ _You think that Whitley and Thaddeus are working together?_ ” Hyde asks Kassius in his head, and that idea does come to mind. Then he thinks about it – they came for them at Beacon, what if Whitley wanted to find Weiss and Winter there as well. Then he realises, his eyes widen as well, remembering the call that Yang brought to his attention about the attack at the Schnee Dust Company Branch.

“Holy hell...” Kassius realises.

“What is it?” Oobleck inquires as he walks over to him.

“There was an attack in Vacuo, one that was aimed to kill Winter, and possibly even Weiss.” He points out, and then he points right at Whitley with his theory in his mind. All thanks to the help of Mr Hyde, at least he is not always annoying. “That little bastard has had it out for those two for ages. What if he had hoped they were still at Beacon at the time?” Kassius suggests as he points at him, and then lowers his cybernetic finger.

“It’s possible.” Oobleck agrees, pacing back and forth. “And if he wanted to capture or kill them, he could have plotted with Thaddeus behind our backs.” He suggests as he speaks his mind as he thinks.

“Precisely what we were thinking.” Kassius says, giving some credit to Hyde as well.

“We?” Nora asks curiously.

“Hyde and I, he suggested the idea.” Kassius states, and Penny giggles slightly.

“I guess he can be helpful.” Penny giggles, and Kassius hears Hyde in his head say something that even makes him chuckle.

“ _I don’t get where people are getting the idea that I am unhelpful._ ” Hyde sarcastically says.

They have no idea of what Whitley is saying to Thaddeus, the boy keeps his arm behind his back as he looks at him. “So we can push the meeting forward to today?” Whitley asks him, they’ve no idea that the meeting of all the politicians on the Atlesian Coalition is being pulled closer to this day, instead of days later. Meaning that Pyrrha is running out of time.

“You can assure me that the Dust Mining Operations will be more successful?” Thaddeus asks him, clearly wanting something out of it.

“Oh, I can assure you that we will have our workers will be working double-time.” Whitley assures, and Thaddeus smiles, proud of himself...unknowingly being manipulated by a young man. Whitley turns and he walks away from him, and he looks at the Hunters in the office who watch him. He gives them a sinister smirk as he turns down the hallway. He pulls his scroll out from his jacket and he sends a message.

_To – T.M_

_Clean Slate is ready._

_W.S_

Whitley continues on his path with that smirk on his face.

He has something planned.

Something big.

 

**Adam**

_“Ilia! Hold on!” Adam’s voice yells in his head, echoing endlessly. He can hear her scream and the maniacal laughter of Tyrian Callows as he strikes._

_“Adam!” Ilia screams._

Adam gasps; lifting his head as he wakes up from the nightmare, her death still hurts. The thing that really did change his mind on everything, is that a Faunus did that to her. He always wanted to believe that the Faunus were better than humans, but Tyrian seemed to prove him wrong. But there are still the lingering thoughts, everything that Atlas has been doing lately; it is bringing the bad memories of the loss of his parents back again. He picks Wilt and Blush back up and rests it on his legs, he would hold it and sharpen the blade with a Whetstone, but he cannot. He still struggles with only having one arm now, ironic considering what he did to Yang years ago. He picks it up, feeling across the table to find it, then he grabs it and sets it onto the blade. For a man who is blind, he can move around very well. He presses the whetstone against the red blade and scrapes it against the edges to sharpen the blade more and more, sparks fling from the scraping of the rough stone. He keeps on doing it, and then he hears the chuckle of Mazen who is still trapped in that cell of his. “How long are you going to hide from it, Adam?” Mazen questions, sat with his back pressed to the glass as he stares at the once leader of the White Fang. Adam stares at him, unable to see Mazen but he can still hear his breath.

“Hide from what?” Adam questions, and Mazen scoffs, his arm rested on his knee as he sits there.

“The truth?” He questions, staring directly at him.

“You are relentless.” Adam scoffs at his determination to try and turn Adam against the alliance he has been trying to solidify.

“I remember what you were like back in the day. You were formidable, nobody would ever dare stand in your way. I was there with Roman Torchwick on that Train, I was there at the Battle of Beacon. I was there when Menagerie fell, the battles we fought all had a goal in mind.” He explains to him, staring through those sockets in his mask that share the similar markings of Adam’s.

“And what goal was that, Mazen? Remind me what our goal was.” He states, wanting him to tell him what he already knows.

“To turn the tide, to make the Humans serve the Faunus.” Mazen states with real determination to carry this belief out there. Adam sighs and shakes his head, standing up and sheathing Wilt and Blush into his scabbard.

“No, Mazen...with the threats that we are facing...we cannot continue down that path.” Adam states as he walks around the room, listening to Mazen as he speaks.

“And what happens after we beat them? Do you think the Humans will instantly forgive us? Do you really think they will accept us as equals?” Mazen questions, sitting forward as he stares at Adam.

“I believe it is possible.”

“You will believe whatever that Blake believes.”

“Stop.”

“Even though she has fallen for that Monkey-Boy...you still love her, don’t you?”

“I said stop.”

“Tell me, if it were a different Faunus, would you have changed your beliefs?”

“I said enough!” Adam bellows with rage, his red hair glows bright as he steps forward, hard as well. The impact of his boot on the ground echoes through the cells. But Mazen does not even flinch, and down to Adam’s reaction, that is the answer he needed. Adam is still in love with her, in his own way.

“It’s time for you to accept the truth. You are fighting for a cause that will betray you one day.” Mazen states, and Adam sighs, stomping off and Mazen watches him leave. “Just wait – because they will always turn us away.”

Adam pushes the door open and he walks outside, pressing his hand against the side of his head to fight the thoughts. Because deep down he knows that Mazen is right, he did not make him his second in command for no reason at all. He even touches the snapped horn on his head that Kassius broke off when Hyde took over and he went into that blood-fuelled rage, nearly killing more people than just Adam. And nearly killed Ilia in the process as well when she was there as well, the first time Hyde had ever showed himself to them. He looks up at Beacon tower, and he walks towards the elevator, taking it up to Ozpin’s Office. The elevator moves very quickly up the tower and there is something on his mind that he cannot escape. He is up to something, all the ideas that have been fed into his head by Mazen seem to be taking over again.

The doors open and he looks around.

Glynda is not in the office, he looks around and then looks around. He sees one of the security cameras on Ozpin’s computer, and he can see her asleep by his bedside. She has her head on the bed and arms crossed under her head as a support. She has not left his side since they found him, he still has not woken up. And has not said a word to Oscar since his recovery either.

Adam takes his chance and he walks towards his desk, setting Wilt and Blush against the side of it, and he sits in the chair. Luckily Ozpin has a setting which Adam can speak into it to find whatever it is that he is looking for. “Please speak clearly so I can find you what you are looking for.” The computerised voice requests, and Adam sits forward, speaking into the microphone.

“Reconstruction on Menagerie, I want to know how it is doing.” He demands, speaking clearly and slowly for the machine to understand what he wants. The computer takes a couple of seconds, but it eventually gives him the answer that he is looking for. And it is not what he was hoping for, but was what Mazen was hoping to hear.

“Due to Atlesian President, Thaddeus Brimstone, colonisation and reconstruction has been halted at Menagerie for the next five years.” The computer answers, and Adam gasps with fear because of this, but he needs more and more information.

“Why?” Adam demands.

“Thaddeus Brimstone has decided to focus the funds for rebuilding the Faunus Sanctuary into creating labour for Faunus in securing Dust Mines for the Schnee Dust Company.” The computer answers, and he clenches his hand into a fist, gritting his teeth. He is getting angrier because he is realising how right Mazen really is.

He stands up, the chair rolls back and he clenches his hand into a fist, roaring with rage as he strikes the table with all his might. He smashes the keyboard in half in the process and the holographic screens shatter as well. He stumbles back and presses his hand against the glass, horrified from this.

Everything that the White Fang sacrificed to help Humanity, to try and solidify peace between the two races.

But the Atlesians...

They will never change.

 

**Qrow**

Qrow sits down beside Raven in the old abandoned City of Ephai. The calls of countless animals echo throughout the remnants of this place. The skeleton of an ancient people, and he looks at Hazel. His aura is healing the bite wound that was inflicted on him from Fear’s Ultimate form, leaving some scars behind, the same for Qrow on his neck as well. Some fang scars from his jaws. He was far more animalistic than he normally was, and he looks at Cinder. She has recovered from her Fall Maiden Power usage, no longer passed out from the power she used. Taiyang sits on a block of mossy stone, exhausted from that battle as well. “Well...that was one hell of a fight.” Taiyang says to them all with a chuckle.

“Yeah...one hell of a fight.” Raven agrees, just as exhausted, and Qrow looks at Cinder and Hazel. Now that the battle is over, they can ask them both why they are here.

“What are you two doing here? Last I heard from you guys, you were on the other side of Anima.” Qrow asks them both, Hazel sits forward and he rubs his head.

“We tracked Summer down here. Seems she was being hunted by the same things that we fought here as well. Those...Riders?” He presumes.

“The _Knights’ Bannermen_.” Raven corrects, remembering what the Witches had told them about the Mirror and the Spring Maiden. And since Fury roared it when he was stood atop that Pyramid.

“Yeah, those things. Our journey led us to this city, and then we found you guys when Fear and Fury showed up.” Hazel concludes.

“Haven’t seen a single Knight for five years, and two of them happen to show up here? They must be here.” Cinder states, brushing her black locks of hair from her eyes as she sits there, flicking some dirt from her dress.

“It’ll make our job a lot simpler if they are both here.” Taiyang chuckles.

“What about you three? How did you wind up here?” Hazel inquires.

“Started in Vale, found a message on an old Arkhoni Structure, and she teleported into Mistral. We met these three Witches who gave us information on where she went, two possible locations. Here or Vacuo, and since I’ve heard nothing from Ruby and the others, I’m guessing it must be here.” Qrow explains to them.

“And then the Knights showed up.” Cinder presumes.

“And the White Fang.” Hazel adds.

“The White Fang?” Raven asks, since they never really did see Fennec or Corsac at the time.

“Well, the ones that follow the Albain Brothers. The Knights must have offered them a deal to help them.” Hazel clarifies, the two of them were rather good fighters, but not good enough to challenge Hazel in combat. There is a reason why Salem brought him into her Inner Circle, he is a lethal Huntsman.

“What are Ruby and the others doing in Vacuo?” Cinder asks him, once that would be so then she could track her down and kill her. Now it is more for concern of her safety, since so much has changed, in both past events and in her personality.

“You haven’t heard?” Taiyang asks the two of them.

“Heard about what?” Hazel asks.

“Headmaster Theodore was assassinated there, they went there to figure out who did it and why.” Raven tells them, which is quite shocking news.

“Hmm...Theodore was always a pretty troubled man. Salem used to have us keep our eyes on him, she saw him as easy to manipulate.” Hazel remembers, back to their time serving the Dark Queen.

“Well, according to Ruby. Seems like he got worse, sounds more like the murderer saved the city by killing him.” Qrow states with a chuckle in his voice.

“I never did like the man.” Raven shrugs.

“Then what is it that worries you?” Cinder asks, since it is clear from the way he is talking about the events at Vacuo. Qrow sighs, thinking about when Ruby encountered both Neo and Salem at Vacuo, meaning that she is not gone. Not something that they would be surprised at, but still not happy to hear as well.

“Ruby said that she got into a battle against Salem and Neo.” Qrow tells them, and Cinder’s eye widens when she hears that name.

“Salem...” Cinder stammers, remembering that she did order Fury to put that scar on her chest.

“So she’s still in the game?” Hazel says with a sigh.

“Of course she is...but we don’t think that she is the one in charge.” Raven says, sounding worried when she even thinks about Vir Nominis Umbra.

“What do you mean?” Cinder inquires.

“When Oscar went back to Arkhonex, remember he told us about that Soothsayer?” Qrow asks them.

“Yeah?” Cinder follows.

“Well...I saw him as well...and he didn’t age a day.” Qrow says, having no idea at the moment that Oscar and Ruby have both seen him very recently. Hell, Oscar had a full conversation with him in that Tavern. Revealing his true intentions which just appear to be pure evil as well.

“We never saw him, we only served Salem and then the Knights showed up. As soon as they arrived, she became uncertain of her own leadership...it all fell apart in time.” Hazel explains, remembering the fall. And he is completely right, as soon as the four Knights of Grimm arrived, everything fell apart in Salem’s little alliance she created. Tyrian died, Watts died and her Fall Maiden and one of her loyalists betrayed her. The White Fang turned against her and she lost the Relics in the process.

She has been broken ever since, no longer keeping her hair like that of a spider and wearing a Poncho.

“Well...we will find a way to stop him.” Cinder says.

“And on that, what’s next?” Taiyang asks Qrow, looking at him. Qrow grunts as he pushes his sword down into the ground and stands up. He turns and looks out at the largest Pyramid in the centre of the city. There is a bridge that directs them into the entrance. He points at it with a hunch.

“I say that way – if anywhere looks safe, that would be the best place to store one of those Mirrors. Then we track them down.” Qrow says.

They all stand up, ready for their next mission.

“Let’s move.” Cinder agrees.

 

**Salem**

She sits there by the Leshen that remains in slumber, waiting for it to be activated. The Lord of the Wood has a bird pecking against the wooden shoulders of the being, and then it stabs the bird swiftly with its claws, killing it instantly. Salem sits there and Neo is slumped down in the corner, waiting for her next set of orders. It is strange to see Salem so...broken...she does not look as well cared for as she used to. She has grime and sand on her face, her hair let loose down her shoulders and tired eyes. She floats grains of sand above her palm, then she sighs as she releases it. She can hear the wings that whoosh towards her.

Salem turns, seeing the black wings and the massive Nevermore that flies straight towards her little camp she has created. The Nevermore transforms in a huge cloud of smoke, and Death lands right in front of her, landing on both feet. The landing makes the ground shake and Salem stares at him, then looks back at the sand. Death towers above her and he walks towards her. “What are you doing?” Death questions with a furious voice, drawing Ferrum Arctus.

“Waiting for the right moment.” Salem answers calmly, Neo opens her eyes and she looks at the Knight that stands there, his wings folding away into his black cape that blows in the hot desert wind.

“I was informed of your fight with Ruby Rose, you were not to reveal your survival until we were agreed upon the right time.” Death states with anger in his voice. Clearly this information was delivered by Umbra himself at some time.

“The Clean Slate is coming, just wait.” She sighs, not even arguing with him anymore. Death sighs through his mask and sheathes his sword, looking out at the desert.

“Has your pet found anything?” He questions.

“The Dragon?” She asks, hoping for some clarification.

“Yes.” Death answers.

“Nothing at the moment, but he will be back soon.” She assures.

“Good...because the time is drawing close.” Death states, transforming and flying off into the sky.

_What is the Clean Slate?_

_What does it mean?_

**Ruby**

The aircraft flies across the sky, a day later, and it has arrived at Mistral. The craft hovers towards the landing pad outside the city, the landing gear folds out and it lands down on the pad. The doors open and the passengers all disembark from it, all walking down the steps into the city. Winter steps out first, looking around and then she walks down the steps, Blake behind her. Ruby and Oscar follow, and the two pairs part ways.

Winter and Blake turn and enter the city, whereas Oscar and Ruby head towards the mountains.

They trek their way through the mountains, following the thousands of steps through the huge mountains. Ruby has also recovered one of her spare capes as well, putting that one on after losing the other one that she had. After Neo completely annihilated it. Her cape blows in the wind as she walks, as does her long black and red hair.

It feels like their walk lasts forever.

Until they approach the gates of Dragonspire Keep.

Huge watchtowers built up as they keep their eyes open for any threats out there in the world. In the gigantic land of Remnant. The doors then open wide before them. Ruby smiles and she runs to the tall Mechanical Man that walks out. The Architect chuckles as he catches her, she wraps her arms around him as she hugs him tight. “Welcome back, child.” The Architect greets with a chuckle, rubbing her hair with his hand. He turns and looks at Oscar, holding his hand out and shaking his hand. “Come, let’s go find Kragen.” He says, and they follow him inside the huge courtyard.

Things have changed.

The Silver Eyed Warriors are training again, wearing the ancient armour that they used to. They battle against each other with training swords, no longer looking as hopeless as they used to. Others use their silver eyes to lift up rubble, helping repair the old damage done to the Fortress years ago when it was attacked during the Arkhoni Empire’s Fall.

Ruby looks at the Architect, and his mechanical body has been improved, no more rust around him and the joints are working much better as well. He also has a new grey spray paint on his body as well, looking brand new. The oldest machine that she has ever seen, the Arkhoni People really did build their technology to last. He stops with Ruby and Oscar beside him and he looks at the old man. “Hey boss! Got someone you might wanna see!” He calls.

“Who is it?” Kragen asks, not turning around yet as he helps a younger Silver Eyed Warrior.

“Turn around and see for yourself.” The Architect answers, he would smirk if he could. Kragen does so and he cannot help but smile when he sees Ruby stood there. Ruby smiles like a little kid, so happy to see him and she runs towards him. Kragen catches her hug and Oscar smiles happily as he looks at her, dwarfed by the tall Mechanical Man.

“Good to see you again, my dear.” Kragen greets with a kind smile.

It has been a while since they last saw him.

Time to catch up.

 

 


	30. Dragonspire Keep

**Ruby**

An Eagle is perched on one of the huge Watchtowers of Dragonspire Keep, its feathers well kempt with strikingly beautiful colours across its body. It shrieks out, the call echoing across the mountain range where it has nested. The young squeak to their mother for food and she regurgitates her meal for them. Ruby gazes at the incredible animal with awe; she has never seen one of those Eagles in the wild before. Only in Zoos when Taiyang took her and Yang there when they were little. Oscar stands beside her, and Kragen is speaking with one of the Silver Eyed Warriors indistinctively. Ruby turns when she hears the mechanical footsteps approaching behind her, and she sees the Architect walking over to them both. He holds two cups of coffee that he has brewed for them; Ruby’s is filled with blasphemous amounts of sugar as always. Whereas Oscar only has two sugar cubes, similar to what Ozpin has ironically. “Here you go, love-birds.” The Architect greets as he sets their cups down on the stone step that they both sit on. Ruby smiles kindly and politely accepts the coffee that he made for her.

“Thank you.” She approves with a smile on her face, something that is in short supply these days. Oscar chuckles, taking his mug and taking a sip, looking at the mechanical man who sits down beside them, his legs open slightly.

“You always gonna call us that?” Oscar inquires curiously, and the Architect chuckles.

“Oh of course.” The Architect promises, if he had a face he would be smirking away due to the way that he said it. He has truly changed from when they first met him, at first the Architect was a very formal individual, all about his code and all that. But it seems that after meeting the rest of them, something in him was re-released. And saving Ruby and destroying those cursed islands...it must have definitely given that spark of hope that brought the Silver Eyed Knights back into the world. Ruby looks around; she and Oscar were captured when Yang and the others first met Kragen and his band of broken warriors. But she still remembers the state of the place when they got her and the relics there after the fall of the islands. It was never this – clean and repaired, so to speak.

“You and Kragen sure have been busy; the place looks like it has been in operation for hundreds of years.” Ruby points out as she holds her warm cup in her hands, the steam trailing from the coffee inside. The Architect looks out at the courtyard, seeing the other Silver Eyed Warriors training with their weapons, clashing their blades into one another over and over again. The sparks bursting off from every single impact made from the blows, they have become very skilful as well. Ducking down and avoiding the attacks of their partner, spinning round and parrying. Even channelling the power that they wield from their silver eyes into the Isomacium woven into the metal of their weapons. All Silver Eyed Warriors are given customized weapons that have Isomacium fused into their weapons in order to maximise their attacking power.

It is one of the main reasons that it has been said that the Grimm feared the Silver Eyed Knights back in the day.

Until Salem came along...

Before the Empire of Arkhonex collapsed due to their arrogance.

The Architect nods and speaks to the two of them. “We have been making strides lately, in both finding Silver Eyed Ones out there in the world and training them. I have to admit, Ruby – it is true what all the people say about you.” The Architect says, and she raises her brow at his kind statement.

“Oh, and what do they say?” Ruby inquires curiously.

“That you have a spark, something that can inspire hope in people, even during the darkest of times.” The Architect answers, saying something very similar to something that Ozpin had said once. But Ruby does not even know that, perhaps that is the very reason that Ozpin let her into Beacon early. Ruby twiddles with her mug, looking at her reflection in the coffee and she sighs as she thinks on those words.

_Let’s hope that spark can finally bring us peace._

The Architect may not have heard that thought she just had, but he could see it in her silver eye. Oscar looks at Kragen as he approaches the two of them, and he stands up. Ruby proceeds to do the same, setting her cup of coffee down on the step, approaching him as he walks with his staff in his hand. The other Silver Eyed Warrior returns to where he was, training away with her allies. “Apologies, some of our warriors here are still in need of guidance at times. I have made an oath to help all who ask for it.” Kragen explains, humbly as he sets the staff down like a cane, holding it in that pose.

“It’s okay...we came here to talk to you, though.” Ruby explains, rather timidly. Kragen raises his brow and he stands there, both hands pressed upon the staff’s head.

“Ah? And what have you come to speak with me about?” He inquires; the Architect stands back up and looks at them both as they look at each other. Where to start? They have learned so much since they last spoke with him, but they feel like they should start at the most important and recent event.

“We found another Visionary Book – in the Vault underneath Shade Academy in Vacuo.” Ruby informs him, and she can see the change in his expression.

It has gone from kind greeting to fully piqued interest, and he gently gestures his head to follow him. The four of them walk towards the entrance of the Keep, and they walk across the green fields that stretch out for miles. Patches of white snow scattered across the mountain ranges and they step across the ancient stones left behind from a prehistoric era. Kragen stops by the edge of the grasslands, looking out at the cliff face and the ocean that strikes waves against the cliffs. The mountains are at the very edge of the ocean, huge waves crashing into them, bangs echo for miles as the tonnes of water impact. His robes blow in the wind as he stands there, Ruby and Oscar look at the Architect and then at him.

“Kragen?” They ask him.

He stays quiet a moment more before turning to them. “What did you see?” He asks in return, and Oscar looks at Ruby. For she is the one that actually accessed it and the files of memory stored within the pages. Remembering the mysterious whispers that called out to her across the Vault itself to pique her own interest. She looks at Oscar and he nods, the Architect leans against the cobblestone wall and crosses his arms.

“I saw the Knights...before they became what they are now...I saw them capture Fury and...” She stammers, and Kragen fully turns to face her and he waits for her response.

“Take your time; it is never easy to comprehend the power that those Books wield.” Kragen avows, which makes Ruby feel much better. She closes her eye, seeing the terrifying sight of Vir Nominis Umbra once more. His piercing red eyes that flashed as he stared directly into her eyes. The smirk he gave her, the nightmarishly kind voice that he had at the time. And yet behind it there was something much more sinister, like another monster that was using that voice, that body, as a disguise.

“I saw that moment – from the Fable of the Knights of Grimm...the cobblestone road...the merchant.” Ruby explains, reminiscing when Kassius told the tale to them when they were all reunited in Mistral five years ago. Before it all fell apart and the Knights reduced that once great city to an abandoned ruin for their foes to use as a hiding spot. Kragen looks at her, and there is that look of recognition and he turns back to the ocean that crashes against the mainland over and over again. His trimmed grey beard ever so slightly moves as the wind brushes against his face. “Sir...” Ruby sweetly says, even calling him _sir_ when he never asks those to call him that. “What does it all mean? These books?” She asks him, and he sighs, exhaling cold air as he looks out, closing his silver eyes. Oscar raises a brow and he reaches out to the Silver Eyed Knight of Old.

“Kragen?” Oscar beckons, the Old Wizard swiftly turns to them, still holding his staff with both hands, like how they would imagine Old Wizards would from fairy tales. “What does this mean?” He asks him, and Kragen smiles.

“It means that we have work to do, my dear boy.” Kragen answers, and he nods to the Architect as they both start to walk back into the Keep. Oscar and Ruby both stare at one another with confusion clear on their faces.

“Wait – what do you mean?” Ruby asks, running as she keeps up with him.

“You saw our battle on those Islands, am I correct?” He inquires, walking beside his cybernetic friend, he looks at one of them and he snaps his fingers to him. He has a robotic eye and he picks up his hammer, following them. A silver eyed man like Ruby is, and he also has an eye missing, but has had it replaced with a cybernetic one. Ruby’s eye widens with shock when she sees the state of this warrior, he has cybernetic arms and legs, he lost both of them in combat most likely. His cybernetic eye twitches violently as he walks.

“Ye-Yes, but I did not see all of it. I had to follow the Knights as they chased after the Captain.” Ruby explains, following him, she accidentally bumps into one of the Silver Eyed Trainees, who stumbles and keeps on walking to the others who are armoured up.

“But you saw them together, correct? All five Vanguards?” He asks her.

Ruby looks at him with a widened eye, because she never took Axzura Vex for a Vanguard. But she simply answers anyway, since she knows that he wants to continue on his explanation. “Yes...” She answers shyly. The Silver Eyed Knight that the Architect beckoned to join them walks beside the Mechanical man, and they all approach a different entrance to the Fortress that has been built up. The question is on her mind, but Oscar is the one who decides to ask it.

“Hey Kragen? Who are these people?” He asks curiously, as they step through the open gate and look out at the road that approaches this entrance. Kragen stops and turns to them all.

“Silver Eyed Warriors who have been very loyal to me for quite some time. They were out on missions before, but now they are all here. Our last one to arrive is nearly here.” Kragen tells them, and Ruby stands there and looks at him. She has so many questions and is struggling to find the time to even ask him about them.

“But Kragen – we really need to talk to you about what has happened lately.” Ruby says to him, and he looks at her.

“And you shall, I am certain of it.” He assures.

“The Knights...they are not evil, I understand that now, but how do we help them?” She asks with curiosity.

“Everything has their weaknesses, and everything has their equal.” Kragen answers, with yet another riddle. But before she can even continue with what she was saying, she is interrupted and stumped by the distant roar of a creature that approaches. Her eye widens and Oscar verbally gasps with pure disbelief of what he sees flying towards them. Kragen smiles when he sees the being. “Ah yes – I do so love perfect timing.”

Some sort of glowing white winged creature, a Basilisk in fact, flies towards them. White clouds of aura and energy comprise the creature, its beak opens and it roars as it flies towards them. Kragen has a big smile on his face, seeing her reaction to this for the first time. “What the hell is that?” She asks with shock.

“That – my dear – is Gray Malachite.” Kragen answers with a smirk, and suddenly the Glowing White Basilisk creature transforms before their very eyes. The white energy dissipates and a man drops from the clouds of light, his eyes trailing with the same energy. He lands and rolls across the ground, with a woman of similar age tumbling across the ground behind him. She shrieks with terror as she crawls to her feet, trying to escape from him.

“Oh come on!” Gray exclaims, with a very fun sounding voice as he turns to her, trying to calm her down as he follows her. Ruby and Oscar both walk forward and Kragen follows them, watching as Gray attempted to calm the woman down who shrieks and swings her stick at him that she has on her. The two young Hunters look amazed and almost entertained by what they watch. Gray is a tall and muscular man who wears a stealthy and tactical black vest with golden sips and pouches for his two revolvers he has holstered, along with a pair of Katanas sheathed on his back. He has spiky grey hair, but is in fact in his thirties. He has a tattoo of a Basilisk roaring and with its wings splayed outwards on his bicep on his left arm. The woman is the same height as he is, and is very slender and clearly athletic. She has long black hair with blue highlights and almost glowing silver eyes as well. She clearly was not prepared, for she is wearing a dress and has a lot of makeup on. “My tulip, why must you be like this?” He questions as he reaches out for her.

“Stay back!” The woman shrieks as she strikes his hand with her pointer, snapping it upon contact. Gray exclaims with a scream of pain, grabbing his wrist.

“Please, do not hit me again!” Gray demands with a raised voice. The bewildered pair both stare at the situation, and Oscar turns to Kragen.

“So...is this a kidnapping or a recruitment process?” Oscar inquires curiously; Kragen takes a second to answer.

“Well it’s both, really.” Kragen answers with a shrug, then he points at the woman as she tumbles down the hill to escape Gray who captured her. “I must say, I admire her little fight or flight response to all this.” Kragen states with a chuckle in his voice. Gray sighs as he rubs his head and turns to Kragen across the field from him.

“She is _very_ difficult!” Gray yells, his voice echoes.

 

**Whitley**

The young Schnee stands there in the manor with his eyes focused on the mirror, using his comb to sort out his hair. His hand shakes as he holds the comb, feeling his heart pounding as his mind revolves around the events that are coming to pass. He then straightens his tie as he looks at himself, then the door knocks. He rolls his blue eyes and sighs. “Come in.” He speaks with a raised voice, turning to who opens the door. Klein stands there with his hands behind his back.

“Pardon the interruption, Mr Schnee, but your mother would like to speak with you.” Klein respectfully states as he holds his hands there, looking at the young man. Whitley closes his eyes with a sharp intake of air, walking towards his window as he looks out at the city of Atlas. Staring at the building of which the Atlesian Coalition shall be signed. One where he will be there and will have to make a speech at. He has become a very big member of Atlesian Society, meaning that he will have to speak there. It takes him a couple of seconds before he gives the loyal servant his answer.

“Okay...” He answers with shaken breath. Klein steps aside and the beautiful woman steps inside, her long white hair has been tied back into a ponytail that is off-centred in a similar way to her youngest daughter’s is. Klein closes the door behind her, and the sound of the bolt slamming shut inside seems to echo in the silence. The Office that once belonged to her husband and his father now belongs to him, but the memories still remain. Every drunken rage, every recital forgotten, every argument.

“Whitley?” Willow softly speaks to him, but he continues to look out at the city as he stands there, his hands pressed down against the surface of the windowsill. He turns and looks at her, no matter how much he claims to hate his own mother, there is still that feeling that you get whenever a parent says your name. You have to look at them and listen to whatever they have to say. She has never stopped loving him, even if he has stopped loving her due to the loneliness that he has suffered in his childhood. Being indoctrinated by his monster of a father.

“What do you want?” He questions, and Willow sighs, walking into the office and she picks up the photograph of him when he was younger.

“I remember when we took this picture.” Willow softly states with a smile on her face. Whitley looks at her and he crosses his arms as he stares at her. “You were so excited to go and see Weiss’ song...” Willow speaks, laughing slightly as she remembers all those years ago. The happiness that they once had, or at least she had in seeing her son like that. But at the end of the day, he rarely even saw that. Sadly, he only remembers her always drinking alone in the cold gardens whilst their father would discipline them. He hates her more than he even hates his sisters, because she of all people seemed to abandon him.

And now she wants to reconnect with him.

Whitley scoffs. “Now you want to have a mother to son relationship with me?” Whitley questions with furious eyes, and Willow looks right at him with eyes that are those of grief and regret. To this day, she regrets ever picking up that bottle of wine after Jacques revealed he only married her for the Family Fortune, for the Schnee Name. She always suspected him of that; he was never really human in the heart or mind, ironic considering his love for tormenting the Faunus.

“Whitley...please...” She begs as she walks towards him but he points at her with his finger with angered eyes.

“Don’t.” He snarls, storming past her and to his spray that he puts on for the speech that he is preparing.

“Are you ready? For your speech at the Grand Hall?” Willow inquires curiously, and he turns to her with his arm behind his back as always.

“I can handle a speech.” He says.

“There are already News Reporters outside who want to talk to you; I was asked if I could bring you out here to give them a teaser.” She explains, as if she herself has become a servant. He rolls his eyes and looks at his own reflection.

“Damned Press.” He sighs, gently rubbing his chin as he feels the freshly shaved bristles where he has been working hard to stay cleanly shaven. He looks so much younger now than he did literally the day before.

“I know...I’ve had to handle them in the past a lot, especially with the things your father did.” Willow sighs, he does not comment on what she said there about Jacque. Perhaps he does not want to show his cards yet to her, that he is in fact keeping the Schnee Dust Company running whilst his father has gone into hiding. Working for Vir Nominis Umbra after all as well.

“How do you handle them?” Whitley inquires, just staring at his own image.

Willow sighs. “Well – I just answer their questions as quickly as I can so then I can get back to what I was doing.” She says to him, and he walks towards the door and stares at her with a scoff.

“Your next glass of wine?” He asks, opening the door and leaving her back inside. She lowers her head sadly and presses her hand to her forehead. He keeps on walking outside, and he can see the press waiting to speak to him outside of the garden, one of them is Lisa Lavender in fact. But before he walks out, he receives a message.

There is no name, just the picture of a ghost.

_Everything’s ready._

He puts his scroll away and he smirks.

“Good.”

 

**Ruby**

Ruby and Oscar have been taken into the large room inside of the Fortress where that massive table sits. The huge map of Remnant splayed out across the wall and the markings of the Ancient Arkhoni Empire across the stone architecture. Ruby gently runs her finger across the stone, feeling the grooves and the marks that were chiselled here years ago. There is no longer the gathering of dust on the walls anymore, they have been dusted and cleaned. The place looks so much better than it did years prior. It was in a completely different condition the last time that they saw this place. They have a done a remarkable job in restoring all of it back to its former glory. Oscar is in there as well, gazing at the Map of Remnant, the different circled areas of which Kragen has been searching for more Visionary Books. In his quest to free the Knights of Grimm from their torment that Umbra has put them in.

The doors open and Kragen enters, the other Silver Eyed Warriors with him. Gray walks in and pulls out a seat with the woman that he kidnapped with him as well. Clearly she has recovered from everything that happened, but they are all still astounded that they witnessed Gray transform from a glowing White Basilisk and into a person again. The only things they have witnessed achieving feats such as that are the Knights of Grimm and their Beast Forms. “No doubt you all have questions.” Kragen states, clearly also speaking to the woman who has been kidnapped.

“Maybe one or two.” She admits, she has a very proper voice, and from the amount of makeup she wears and the expensive clothing and jewellery. She must be Atlesian; no average person would have access to such expensive things as that.

“Well, my name is Kragen Nox. I am the Counsellor of the Silver Eyed Knights.” Kragen explains to her and she raises her brow at how he described his rank.

“Counsellor? Don’t you mean leader?” She questions.

“No he means Counsellor.” Ruby snarkily replies, leading to one surprised and almost repulsed expression from the woman who sits there.

“I do not force people into joining our ranks or into following my orders. I merely give them advice on how to improve their abilities – such as the ones who share with us.” Kragen explains as he points his staff at her eyes, she looks at them all and only notices that Oscar is the only one who does not have Silver Eyes in the room. He is really the odd one out with those hazel coloured irises of his.

“And...kidnapping me is not forcing me into your ranks?” She questions.

“Well – you on the other hand are different.” Kragen explains. The man who is mostly cybernetics approaches her with a cup of tea and a small plate underneath it. He sets it down before her and walks away, standing against the wall again. The Architect is in here as well, with Gray as well with his arms crossed.

“And how is that?” The woman questions, and Kragen turns to Ruby and Oscar in order to introduce them to the woman that sits in that chair.

“Ruby Rose, Oscar Pine. I would like to introduce to you – Serena Raye – she is the head scientist in Atlesian Sciences.” Kragen explains to them, and they look at the woman who sits in that chair. She flicks her long hair backwards, over her shoulder as she sits with what seems to be such regal personality. Expected of Atlesians, they think that they are so much better than everyone else is in the world. Serena looks around at the large markings across the wall, the statues of the ancient Knights that once fought against the Grimm to keep people safe. But then she notices the look on Gray’s face as he admires her, with that battle damaged Knight next to him.

“Does he have to loom like that?” Serena inquires.

“My apologies for frightening you, sweetheart. But time has been of the essence, and something that is in short supply nowadays.” Gray explains, and the other Knight nods his head.

“How did he do that?” Ruby inquires, thinking back on when he transformed before their very eyes.

“The Knights of Grimm are not the only ones gifted with the ability to shape-shift. All people are capable of this ability, one must truly understand how Aura works to transform into your Spirit Animal.” Kragen explains to her, and even the Scientist looks bewildered by that information.

“Surely that is impossible; I have been studying Aura for most of my life for General Ironwood. I helped him design that device that Amber was stored in at Beacon to take her Aura from her body, but it has never been able to shift our physical bodies.” Serena questions with confusion, stammering as she speaks to him. Kragen chuckles as he looks at her, and he points at Gray and then at her.

“There are Spiritual Knights prowling our world, creatures of pure darkness and Silver Eyed Warriors...and you are questioning the impossible?” He asks her, stumping her point down into the ground.

“But...” Serena stammers.

“We are warriors, Miss Raye; we swore an oath to use our gifts for good. And that is where we need your help.” He explains.

“Yeah, why is she here?” Oscar asks as he crosses his arms.

“As you heard, Miss Raye here has been involved in a great many deal of scientific achievements in Atlas. And she has been too far from the grip of Salem and her Followers for them to track her down. But with recent events in Atlas, with Jacques and Whitley Schnee being there and taking over five years ago, I ordered Gray to track her down and bring her here.” He explains, in order to protect her life against the threats that exist in the world.

“And we shall keep her safe so then we can track down more of these Books.” The Architect adds, and she looks at the mechanical man. Of all the people here, he and Oscar might be the most normal ones she has met so far.

“Books?” She questions.

“Visionary Books.” Ruby clarifies, still remembering the creepy whispers that drew her to touch the page that enticed her. Serena scoffs, clearly like the rest of Atlas; she does not seem to believe in the things that they speak of. Meaning she is about to get one hell of an earful of what is coming. And what they are fighting against.

“Ah yes, the legendary _whispering books of great magical prowess_!” She laughs, almost snorting as she laughs at the idea. But none of the others are laughing with her; they just wait for her to stop scoffing at all that. She slows down when she sees the rather stern looks on their faces. “You’re not being serious are you?” She questions, and Ruby stands up and walks over to where Kragen stands.

“I wish we were, but it is real.” Ruby assures as she stands beside the old Knight.

“We have already found three Visionary Books, one of them was destroyed but I was still able to access the memories thanks to my Semblance.” Oscar explains, remembering the moment of which Time dragged him out from the present day and thousands of years ago into the past. Into what was to him an alien empire, where Death actually saved him from the fate of drowning he could have faced out there.

“But magic is just a myth, a fairy tale to help children use their imagination.” Serena questions with confusion.

“Myths and Fairy Tales all come from somewhere.” The Silver Eyed Warrior with the cybernetic eye says, and Serena looks at him.

“Who are you?” She questions.

“Vos Wolstonton, at your service.” Vos says to her, bowing respectfully towards her with a smile, his eye then twitches quite aggressively. He hits the side of his own head and it straightens out once more. Serena looks at the war scarred man, but her attention is caught once more as Kragen walks past her, she stands up and follows him as he speaks.

“The world has hidden many things from the eyes of the public to prevent panic. If you do not believe in magic, then what do you say the Four Maidens of the Seasons have?” Kragen asks her as he walks with them all. Ruby follows, and she looks at the huge pillars, ancient artefacts are inside of here. Old swords from the times of the Arkhoni, even old paintings which have not been tampered with. Even a painting of the Five Knights of Grimm stood atop the mountains as they attacked entire villages. “What about the Fable of the Knights of Grimm?”

“It’s a myth.” Serena states, she knows of the tales of the Knights, and was most likely never informed on the Maidens by General Ironwood. It would not be very surprising if she was only asked to create the device itself.

“You see, Serena, the world has more secrets than you realise. And most things you call myths have a logical explanation.” Kragen explains as they follow him through the halls of the Fortress.

“Well with that I agree whole heartedly but logic has completely left the building. You’re talking about magic. You’re talking about four powerful Knights that brought extinction wherever they travelled.” Serena says.

“What like all the Atlesian Technology with your walking robot soldiers? Any highly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Oscar states with a scoff in his voice, and she looks at him, even she could not argue with that fact that he had just made then.

“And trust me when I say – the Knights of Grimm are real. We’ve fought them all more than once.” Ruby assures.

“And there were Five Knights, not four. Over time history has changed the texts, after the Knight of Vengeance was freed from his torment time forgot of his existence. Now only Four Knights of Grimm remain – Death, Fear, Loss and Fury.” Kragen illustrates as they enter the large room. Before them are more of these incredible statues, and lots of artefacts left behind by a forgotten empire.

Ancient Scrolls, Books, Swords, clothes, etchings and countless other things rest here. Oscar walks over to one of the scrolls and he reads what is on here.

_The Faunus and Human Peace Treaty_

“The Humans and the Faunus were at peace during the Arkhoni Era?” Oscar asks him, and Kragen nods his head.

“It took time, there were a few wars here and there started by idealists, but eventually we manufactured a Peace Treaty. Not like it mattered in the end.” He sighs, not only for the loss of his own people, but the fact that Humanity and the Faunus are now at odds once more. Even after everything that they have given. Ruby’s eyes are set upon something that surprises her, a sword that has been covered with rust over the years. But the name on the base of the case is very clear.

_The Sword of Krekras Blackridge_

“Wait...how can this be here?” Ruby inquires.

“Ah yes, the Sword of Krekras Blackridge. Merely a prop, because as you know he still uses his sword today.” Kragen states, more and more lies created over time by politicians who try and hide the existence of the monsters that lurk in the world of Remnant. Serena looks purely shocked and amazed by everything that she sees. All of this denies so many moments in Human History, it could change everything.

But Kragen knows why all of this information must be kept secret; the same reason that Ozpin hid it from everyone as well. “All of this – the panic that would be created – it would be the Fall of the Arkhoni Empire all over again. Except I doubt anybody would survive.” Kragen explains with a sigh, and Vos stands in the corner with his arms crossed, looking around. Serena sighs, then she looks at Ruby, noticing she has silver eyes as well.

“Okay...we’ve talked about why you’ve brought me here. Why is she here?” Serena questions, pointing at the young woman who stands there. Ruby raises her brow as she notices the attitude in her. Kragen chuckles as he walks over to Ruby and pats her shoulder.

“She is one of my best students in recent years. She and her boyfriend here have learned so much about the Knights and our people that they have a right to be here. And they are helping us find a way to stop all of this once and for all.” Kragen explains, also in a way defending Ruby against the snide comments that were most likely forming the Scientist’s mind. Serena looks at her and then at Kragen as he stands there.

“She has also suffered more than any young girl should ever have to suffer.” The Architect adds, he was there when they helped save her life. As was Kragen in that battle, perhaps even Vos and Gray were as well. They just did not know their names at that time.

“Well – that is why we came here, Kragen.” Ruby timidly says and he looks at her. “The Visionary Book we found in the Vault of Vacuo...something happened.” Ruby stammers, remembering all the talk of the Soothsayer. The Architect approaches and he listens intently to the young woman.

“What happened?” Kragen asks her, and she looks at Oscar.

“I saw him...” Ruby tells him and Kragen actually looks concerned now.

“Who?” The Architect asks.

“Vir Nominis Umbra...he was the Merchant that created the Knights. I saw him – and he saw me.” Ruby explains, and Kragen tightens his grip on the staff, because he clearly remembers that name.

“I spoke to him as well. I told you I saw him when I was in Arkhonex, I saw him again yesterday. He spoke to me in a tavern, about a lot of things. He said that a great evil is coming, Loss said the same thing to Weiss as well.” Oscar explains to them and he steps back, looking at the statues with fearful eyes at the mere mention of his name. Ruby stammers as she approaches him.

“Kragen...who is he?” Ruby begs for the answer, and he turns to her.

“I don’t know – nobody knows who he really is. But one thing we do know about him for certain is that he is not human. He is something more, how did he show his form to you?” He asks them with worried eyes, and she looks at Oscar and then at him again.

“A normal guy – he has a shaven head, brown eyes and a kind looking face. Dressed up like a merchant.” Oscar describes, and he looks at the Architect.

“Sounds familiar.” The Architect says.

“That must be his main form.” The Architect mutters as he walks around, and Serena looks completely lost.

“Sorry, but what are we talking about? Vir Nominis Umbra? What is that?” She asks. “Is this another one of these myths that turn out to be real?”

“We do not know what his real name is. All we know is that his name has a meaning to it, an ancient tongue that names exactly what he is. But we do not know what.” The Architect explains.

“He would be mythical – if anyone ever survived to write about him.” Gray states, clearly he and Vos are up to date with this information as well. The fact that merely mentioning his name has intimidated them really does give off the vibe of how dangerous he really is. But none of them ever realised that his name is not really a name, that it means something very important.

“Is he a Demon?” Oscar asks, and Kragen sighs.

“I don’t think so, he has too much power to be one. I have faced Demons before, and none of them are as calm and calculated as he is.” Kragen explains. He stops as he approaches a painting that has the Five Knights walking away from the hooded man. It must have been the version that was created before the story was changed to hide the truth.

“So what is our next step?” Oscar asks him, and Kragen stares at the old painting. He turns to them and looks right at them.

“Ruby, Oscar. The two of you shall stay here for some time, I will help you Ruby. You need some more training to focus your abilities to a stronger degree than before.” Kragen explains, and Ruby nods. He turns to Vos and Gray next.

“Vos, Gray. I want you to assist Serena in locating the next Visionary Book. It could give us a hint on how to defeat Vir Nominis Umbra somehow.” Kragen orders, and the two Knights nod their heads, but Serena still looks confused.

“Wait, how the hell am I supposed to track down a book?” She questions.

“You said it yourself – you have been studying Aura all your life. The Books themselves are created through the transfer of one’s Aura. Their memories stored within the pages, we have technology here that can assist you in finding a spike of Aura that could be a hint in finding what we need.” Kragen explains to her.

“So you best get to it. Now!”

**Adam**

The Former-Leader of the White Fang walks through the city of Vale on his own, his sword sheathed and his mind on the past as he walks. He cannot get the thoughts out of his head, the fact that humanity is starting to do exactly what Mazen said that they would do. They are returning to their roots, using the Faunus as labour once more, halting the progress on repairing the damage done to Menagerie yet again for mining operations instead. He clenches his hand into a fist, then he thinks back to a memory, a couple years ago, after the destruction of the Volcanic Chain Isles.

Two years ago...

Adam sits on the ground, he may not be able to see them but he knows that they are there. He sits beside the graves of Ghira Belladonna, Kali Belladonna, and the recently murdered Ilia Amitola. He sighs as he sits there, resting Wilt and Blush on his lap, his mind filled with regret that he never did save her and the two of them either. When the Knights of Grimm arrived, he truly realised what kind of the world they have been living in is showing them. Snow has begun to fall as winter has arrived at Menagerie, lots of Faunus still fixing the place up and living in their homes again.

He turns when he hears Blake approaching with Sun beside her. They both came here to check on how things are going here. She stands there and looks at the three graves, and she sighs, wiping a tear from her eye. The last time they were here, they witnessed Ghira and Kali getting murdered by Fury. There might not be a body left to bury for Kali, but Adam and Ilia still had the honour to give her a grave. Blake sniffles, then looks at Adam as he sits there, his arm missing still after the Giganotosaurus Grimm ripped his arm off. “Thank you...” Blake softly says, and Adam looks at her, hearing the sound of her gentle voice.

“For what?” Adam asks her.

“For giving them a proper burial...they didn’t deserve what happened to them.” Blake says as she looks at the graves that are before them. And she is not just talking about what happened to Ghira and Kali, she is also speaking of Ilia as well. She redeemed her past mistakes in the end, and sadly lost her life in the process. Taken by Tyrian Callows in that battle, but she did not die in vain. Ruby was freed and they saved the day...but for how long will that peace last?

Adam looks in the direction of the graves, and he just sighs. “It was the least I could do...they were always good to me...I just wish I could have returned the favour sooner.” He sighs, and Blake crouches down beside him and looks out at the repairing island for the Faunus.

“It’s funny...” She says, surprising Adam as he looks at her.

“What’s funny?” He asks her curiously.

“A few years ago, I always said how much I hated Menagerie. Because it was always an example of how the Faunus and Humans are still not equal.” She explains, then she looks around at the place and she sees all the people working together. Humans and Faunus helping each other rebuild their homes.

Not just Faunus anymore.

“And now we have Humans and Faunus working together to fix our destroyed our home.” Blake says with awe in her voice. She had always wanted to see this happen, the day where they would actually feel like equal citizens amongst the humans. Adam cannot see it, but he can feel it around him. The fact that the White Fang helped stop Salem on those Islands two years prior, it really did change a lot of people’s views on the Faunus. Sun smiles as he looks at Blake, then she smiles back and stands up. Then something returns to her mind. “Oh yeah! Adam, General Ironwood wanted us to bring you something his scientists made.” Blake tells him, sounding legitimately excited as well, nearly with a skip in her step. Sun chuckles and he follows her, and Adam stands up, following them from the sound of their footsteps.

It is incredible how despite being blind he is able to fight so well and move like he can see. But that is what years of being blind does, it causes ones other senses to become stronger to make up for the lack of one of them. He follows them into the rebuild Belladonna Property, and Sun opens the door for him as they walk towards the coffee table in the centre of the large room. He walks over and Blake picks it up and holds it before him.

He cannot see it, but similarly to Yang Ironwood has had his scientists build a cybernetic arm for him. As a thank you for what he and the White Fang sacrificed during that intense battle that took place. “He made you a robotic arm, like what Yang has.” Blake states, and he just looks at her and touches the metal arm, feeling the cold metal plates with his fingers. Sun leans against one of the pillars as he watches the man. But then he steps away from the arm with a sigh, and Blake raises her brow, looking confused. “Adam?” Blake asks with a concerned voice.

“I can’t...” Adam states.

“Why not?” Sun questions.

“I did the same thing to Yang Xiao Long, your best friend. Why should I be granted this?” Adam questions, sounding like he is repulsed by his own past decisions.

His past mistakes.

“You were a different person then, Adam. You’ve changed, though. You are not the same person that did what you did to Yang, she is starting to forgive you for what happened, anyway.” Blake says as she holds the arm, but Adam still does not accept the arm or her words of kindness.

“She shouldn’t forgive me, I took a part of her away...and I was partially responsible for many deaths that day as well.” Adam states, clenching his hand into a fist. He touches the arm that he lost, remembering the pain that he felt that day, but only wanting to keep the hope in the hearts of his men. Ordering them to push on, and they truly believed in him that day. They saw a leader who was worth risking their lives for, worth dying for. And many of them did lose their lives in that battle.

Adam looks at her and he shakes his head.

“But Adam –”

“It’s okay – this should be a reminder of what we lost for this unification.” Adam states, for he truly believes in this idea.

But now...

In the present day...

Adam walks through Vale and he is no longer so certain in what he believes is the idea peace anymore. He cannot see them, but he can hear them. He can feel the differences between him and the human civilians around him as he walks through the crowd. He can hear their words, and it angers him.

_What’s a Faunus doing here?_

_I don’t like how much of a say Faunus are getting._

_Why’s he wearing a mask, dirty Faunus has something to hide._

Mazen was right...

The Humans will never change.

Ever...

 

**Ruby**

Kragen stands in the courtyard and Ruby walks over to him. She wears a set of robes around her athletically slender body, similar to those that old warriors would wear. She looks rather Greek with the tanned robes and brown belt around her waist. Oscar watches her and he smiles, encouraging her and she approaches. The Architect walks over to Oscar’s side and offers him a slice of pizza. Oscar accepts but then something comes to mind. “Wait – why do you have pizza, you can’t eat?” Oscar questions with confusion.

“Oh it’s not for me, it’s for you.” The Architect assures.

“All of it?” He questions.

“That would be greedy of you.” He states and Oscar narrows his eyes.

Ruby sets Crescent Rose down on the ground and she looks at Kragen as he walks back and forth, still holding his wooden and Isomacium Staff in his hand, his silver eyes faintly glow as he looks at her. “So...what will we be doing today?” She curiously asks him and he chuckles.

“That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Ruby – straight to the point.” Kragen states with a smile, Ruby cannot help but beam a cute smile right back to him. She may be colder than she used to be, but she still has her adorableness in her every now and then. And she may deny it, but she would never say no to a cookie.

And speaking of cookies.

She notices that Kragen actually has a plate of them, her favourite batch as well. Chocolate Chip cookies, which have been freshly baked as well. Seems he is skilled at many things, cooking and baking included. Of course he has been alive for thousands of years, that is plenty of time to learn the basics of cooking, especially when becoming a hermit for quite a few years as well. Her eye is practically locked with the cookies until he steps in front of them with a smile. “The only thing missing from your reward I think would be a cute Puppy, sadly I can’t offer _everything_.” Kragen states with a smile, his teaching style has always been something that Ruby has appreciated and also enjoyed. Despite his age, he is very informal and fun to learn with, because he talks whilst he trains.

“Cookies’ll do.” Ruby promises, almost salivating at the sight of cookies. Kragen spins his staff through his fingers then points the tip at some large boulders and rocks that have been piled up at an exit.

“Silver Eyed Warriors are capable of incredible feats, some say that we were granted this gift from the Brother of Light before he and the Brother of Darkness were cast from our world. Others say we are simply a different form of Human and Faunus, and others think it is all just luck.” Kragen explains as she walks with him, looking so small in those clothes without her cape. Her long black hair with red highlights sits on her shoulder, tied up into a tail that she fiddles with every now and then.

“Like transforming into animals?” She asks.

“Yes, but as I said that is something that everyone is capable of doing.” Kragen explains, and she raises her brow. This is something that truly does make her inquisitive, she never knew that the ability to transform into a spiritual form of animal was in the book of abilities that Aura has. But he has had countless years to show his abilities.

“How?” Ruby asks him.

“By using our Aura, the same one that creates our protective barrier against our enemies, we can also use it to create another form. One that can help us all in different ways, we are all based off our personalities. And the same goes for our animals.” Kragen describes, standing before her, and Ruby smiles.

“What are you?” She asks him, and he chuckles.

He stands there and he closes his eyes, then there is a powerful white flash, he generates his form from his eyes like other Silver Eyed Warriors do, but others would do this from their auras. The transformation is not as physically painful to watch as it is for when Fear transforms from his Knight Form into the Bat Form. Energy swirls around him, and his body changes before her, and she gasps as she sees his arms and legs form into a pair of legs. The white energy turns into black fur and he has two yellow eyes that look at her, little ears perked up. There is a very faint purring growl as he looks at her and Ruby gasps with amazement. Oscar stands up with awe as he sees Kragen transform into his spirit animal – a Black Panther. She would have expected him to transform into an Owl or something that seems wise, but it seems he is a Black Panther. The energy bursts from the Panther and he rises back up, exactly the same as he was before, holding his staff in his hand.

“Wow...that was amazing...” Ruby says with wonderment, unable to stop smiling as she looks at him. He bows to her with a smile and then she looks at Gray as he trains with the lesser skilled Silver Eyed Knights. “Why is Gray a Basilisk then?” She asks him curiously.

“He has the heart of a warrior, warriors tend to take the bodies of those who are destined to battle. Others are Eagles, some can be Panthers like me...and some...are burning Wyverns.” Kragen says, taking a look at Ruby and she looks up at her teacher.

“Axzura Vex?” Ruby remembers.

“Precisely.” Kragen states as he stands there.

“What about the others? Did they all know what their Spiritual Form was before they became Knights of Grimm?” Ruby inquires.

“Yes.” He answers.

“How? How is that even possible for them to know?” Ruby asks.

“For the Arkhoni – this was taught as simply as your mathematics is today. Simply another study of Aura at the time.” He says, and Ruby chuckles.

“Maths isn’t simple.” Ruby sadly says as she looks at the floor. She has never really enjoyed mathematics, then again not many people do. Kragen walks with her and he continues to speak.

“You see – we can use our Spirit Animals to accomplish feats we could not do in our physical forms. For example, if Gray was faced with the issue of having some foes on a high up bridge and he lacked a ranged weapon, he could transform into the Basilisk and attack. Our Spirit Forms, though take a lot of strength from us after using them, just as our Semblances and our Silver Eyes do.” Kragen explains as he approaches the boulders.

“Are you going to teach me how to unlock my Spirit Animal?” She asks him and he chuckles.

“Not yet, my dear. That comes in time, but we will be focusing on something that I feel would help you a great deal in more ways than one.” Kragen explains, tapping his staff down on the ground.

“And what’s that?”

He turns to her and his eyes glow brighter before her and she gasps upon seeing one of the large rocks rising off the ground with the same white energy surrounding it. It floats with such ease and she staggers with shock. They are capable of using telekinesis with the power of their Silver Eyes. They truly are powerful Warriors, capable of so many feats that she never knew were possible. He then gently sets it down and his eyes stop glowing. “Through honing your emotions and your senses, you can accomplish a great deal. You can lift things fifty times your size without even having to touch them.” He explains to her, then he stands behind her with his staff in both hands. Oscar stands up and approaches with the Architect beside him, watching this event in her training.

“How do I do it?” Ruby asks him, and he smiles.

“Close your eyes and focus.” He says to her, gently holding Ruby by her shoulders to calm her down. She does not even notice that he used eyes in the plural form, he does not call out the fact she lost her eye because she knows that would hurt to her. So he simply makes it sound like she never did lose her eye. She closes her eye and she breathes out through her mouth, cold clouds of mist leaving her tender lips. Oscar watches with the Architect beside him, and he whispers in his metal head.

“Will she do it first try?” He asks him.

“I doubt it, nobody ever has. It is hard to do this at first – not like I would know.” The Architect chuckles with his arms crossed. Ruby keeps her eyes closed and she listens to the calm and soothing voice of her mentor.

“Now...use your senses to focus your mind. What do you feel?” Kragen asks her and she focuses onto her senses.

“I can – I can feel the cold air against my skin...” She says, feeling the goosebumps forming on her skin in places as the almost wintry air touches her. That must be the point of the clothing, it covers most of the body but leaves her arms bare and her left leg is nearly fully revealed. Therefore she can feel the world around her so then she can actually focus her mind easily. “I can hear the waves that crash against the cliffs...the cries of seagulls...” Ruby tells him as she sees it all in her mind. The waves that slam into the mountains that they are hidden inside off, the seagulls that fly overhead.

“Good...now focus onto something. Search your memories for a good moment that you remember so well that can help you.” Kragen tells her, and this is where she struggles. Ruby thinks and thinks, searching her memories, seeing them all in her mind as she tries to find them. She remembers the dance in Beacon Academy all those years ago, even to simpler times when her big sister would always tickle her and make her snort milk from her nose with her terrible puns.

But then...

The whispers return.

And Kragen can hear them as he looks into her mind in order to help her. “No...” Ruby mutters with fear as she hears the voices, feeling the stabbing pain all over again. The maniacal laughter in her head of Tyrian Callows as he strikes her over and over again.

“Don’t focus on those memories, Ruby.” Kragen tells her, and she tries to escape them, but once she sees them, it is damn near impossible to get past them. She flinches with fear and what even seems to be pain, her hands begin to shake on the spot. Seeing the madman throwing her around by her hair and stabbing her with the blades he had. Threatening to plunge that stinger and pump her full of neurotoxins that could easily kill her. She can taste the metallic repulsion of blood in her mouth, the feeling of her eye being ravaged by the arrow that sliced it open. The amount of blood.

And then...

The red eyes of Vir Nominis Umbra return, and he stares directly at her with mad smirk, the sky turns red and the moon shatters above him. Smoke and charred trees surround the pair of them. “It is rude to pry, Miss Rose.” The voice of Vir Nominis Umbra snarls, slamming her in the chest.

Ruby cries out with distress, opening her eyes, and there is a powerful pulse of energy that bursts from her, nearly knocking them all over as she screams. Vos and Gray both turn when they hear her scream and the other Silver Eyed Warriors pause for a moment in their training. Kragen sits there, he is shocked when he saw Vir Nominis Umbra, but he moves past that moment and only focuses on Ruby.

“I’m sorry...” She sniffles, wiping a tear from her cheek. Kragen gently pats her shoulder and he sits down beside her, resting his Staff on his lap.

“Don’t ever apologise for your mistakes – mistakes are things we can improve from. And anyway, that was not your fault. You have experienced things no child should ever have to experience.” Kragen says to her, honestly as well. The thing she has always gotten from Kragen is the fact that he is not a liar. Not like Ozpin is, he might lie to protect people, sure, but that in no way means that he tells the truth. Kragen does tell the truth, but only when it is necessary, otherwise he will tell them that they cannot know at that time. He does not make something up in the meantime for them all to ponder on.

“I can’t get them out of my head...” She sniffles as she wipes the tears from her eye.

“I know, remember what I told you? Focus your emotions, do not let the bad guys in your head win.” Kragen says to her and she sighs.

“It’s not just that...I have done things recently that I shouldn’t have done. I murdered Dew – butchered her – because I let Roman get in my head.” She sighs, feeling so ashamed of herself for what happened there. When she cut Dew down with Crescent Rose with such speed and efficiency.

“Ruby do you want to know how many times I’ve had my arse kicked into the dirt in my life? I’ve lost count of how many failures I have made, and a lot of them stick with me to this day. So you had a slip-up, what of it?” Kragen asks her and she looks at him.

“I murdered Dew.” Ruby says.

“Hmm...according to Oscar over there, she betrayed you.” Kragen says, and she looks at Oscar and he shrugs.

“Yeah but...” She stammers.

“If she betrayed you, then the only person who is at fault is Dew. She turned against you and your friends, yeah you cut her down and made a scene. Could have been less bloody, but what gain is there in dwelling over such a thing?” Kragen asks her, and Ruby thinks on those words. He has a very powerful point and he points at her heart.

“The only time you will be at fault is when you blame yourself, when you dwell on things – because you are the one that lets the past eat away at you. The past does not choose to, you force it to do so by dwelling on it. Do not let what happened in Vacuo affect your strength...I have made countless mistakes in my life, lost many friends and made many enemies...but I have never let those mistakes drag me down.” He explains, and she sighs as she looks at the floor.

“Oscar told me...that the one who has been showing me these nightmares is Vir Nominis Umbra.” Ruby tells him, and Kragen sits there, listening to what she has to say.

“He admitted it?” Kragen asks.

“Yeah, he totally admitted it. Talked about a lot of things, like the Laws of the Mind as well.” Ruby tells him.

“The Laws of the Mind...I remember those testimonies.” He sighs.

“What are they?”

“The Laws of the Mind were an idea created by the Arkhoni, the idea that there is a difference between evil, misguidance and insanity. It was used a lot during courts and convictions, deciding how someone should be punished for their crimes.”

“He said that he is evil, or at least he hinted at it.”

“He doesn’t lie, I’ll give him that.”

Ruby sits up beside him and looks at her mentor. “Do you really not know much about Vir Nominis Umbra at all? Have you met him before?”

“Once...” He answers.

“What happened?”

“I was out on patrol one night with some Silver Eyed Warriors, and I remember very well going to a crime scene. Somebody was found dead from unknown causes, like their entire body just shut down at once. The brain, heart, every organ in the body was stone cold. Nobody knew what happened, and when we left, a Merchant walked up to me...”

“A Merchant and Soothsayer?”

“You guessed it.” Kragen states with a nod and he sighs. “He spoke to me, saying that he didn’t know about what happened. But he also told me that something is coming...something big.”

Ruby looks at him and he looks at her. “That was the night before the Arkhoni Empire fell apart, before the Grimm turned against us.” Kragen sighs and he stands back up, helping her up as well.

“Do you think he is gonna do the same thing?” Ruby asks him, but Kragen shakes his head.

“No, Umbra is smart. I’ll give him that much, he won’t use the same tactics twice. And besides, this generation do not have the Grimm under their control, he cannot use them to wipe out entire cities.” He explains. The Arkhoni People sounded very arrogant, keeping Grimm as pets all because they had them under their command. It is like they never thought of the possibility that they could turn against them one day.

Until they did.

Ruby looks at him and then at the rocks that she aims to lift, all she needs to do is lift a single rock and she would already be one step closer to mastering her powers. “Now...do exactly what you did last time, but this time focus on a powerful memory, one that will always make you happy.” Kragen advises, and she does so, keeping her eyes closes and she focuses, feeling the world around her as she did before. She focuses and searches her mind, whilst he listens to her mind.

Then...

Something appears...

Ruby stands there by the grave of her mother where Tyrian died five years prior. Her scars still look quite fresh here, and she stands there on her own. Until she feels the warmth of Oscar’s hand on hers. She turns and she smiles when she sees him there, but he is not alone. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Sun, Neptune...they are all there with her as they pay their respects to Summer Rose. And they stay with her, that was one the best days she has had in a long time, because it was just with her friends. Her family, they had so much fun that day after they paid their respects to her.

And it is one of the biggest reasons that she fights.

To protect her friends.

For her family.

And then...

Ruby opens her eye, and takes her eye patch off. And to their amazement, the glow of light emerges from both sockets. It leaks from her scarred missing eye, and her other eye glows beautifully. What happens next...astounds even Kragen Nox.

Not one...

Not two....

But nearly thirty huge boulders are surrounded with this white energy. Kragen’s eyes widen with disbelief as they all float slowly into the air with grace, and all the Silver Eyed Warriors watch with astonishment on their faces. They keep on rising up and up into the air as the Silver Energy swirls around the rocks that rise up and Oscar laughs with awe at what he witnesses with his hazel coloured eyes. The Architect staggers back as they all rise, as if a master of the power is doing it.

But this is Ruby’s first ever attempt...

And even Kragen struggles to lift that many at once...

Kragen stands there, completely amazed, and then they all slowly descend and set gently on the ground, and even Ruby is stunned by what she just did. She turns and looks at Kragen and he smiles with wonder.

“Incredible...”

 

**Sienna**

The High Leader of the White Fang remains sat in her throne, her arm rested on the throne. She scratches one of her tigress ears as she waits for Blake to arrive. Then the doors open with a pair of White Fang Guards stood beside her with their staffs in hand. Blake looks so small beside them, so afraid as she looks around at the place. She has never in fact been here before, even before she left the White Fang years ago. She never physically came to the Throne Room of the White Fang. Sienna stands up when she sees Blake and she speaks with strength upon seeing Blake there. “Blake...guards you may leave us.” Sienna tells them with a hand gesture as well. The Guards bow respectfully and they turn and leave the building, walking away from her. Blake watches them leave and the doors slam shut behind her and her eyes flit round to the High Leader.

“You summoned me here...what’s going on?” Blake inquires as she approaches Sienna, and she approaches the young woman as well.

“I wish this were under better circumstances.” Sienna sighs as she approaches.

“What’s wrong?” Blake asks, and Sienna approaches the table, and picks up her scroll and throws it to the Belladonna Girl. She catches the scroll and looks at the recording, the one of Ruby cutting down Dew...it is in fact the first time that Blake has seen the footage.

She never realised it was so gruesome, but she trusts Ruby with her life, but now she feels concerned. “Is this about what happened with Dew?” Blake asks her, and Sienna sighs, sitting back down in her seat and rubbing her brow with her thumb.

“I understand that the poor girl experienced terrible things when captured by Salem and her minions, the damage done to her eye is practically a symbol of what they did to her. I pray every day that she would return back to normal...but this...it brings concerns, Blake.” Sienna explains, and Blake throws the scroll right back to her, and Sienna catches it in return.

“What have you summoned me to do, Sienna? Are you going to ask me to kill her?” Blake questions with a scoff.

“Come now, Blake. I can be ruthless but I know when someone is troubled, and I know that Team N.D.G.O betrayed you and were under Jacques Schnee’s payroll.” She explains.

“Then what are you so afraid of?” She questions, and Sienna brings up more things on the projector, showing images of Schnee Dust Company Shipments worldwide.

“Take a look at these reports, Blake. The Schnee Dust Company is up to something, Whitley Schnee is up to something. These are Dust Mining Reports, and suddenly they have spiked in multiple regions and lots of Fire Dust has been sent to Atlas. I have no idea of what is happening there but that cannot be good, and not only this but they are shipping more crates across the world than ever before.” Sienna Khan explains, and Blake looks at the reports, walking up the steps beside her as they look at all these graphs.

“You think they are hiding something?” Blake asks her.

“Yes, and there is another problem. One that the event that Ruby Rose has created could make even worse...” She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“What happened?” Blake asks with concern.

“I have received many reports that Construction in Menagerie has come to a halt, and more humans worldwide have started throwing Faunus from their homes for no reason.” Sienna explains with anger in her voice, then standing up as well. “Ruby’s actions could show the Faunus that Humanity’s Symbol of peace is falling apart, and the more humans that go back to their old ways against us will mean that the Albain Brothers will gain more and more followers.” Sienna explains as she walks over to Blake.

“So what should we do?” Blake asks her, and Sienna sighs.

“We need to find Fennec and Corsac Albain and destroy the remnants of the Old White Fang while we still can.” Sienna explains, looking at the reports.

Then...Blake sighs.

“No...” Blake says, and Sienna raises her brow.

“What do you me-” Before Sienna could finish, she gasps with pain and shock, her eyes widen very suddenly, feeling the razor sharp blade of Gambol Shroud plunge deeply into her stomach. She winces with pain as Blake holds her there, blood drips from the blade. Her large feline amber eyes look at her and she smiles.

“I’m sorry, Sienna...” Blake sarcastically whispers into her ear, pushing the blade further into her stomach and she yelps from the sharp pain, feeling her hand holding her by the shoulder. “But this is the next step for the Faunus – and I promise you, under _my_ leadership...the humans will suffer, and the traitors like Adam Taurus will be punished for their betrayal. Starting with you.” Blake snarls, revealing a monstrous side to her as she throws Sienna from the blade.

Sienna tumbles down the stone stairs and lands on the red carpet with a bang. Blake smirks at her where she lays and she looks at the cameras and winks, firing her pistol at them to destroy the evidence. She then drops Gambol Shroud and approaches the throne.

She walks towards it, and her long black locks of hair begin to fall from her head and onto the floor around her. Her black and white clothes turn into the Merchant’s clothes, and her female body changes into a male one.

He approaches and sits down in the chair, smirking away evilly at her dead body, resting one leg on the armrest and his elbow on the other.

“Oh I do so love role play...” Vir Nominis Umbra cunningly states with a smirk, looking at the many dead soldiers outside, the guards that brought her in were but holograms he created. The others are all dead, by the Gambol Shroud he forged.

It was never Blake...

It was Vir Nominis Umbra...

The Clean Slate has begun...


	31. The Clean Slate - Pt. 1

**Blake**

She has no idea of what has just happened ahead of her.

Blake walks with Winter beside her, through the streets of Mistral, past the many people that are just as unaware of the event that has just transpired here. Winter looks around and then Blake sees the entrance to the place, even noticing that there are no guards stood outside the gates. Blake narrows her eyes when she looks at it, she may not have ever visited this place before, but she knows that Sienna Khan is no fool. She would never leave the entrance completely unguarded, especially with the enemies they face. “Where are the guards?” Blake questions, and Winter notices that as well.

“Something isn’t right, Blake...” Winter states, feeling it around her as she approaches. They both draw their weapons, because they have gotten that feeling that cannot be mistaken. That feeling of a trap or an ambush has been laid out for them. Her heart has started to pound with anxiety of whatever is wrong; she and Winter cautiously approach the doors that have the new White Fang Symbol engraved on them.

They both approach the doors, preparing to breach with their weapons at the ready, Blake looks at Winter and the older Schnee Daughter looks at her. Winter has definitely gone back to her Atlas Special Forces training; she has done this type of thing a hundred times. She raises her three fingers to Blake and mouths.

_Three_

_Two_

_One_

They both slam their shoulders into the doors in order to open them quickly and forcefully. Blake instantly raises her magnum, aiming it down the corridor and Winter draws her sword, pointing the long Elven Blade forward, her eyes sternly staring. Blake gasps with shock, and they both widen their eyes from what lies before them.

Blood everywhere.

All of the White Fang guards have been killed, deep lacerations in their bodies from whatever it was that attacked them. The walls even have craters blown into them, from where the guards have been thrown through from an unseen force. Some have completely snapped necks, heads spun all the way around. Blood leaks from their chapped lips and split skin. Blake steps forward and she looks around, seeing the damage done to the place, and then she crouches down by the White Fang soldiers on the ground. The blade must have been extremely sharp to have done this; all that was required here was a single swing. A katana could have done that...a Katana like her own one. Winter looks around at the many dead White Fang soldiers.

Not a single dead body that is not on their side, or even anything they would not recognise. “It’s like something just barged in here and wiped them out.” Winter deduces, then she approaches one of them who still holds his mug in his hand. It happened so fast that he never even drew his weapon to fight back against whatever it was that just attacked them. Even Blake notices that their weapons have not even been scratched, there would be some surface damage there if there was a fight.

“This was no fight – they were slaughtered – they never knew what hit them.” Blake realises with shocked eyes, standing up and walking past the body. She follows Winter cautiously, in case if the entity is still in here somewhere. Her hands are actually shaking with fear from all the bodies, one of them appears to have been impaled onto a sharp torch, the flames have been extinguished over time. Blood still drips from his drenched clothes where he was brutally killed.

Winter’s eyes dart to another room, all the soldiers are dead in there as well. None of them were left alive, it was a complete slaughter. They’ve no idea that it was Vir Nominis Umbra that did all this, and Sienna Khan never even heard any of it. The guards that brought Blake in there must have been an illusion he casted to make her believe that everything was fine, unless if he did this when he left. Either way, he could still be here somewhere.

Blake pushes the doors to the Throne Room open, and she gasps when seeing the body of the High Leader on the ground. A pool of blood surrounds her corpse, her body has gone cold and she died so quickly her eyes are still open with shock from what happened. Blake sprints across the Throne Room to her side, hoping that she would still be alive. She presses her fingers to Sienna’s neck – but nothing – she is dead. Due to the stabbing of the sword that punctured her stomach so suddenly, she did not survive long from the shock and blood loss. But from the warmth on her body, they could only have missed her by a couple of minutes.

And yet the others felt cold...

Something is off, perhaps Umbra did something else to the guards than what he did to her. But all Blake knows is that the White Fang have just been left without a leader, and she does not even know what to think. All she can say is “No...no, no...what the hell could have happened here?” Blake stammers, but Winter has noticed something else that is wrong. She has clearly been using her training here to find hints of what has happened here. She steps forward and she notices that the cameras have all be shot and blown to pieces. There are still sparking.

“The cameras...” Winter says to Blake, still staring up at the cameras in each corner of the room. Blake looks at Sienna Khan with teary eyes, then she closes her eyes so then she looks like she is sleeping at least. But then she eventually looks in the same direction as Winter is, then she clocks on as well. Someone shot the cameras, but the feed would still show them all the truth.

“Somebody has shot them all.” Blake follows up, standing beside Winter as they look at all the cameras. All of them where shot, then Blake looks at the throne. The same one that Vir Nominis Umbra was sat in, but now it is completely empty. As if he were never even there in the first place.

Blake immediately reaches for her scroll, because she knows that they all need to know about what happened. “I’m gonna call everyone, I have them all on a single frequency.” Blake explains, like the one that connects all of Team R.W.B.Y together, but they have all got a frequency that connects every single one of them together in case of things like this.

But...

She can’t.

“Huh?” Blake questions with confusion and Winter looks at her.

“What’s wrong?” Blake shows her the scroll...and the image cannot be good.

It shows the image of the Cross Continental Transmit System with a red cross through it.

“The C.C.T is down.”

 

**Jaune**

Only mere moments before that even happened...

In Atlas Jaune stands at the desk of their office, no idea of the chaos that is about to happen worldwide in a single moment. There lots of documents placed on the table before them, Nora is half-asleep with boredom and Ren is reading through them with the two teachers who are still with them. Jaune is looking at a Document on Pyrrha Nikos, and the Atlesians are going to have a psych-evaluation to make sure if she is still the Onyx Phantom or not. Jaune knows that she isn’t, specifically because if she were he would have probably been killed in that Apartment Building when they were reunited. She would have broken out of that cell as well with no difficulty. Penny sits there and her large green eyes turn to the camera with Pyrrha inside, and a man enters and she looks at him. “Who’s that?” Penny asks as she looks at the man.

He has short brown hair on his head as he sits down in the chair and at the desk parallel to Pyrrha’s cell she has been stuck in for the past fifty six hours. Doctor Oobleck looks at the screen and he sees the man sit down with a clipboard and some notes that he wants to get answers from her on. Questions by the looks of it, he also has a pair of glasses on as well, and clears his throat. “That’s the psychiatrist who has been brought here to evaluate her.” Oobleck tells Penny, and Jaune reads his file as well. Ironwood gave them these documents, because he does still trust them unlike the President.

He was despatched from Mistral to evaluate her on her psychosis episodes, or at least that is what everyone has been calling it. When Jaune looks at the documents, he notices the door to the office that President Thaddeus has been using opens and he walks away from them, with lots of Atlesian Soldiers beside him. Whitley is gone though, and none of them actually know where he is...then it hits him. Ironwood told them that the meeting of all the Politicians and Council Members of Remnant are coming together today to ratify the Atlesian Coalition opposed to in a couple of days time. “Why would Whitley pull the meeting closer?” Jaune questions, looking at them all, and Kassius looks at him. Nora shrugs her shoulders as she sits there.

“I dunno, maybe to get the whole thing out of the way for some Schnee Dust Company work?” Nora suggests, showing little interest if she is being completely honest. But Jaune did not forget everything Weiss told him about her brother, he is a vengeful little man and does not let go of a grudge. And he despises his sisters more than anything, and is loyal to his father.

“Yeah, but this is Whitley. And then there are a bunch of Atlesians attacking Beacon to take Pyrrha and the rest of us? What if Weiss and Winter were there?” Jaune questions as he talks to them, and Kassius leans forward and Nora starts to figure out what he is talking about. Ren stands up and he thinks on it as well.

“Didn’t you say that Ortega called her a murderer?” Ren asks him, and Jaune remembers back to when they were getting her to Beacon, when the Acolytes of Lien attacked them. He was in that Bullhead with a missile launcher and he called her a murderer, he bellowed it. Pyrrha might know why, because of Penny, but they do not know about the truth yet.

“Jacques and Whitely both worked with him, didn’t they?” Port questions and Nora starts to realise as well.

“Ortega could have used Whitley’s pull in Atlas to find her, and he could have done the same in the hopes of nabbing his sisters as well.” Nora realises with widened eyes.

“Jaune he could have done a lot worse to kill them.” Ren states, since he knows how ruthless that boy could be. And Kassius remembers back to the call that Yang gave him, about that attack on the Schnee Dust Company Branch in Vacuo.

“The attack in Vacuo, both Winter and Weiss were there.” He realises with widened eyes.

“Yeah, but grabbing Pyrrha does not guarantee that Ortega would get to him. He’s still a wanted man to Thaddeus.” Penny points out, then something comes to Jaune’s mind and he turns around to the camera when it starts to hit him all at once. He then starts to look around more and more.

The soldiers...

There are less of them here than there were before.

“Something isn’t right...”

Whilst Jaune starts to notice that something is wrong...

 

**Pyrrha**

 

Inside of the cell with Pyrrha, she sits there and listens to the words of the man that speaks to her. His voice is kind and reassuring to Pyrrha, making her listen to his words as he speaks, but she is as shy as ever. “Miss Nikos, I would like to ask you a question. When was the last time you had one of these – episodes?” The Psychiatrist asks her curiously, and Pyrrha looks at him, she closes her eyes and shakes her head looking away at the floor like a shy girl.

“I – I’d rather not say.” She sniffles, since it was when she nearly killed Jaune on the tower five years ago. She remembers it so clearly – and yet she would rather that she never did. She would never ever want to hurt him, even when training with him if she hurt him she would feel so bad for it. She would beat herself up about it for days upon days, even when Jaune would say that it was totally fine.

But the Psychiatrist does not seem to give in. “Not even a single one?” He asks her curiously, tapping his finger against the table in a familiar rhythm. Pyrrha hears it and she looks at him with a nervous expression because she knows that tone.

“I don’t want to talk about it...” She repeats, staring straight at him this time, and the Psychiatrist nods his head, writing the note down on the clipboard. He has his scroll on the desk in front of him, and a message appears on the screen as he looks down at it.

_Ready._

The Psychiatrist smiles and he sends a message back. “Don’t worry, my dear.” He says, tapping the send button.

_Begin._

He looks at her. “Only _one_ interests me.” He says with a smirk, his green eyes flicker red.

Outside of the compound, and by the largest building in the entire city...is the Cross Continental Transmit Centre. An absolutely gigantic tower which was the first one developed on Remnant, polished clean with power running right through it.

Workers stand outside as a van pulls up with a soldier inside. They’ve no idea that he is an Acolyte of Lien, clear as day from the tattoo on his neck. He smirks as he looks at them in the reflection of the mirror, then he presses a big red button on a detonator.

Suddenly there is an unbelievably powerful electromagnetic pulse that bursts from the truck, powerful electrical energy passes through the workers and the soldier and it does not harm them. The metallic bang echoes for miles, and all the lights in the C.C.T Tower suddenly go off, along with the lights in the rest of the city.

Stood in the Atlesian Grand Hall, a large structure in the centre of the city is President Thaddeus Brimstone with his hands behind his back and with a smirk on his face. He feels so proud to finally be putting every Huntsman and Huntress under his hands, until the lights go out. He looks around with confusion, and so does Ironwood and Willow. They all look around with confusion of where the lights have gone and he sighs with annoyance. He turns to Ironwood’s son and he points at him. “Get the power back on!” He orders, and the soldier nods, running off with some other soldiers to investigate the problem.

Brimstone straightens his tie with an annoying smirk on his face. “I will not let this ruin _my_ day.” He mumbles, and Lisa Lavender looks at him with her camera crew who have just lost feed with the rest of the world. She touches the earpiece in her ear and looks at him.

“Mr President! What has happened?” She asks him, and he smiles.

“Please, everyone be calm. I am sure this is just a simple power outage, nothing to be afraid of.” He says.

But Jaune knows better, he stands there in the office with the others, and then the lights all go out. All the screens, camera feeds, absolutely everything has just shut down. The entire Kingdom of Atlas has now completely lost all power in a single moment. Jaune looks around and then he notices that the magnetic locks are now broken due to the power failure. He looks at Kassius and he stands up, nodding.

“What’s going on?” Pyrrha asks in a nervous voice, looking at the Psychiatrist, her heart nervously beating heavily as she looks at him. The Psychiatrist pushes the clipboard off the table and takes the glasses off, leaning forward across the table as he stares at her with a cunning smirk. Pyrrha watches his every move, because he is acting extremely shifty right now.

“It has been fun speaking with you my dear, but I’m afraid I never came here to talk to you.” The Psychiatrist states, cracking his neck and he smiles. “I came here to talk – with Per Defectum Vitae.” The man says, then the hair falls from his head and the face changes, eyes turn brown with a faint flicker of red. He smirks as he stares at her, his clothing changes into those of the Merchant’s.

It is Vir Nominis Umbra...

He can somehow be in multiple places at once. Whilst he is here, he is also currently slaughtering the White Fang in Mistral as well.

He is... _everywhere._

Pyrrha’s reaction...is pure fear and dread when she sees his face. He smirks with pure evil in his eyes, standing up from the chair and walking around the desk as he approaches the cell, staring right at her with a smile. “Hello again...” He softly greets with a smile as he looks at her. Pyrrha’s lip trembles with fear as she stares at him, unable to move both from the restraints of her cell and from terror of seeing that monster’s face again. After the horrors that he forced her to experience as well.

“Pl-Please...” She stammers with fear as she looks at him and he is literally behind the glass. He reaches his hand out towards her and as soon as his hand touches the thick, tank proof glass, it shatters instantly into a thousand pieces. He stands there and stares into her green eyes with an evil smirk. “I – I don’t want to go back...” She stammers with fear, remembering the hell that is the Charred Forest.

“Oh...my sweet little boo.” He says sarcastically as he caresses her cheek, she can feel the cold air that surrounds his hand as he touches her cheek. Goosebumps form on her body as he looks at her. Jaune and Kassius need to get to Pyrrha as fast as they can, because Umbra is a cruel being.

“What do you want?” She stammers with fear, tears stream down her cheeks and he stares at her and a smirk forms on his face. Then he speaks and she listens to his powerful words. His voice begins to overlap itself as he speaks, becoming more and more demonic as he talks to her.

“I have walked among men and angels for billions of years...” Vir Nominis Umbra tells her and she looks at him with nervous eyes. “Time has no end, no beginning...no purpose.” He continues, speaking very poetically almost. “I wander the world, seeking food for my everlasting hunger, preying upon men, angels and gods...” Vir Nominis Umbra continues, continuing to show how powerful, cruel and ancient he really is.

He hunts...

Gods...

What kind of being could possibly do that?

“I live to spread death, destruction and evil over the light cast upon you all.” He says, and her eyes water with terror of the monster that stands before her, speaking so poetically to her. “But the light never gets extinguished – and thus, neither will I – I am a timeless chorus, lost in time itself – I can show you how to build worlds...if you just take my hand.” He says, and Pyrrha feels the shackles breaking on her wrists, she feels so free, buts he also knows that he is not to be trusted. She saw the world he built, and it is death and destruction. His very words proved that he cares not for creation, but for destruction.

Despite knowing it could end with agony for her, she glares at him and just stands there. “I would never be a part of that.” She states as she stares at him and he sighs, then he smirks.

“Then I guess I will speak to Per Defectum Vitae.” He sighs, whoever that name is, and he grabs her by the forehead with his hand. Pyrrha lets out a blood curdling scream of agony, falling to her knees from the feeling of fire inside of her head. Jaune hears her screams and his eyes widen, he sprints as fast as he can to get to her. Umbra stares at her as he holds her there, she continues to wail and wail with pain, until suddenly her screams cease.

She remains there on her knees with her eyes closed, tears still soak her cheeks as she remains on her knees. Sweat trickles from the pores in her fair skin, but she slowly stands up before the entity that is before her. He looks at her with a smirk on his face as she stands there...

Then her eyes open...

And they are orange.

“Hello Vir Nominis Umbra...” The Onyx Phantom greets through her host’s vocal chords. Vir Nominis Umbra smirks menacingly.

“Hello Per Defectum Vitae.” He greets, revealing the real name of the Onyx Phantom and the entity that appears to still lurk within her.

It was never gone.

It was just dormant.

 

**The Onyx Phantom**

He sprints round the corner with Kassius in tail, and the guards inside are all dead. There have their necks broken from something that attacked them, laying cold on the ground and Jaune crouches down beside one of them. His eyes then turn to Vir Nominis Umbra who is just stood there and he sprints towards him, slamming his arm against the neck of the entity and pinning him against the wall. It seems he can have a solid form when he wishes, and he does not even react to the aggressive attack, Jaune grits his teeth. He turns to the cell, and notices Pyrrha is not there. Jaune snarls with rage, he knows who he is, and yet he seems to be the first person to not be crippled with fear when seeing him. Umbra just continues to smile. “Where is she?” Jaune roars, demanding him to answer, and Vir Nominis Umbra does not even flinch.

Then he begins to chuckle sinisterly. “You really need to learn to check your environment some more, Mr Arc.” Vir Nominis Umbra sighs, shaking his head. Kassius enters the room, when suddenly he takes a powerful punch from Pyrrha in the side of the head. He grunts from the impact and stumbles, she spins round and roundhouse kicks him into the metal skeleton of the cell. The Huntsman bounces off and lands on the ground in pain, and Jaune looks at her as she attacks him next.

Her eyes are constantly glowing pure orange, as the Onyx Phantom attacks him in her body. She punches at him over and over again with speed and skill, landing multiple hits into his upper torso, then she kicks him through the doorway. Jaune stumbles back, blocking her attacks as best as he can. “Pyrrha! Stop! It’s me, Jaune!” He yells, begging her to break free from the Onyx Phantom’s grasp, or Per Defectum Vitae, as Vir Nominis Umbra called her. Jaune luckily deflects one of her punches but he cannot bring himself to strike her, and that is what she is feeding off. The Onyx Phantom grabs Jaune by the throat and launches him through the double doors of an elevator shaft.

Jaune tumbles down, crashing against the metal walls back and forth, landing onto one of the elevators below with a loud bang. Pyrrha looks down at Jaune at the bottom of the elevator shaft and walks off, her eyes glow bright orange as she storms off. Kassius groans as he starts to get back up, and sees Umbra stood there with a smirk, looking down at Jaune at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Kassius stares at him and his eyes narrow with anger. “Hey!” Kassius exclaims, the Soothsayer turns and looks at him with a smirk. Umbra then turns and he walks away from the view of Kassius, he pushes his cybernetic hand against the ground and gets back up, sprinting after him. “Get back here you bald prick!” Kassius yells with anger.

Jaune groans and pulls his scroll out, he still has local signals to the others in the office and he calls Nora with a cough, partially winded. “Nora...get the others and find Pyrrha...” He groans with a cough.

“What? Why? What happened?” She questions.

“Onyx Phantom...Umbra woke it back up...” He weakly answers, still coughing the pain out as he tries to find a way out of where he has been trapped.

“Crap! We’ll find her and try to stop her, are you okay?” Nora inquires.

“Yep...feeling peachy.” He sarcastically answers as he gets back up, cracking his neck.

Nora puts the scroll down and turns to the others, Port has already opened the door and one of the officers tries to stop them from leaving. “Hey! You can’t leave there yet!” The officer yells.

“Get out of the way, kid. This is Huntsmen Business.” He sternly orders, pushing him out of his way. Penny gets up and she runs alongside them, and Port turns a corner, taking cover behind a wall, the only way she could come out from is through here. The staircase from the lower levels will come up here, and since the elevator shafts are inoperable at the moment due to that Electromagnetic Pulse that was set off by the Acolytes of Lien. There are panicking civilians inside of the large room right now, confused of what is happening and there are guards with flashlights trying to turn the lights back on.

Nora and Ren are sneaking in the dark whilst everyone gets into position to try and beat the Onyx Phantom out of their friend. It might work, since they never managed to knock the Onyx Phantom out before now. They can hear her approaching, when suddenly the double doors blow open and a guard is thrown across the ground, his metal armour nearly crushed from her polarity. He groans with pain, and Pyrrha emerges, walking almost like an Atlesian Knight, completely emotionlessly. The other guards turn to her. “Hey! Stand down!” One of the guards yells, before Pyrrha ducks down and just dodges his electrified baton, and punches him in the chest. She grabs his baton and slams her elbow down onto his arm so hard that she breaks the forearm, then pulls the baton from his grip. She spins round and thwacks the guard in the head with his own baton and kicks the other in the chest, sending him flying into the wall.

“We’re in position.” Penny whispers into the comm. Port is the first to strike, using the shadows to sneak up on her from behind. He then sprints at her and swings his fist at her from behind, she spins round and catches his fist, he can see her eyes glowing pure orange as she stares at him. She has absolutely no emotion in her face, meaning that she is not doing any of this by choice, this is all the Onyx Phantom’s doing. The damned thing has returned when they hoped it was gone.

One of the guards groans, picking his radio up and contacting General Ironwood. “Prisoner X has escaped...need backup...” The soldier groans with pain.

Pyrrha slams Port’s fist into his own face and she goes to punch him, but he ducks down and swipes her off her feet. The Possessed Pyrrha Nikos lands on her hands and she cartwheels off the fall, and she jumps in the air and throws a punch at him. This time he is the one that catches her fist and he pulls her forward and slams his fist into her face. “Sorry, Pyrrha!” He apologises, but she rolls past him and leaps onto his back, forcefully pushing him down into the ground, rolling off his back. She instantly spins around and kicks him in the chest, launching him through a collection of light tables and chairs, knocking them all over.

Pyrrha goes to attack him until Oobleck rushes her and instantly makes his attack, kicking her in the side and immediately following up with one powerful punch. But she catches his fist again and pushes him back, swinging a powerful punch towards him, he slides aside and grabs her and throws her into the wall. She uses her polarity, pulling one of the metal chairs and throwing it into his side, knocking him onto the ground. She walks right past the two Huntsmen until Nora and Penny both come charging towards her from the shadows, Penny leaps and smashes her knee into Pyrrha’s face, ducking down to avoid her attack. She rapidly beats a couple punches into Pyrrha’s torso and she yelps, grabbing Penny by her hair and throwing her across the room. Nora yells as she punches her very good friend in the crotch, then leaps at her and wraps her legs around Pyrrha’s neck. She slams both arms down onto the top of her head over and over again to try and knock her unconscious and get the Demonic Being out of her head. Pyrrha carries the light and extremely strong girl across the room and then slams her down into the table with all her might, pinning her down, then grabbing her by the throat. Pyrrha stares at her, still showing no emotion whatsoever.

Through a choking voice, Nora still manages to get a comment out. “I prefer normal Pyrrha!” She chokes, until Penny uses her swords and wraps the cables around Pyrrha’s arms, throwing her back and slamming her down into the ground with a yell of rage. Pyrrha crashes into the marble floor so hard that she actually cracks the surface. The swords fly back behind Penny and she watches her as she stands there, and Pyrrha glares at her, reaching forward and using her Polarity.

However...

Nothing happens, even the Onyx Phantom looks confused, looking at her hand and then at Penny. Penny smirks and the Phantom and winks, she remembers what happened and clearly Merlot gave her a few upgrades. The Onyx Phantom grits Pyrrha’s teeth and she immediately sprints towards Penny to attack her, but Penny blasts green energy into the ground to throw her body into the air. She slashes at Pyrrha to knock her down into the ground.

The Onyx Phantom is not a fool, and it has clearly been attempting to escape with Pyrrha so then it can completely control her. It turns and retreats, knowing it cannot take Penny down without its weapons. When Pyrrha runs, she stumbles and they can hear her screaming with pain, grabbing her head with her hands. Her orange irises are flickering from orange to green over and over again. Pyrrha turns to them as she stumbles, partially gaining some control. “You’ve got to knock the Phantom out of me!” Pyrrha yells, before the Phantom takes over once more snarling at them and retreating.

Ren leaps at her and kicks Pyrrha in the chest multiple times whilst in the air, then he punches her down in the head, doing as she told them to. But the Onyx Phantom is resilient, able to withstand such blows quite well, deflecting his punches with her arms and rolling back. Ren yells as he kicks her in the chest and she rolls back. The Onyx Phantom retreats again and tries to run up the stairs to get away from them, but Ren pursues with Penny and Oobleck following them. Pyrrha runs up the stairs until Ren jumps and clambers up, landing in front of her. Pyrrha swings her fist straight at his face, but the Kuroyurian Warrior catches her forearm and pushes, locking her arm in position and he spins round and kicks her in the head, so hard she tumbles down the stairs.

He follows her and swings again, but she swipes his fist out of the way, until he sends another fist right into her face, then spins round and kicks her in the chest, launching her off the balcony. He looks over with a concerned face, for she is still his friend. Ren vaults across the balcony and lands down at the bottom and he looks around with concern, realising she is not there anymore. She managed to escape and get outside. “Crap!” Nora exclaims. She picks up her scroll and she calls Jaune again. “Jaune! We tried but she managed to get away, but she is fighting the Phantom. It can’t take much more.” Nora tells her.

“Don’t worry! I can see her! Might need some backup!” Jaune requests.

“We’re coming!”

 

**Jaune**

Pyrrha sprints across the clean courtyard in the city, heading towards a car that she could take to the airport and steal an aircraft to leave Atlesian Airspace. With the power in the city currently disabled, they will not be able to activate the Surface to Air Missiles to take her down, and she will be lost once more. Pyrrha continues to run and run, when suddenly Jaune leaps and tackles her, they both fall into the lake with the fountain spraying up in the air, they both yell as they fall.

Pyrrha leaps out from the water and Jaune jumps after her, reaching out for her as he rolls past her. She rights herself, only to meet the fist of Jaune as he collides his knuckles into the side of her head, she roars with pain and staggers back. Jaune runs to her and slams her head into the ground.

Jaune knows now, that he needs to do this to get that thing out of her head. Water drips and pours from their hair and body as they move around, she groans as she falls there. Nora and Ren both barge the doors open and they look across the area, seeing Jaune battling against Pyrrha across the way from them. “There they are! We can make it!” Nora yells, sprinting with them all towards the couple in the middle of a fight to the death, or at least the Demon that controls her is.

Jaune ducks down and just avoids the swing from Pyrrha, and he rolls back when she jumps through the air and slams her heel down onto where his head was. She instantly swipes her foot across the ground and knocks him off his feet. She grabs him by the hair and lifts him off the ground. “I am the Onyx Phantom!” She roars with rage, not even sounding like the Pyrrha Nikos that they knew with her eyes like that. She spins round and slams Jaune’s head down into the ground with all her might, making his aura flicker in the process. “You are nothing more than a failure!” The Onyx Phantom screeches, then throwing him forward. He tumbles and slides his hands across the floor, staring at her as he flicks the blonde hair from his eyes.

Pyrrha stands tall with her fists raised, then charging at him once more. The water splashes around them as they run and she swings her fist at his head, but Jaune ducks down and catches her arm, remembering the training that Sun did with him to improve his Hand-to-Hand skills. He pushes her arm down and then grabs her, wrestling her down onto the ground with all his might. She yells with anger, like a distressed animal, he pins her slender body down against the stone and holds her there. “Pyrrha! I’m here, you need to fight harder! You just have to break free from its hold!” Jaune yells as he holds her down, pushing his hands against her wrists to hold her there. Her long red hair is soaked with water and she yells with anger, but the orange irises flicker again as Pyrrha tries to fight it.

“Jaune! I’m trying to fight it!” Pyrrha tells him, her eyes green for now but she shrieks with pain. It is like someone is pressing a superheated iron against her temple, tears even stream from her eyes due to her pain.

“You can do it!” He assures her, she grits her teeth, until the orange fiery irises burn through again, and she lets out a terrifying demonic roar. She blasts her hand into his chest plate and the polarity launches him into the air and she spins round and roundhouse kicks him into the fountain. The water splashes across him and he coughs as he tries to breathe, the Onyx Phantom charges towards him again. She leaps into the water and grabs him by the neck, trying to drown him in the water.

Until Pyrrha gasps for air as the cable from Penny’s sword wraps around her throat and she throws her away from Jaune. Penny slams her down against the ground with force, so much force that the ground fractures upon impact. She bounces across the ground and yells with pain as she does. Nora reaches into the fountain and pulls Jaune from the water, he gasps for air as the water covers his body. He coughs up water, nearly dying from it as well. Pyrrha instantly gets back up and rolls back from Ren as he swipes his fist towards her, she pushes his hand aside and knees him in the gut. She pushes him aside and kicks Professor Peter Port in the head, making him stumble.

The Onyx Phantom ducks down and leaps at Port, wrapping her legs around his neck and throwing her entire bodyweight down into the ground with everything she has. She throws him and he crashes into the ground, sprinting at her again. Oobleck runs towards her and catches her arm as she swings and he flips her onto the ground, but she claws him across the face with her nails, making him recoil. His green aura luckily repairs the scratches quite quickly. She leaps back up and kicks Nora in the head when she goes to attack, until she feels the cable from Penny around her neck again.

“Sorry for this!” Penny apologises in advance, launching Pyrrha into the air and with full force, bringing her head first down against the stone ground, so hard that it cracks the ground. All of them fall silent with fear for accidentally killing her from that move, until Pyrrha does move. They wait to see her eyes, and she rolls over, her hand pressed to her head.

“Ow...” Pyrrha groans, opening her now green eyes. She cannot hear the whispers anymore, that move did just knock the Onyx Phantom out of her head again, it was not in her head long enough for it to maintain a stronger connection. Jaune stumbles from the water and he approaches her, water covering their bodies.

“Pyrrha...do you know me?” He asks her, making sure that this is in fact her. She looks at him, hand still pressed to her pounding head.

“You...have seven sisters...” Pyrrha weakly says with a smile as she looks at him. “And you wore a dress to the dance.” She giggles.

Jaune smiles.

“She’s back.” He sighs with relief, and she wraps her arms around him, he holds her close as well, she will always feel at home in his arms. Until something hits her, her eyes widen in realisation. After Kassius’ long chase to find him, he emerges from the building and he looks around...

Vir Nominis Umbra has vanished.

As quickly as he appeared. “Damn it...” He looks around and his eyes widen, he can see the others with Pyrrha, seeing Pyrrha and Jaune hugging and he runs to them.

 “Wait! We need to move!” She warns them, Jaune stands up and helps her up.

“Huh? Why?” Nora asks.

“All of that? Vir Nominis Umbra just did all of that as a distraction.” Pyrrha tells them, still feeling a little light headed after Penny’s killer move.

“Why?” Penny asks her. “What could he gain?”

“There’s a bomb...” She reveals, and their eyes widen.

“Where?” Kassius asks.

“Underneath the Grand Hall, it’s his plan. I faintly remember him ordering the Phantom...before it took over some more...that it needed to cause chaos and distract the soldiers...and you guys. We’re running out of time, if that bomb goes off...” Pyrrha explains, then Jaune realises.

“Every politician...councillor...Willow and Ironwood...they’ll be killed.” Jaune realises.

“We need to stop them!” Pyrrha says with worried eyes.

If that bomb goes off...

The whole world will descend into chaos without leaders.


	32. The Clean Slate - Pt. 2

**Whitley**

The Heir to the Schnee Dust Company looks out on his home city, the lights slowly beginning to turn back on. Building by building as the workers reactivate the power plants that fuel their luxuries. The Cross Continental Transmit Tower also comes back online, re-establishing connection with the rest of the world. He has his arm behind his back as always, stood tall with either pride or a sense of purpose, head held high as if to stop a pin from jabbing into his neck.

He stares across the city, waiting for the moment he has been waiting for to occur. The television in the corner regains connectivity now that the power is back on, and on the screen is Lisa Lavender. She looks around and she has a sigh of relief that normality has returned. Nobody has any idea of what is coming, no idea that there is a bomb beneath that building.

The building that Whitley is a safe distance from.

A hologram forms behind him and he turns to it, seeing Ortega in the image. He has his hands behind his back and he is wearing the dress blues of the Acolytes of Lien again. Medals pinned to the coat, creating a real sense of authority as he looks at the Schnee Boy. Whitley turns to him and walks over to him, picking a glass of whiskey up from the table, just as his father does. “Is everything ready?” Whitley asks him, speaking with his own form of authority. Ortega nods his head as he stands there in the hologram.

“Yes, the weapon is in place.” Ortega confirms as he stands there, by the looks of things he must be aboard the Drift of Wandering Star. It must be hidden somewhere nearby the city of Atlas, perhaps even in Mantle somewhere. Clearly there is something on Ortega’s mind from the way he looks down from Whitley, and he catches onto that.

“Is there something on your mind, Admiral?” Whitley inquires, Ortega sighs and his eyes turn to the Heir of the Schnee Fortune.

“Your mother in that building – don’t you want her safe?” Ortega questions, clearly seeming to have more humanity in him than the boy does. A sad realisation when the man who is the youngest here, is less of a human being than the Admiral is. Whitley looks down at the alcoholic drink in his grasp, the ice cubes clink against each other; he sighs and looks at Darren.

“She chose her own fate.” Whitley states coldly – just as cold as his father. Whitley turns away from Ortega and the Admiral clearly does not share the same thoughts as he does, his eyes dart around the bridge of the Drift of Wandering Star.

“Vacuo is ready as well – just say the word.” Ortega states, Whitley continues to look out at the city. Staring directly at the Grand Hall in the centre of the huge city itself, a large structure with gold and marble constructing it. The most expensive building there, making the Schnee Manor look like it was made out of a pittance in comparison.

Whitley responds briefly. “Very good – you may go now, Ortega.” Whitley says, Ortega stares at the boy and he sighs. He respectfully bows his head and turns, walking away from the live feed that records him. Whitley continues to stare out at the city, and his eyes turn to the picture of his mother on the desk. He looks away from it with a pain in his heart, then he roars with rage, picking the picture frame up and catapulting it across the room.

The picture frame shatters against the wall, shards of glass break off and fall onto the ground. The Photograph shatters upon contact as it hits the wall, chunks of it all over the wall.

Whitley has finally severed all ties with his mother.

The only things that can save her now are Jaune and his team stopping that bomb from detonating.

Whitley stands there, and he looks at the screen that shows Lavender’s Live Feed on the Coalition being ratified.

The mother of the Schnees stands amongst the crowd, in fact at the front of them with Ironwood at her side. Her dress is beautiful along with a necklace that carries the Schnee Name on it, the snowflake itself. She slowly looks around at the place as all the politicians across the world all stand inside. The lead councilmen and councilwomen from every single Kingdom of Remnant. She hears the voice of President Thaddeus Brimstone sigh as he stands there, clapping his hands together as he sees the lights return. “Ah! There you go, as I said, everything is perfectly fine.” Thaddeus assures, lying obviously due to the rate his heart is beating. He was totally crapping his pants, all because of being such a coward in his life. Hiding behind the money and the walls that Atlas has to offer.

“Mr President, what exactly is the Atlesian Coalition? Are you really trying to control the Huntsmen in every single Kingdom?” Lisa Lavender inquires, holding the microphone out in his attention, and he chuckles.

“Not exactly – you see we owe the Huntsmen and Huntresses so much, our lives in fact for what they have sacrificed in their bravery.” Thaddeus explains, his voice speaking loud and proud, but Willow and Ironwood can hear right through his words. Weiss and Glynda are both watching from their places in Beacon and Vacuo, because this is the first that any of them have heard of this. The Atlesian Coalition – further proof of the President’s desperation to control everything that he fears and does not understand.

Ironwood looks around before he checks his scroll on his son, Shane, who he sent with some other Atlesian Soldiers to investigate what was going on.

He has not responded yet, despite the power being restored.

There is a look of concern in his eyes as he stands there, but Thaddeus continues to spread his lies with that smile on his face. “However, it has been made very clear to me that many Huntsmen and Huntresses than join the Academies do not all join for the same reason. Some join them because they want power, others for the money, and some to learn how to kill people.” Thaddeus explains as he stands before them all. “This is a standard that we cannot and will not stand for.”

He picks up the thick document of pages and lifts it up for the cameras to see, and for all the Politicians to see. The book has the Atlesian Symbol upon it, the staff with the crystal attached to the tip with white covering the whole insignia. “This document will have every single Huntsmen command under a single rule, to serve their superiors and only go on missions when they are ordered to.” Thaddeus states. “No more Bounty Missions, they will conduct their missions only when we give the order.”

Willow stares at him and her eyes narrow when she glares. _You mean without your say-so._ Willow can see through his lies, all he wants is to have full control over the Huntsmen and Huntresses, even if that means destroying everything that they have been fighting to maintain.

Individuality.

An ability to make their own decisions in their lives, not following someone else’s footsteps like a dog.

 

**Jaune**

He sprints across the Atlesian courtyard to find the place where the bomb has been laid, but they cannot figure out where they need to go. The place is filled with different pathways, and any of them could lead to a trap. When Jaune runs, he looks at Pyrrha with concern, she looks just as worried. Vir Nominis Umbra knows what he is doing, and he would not make such a threat lightly.

And Pyrrha does not lie.

If she says that there is a bomb...

If Umbra said that there is a bomb...

Then they must find it and stop it from detonating. “Pyrrha?” Jaune calls as he runs beside her, and she looks at him, with the same emotions coursing around her body as he has. Her eyes wide with fear.

“Jaune?” She replies with concern, her voice sounds like it is trembling as she runs alongside him and the others behind them.

“Do you know where the bomb is?” Jaune asks her, hoping that Vir Nominis Umbra had told the Onyx Phantom about that, she searches from her shattered memory but she groans, unable to pinpoint that memory, or even if he did say that. He is not the one to make a mistake like that.

“No. I only remember him telling me to cause a distraction.” Pyrrha explains with wide eyes, and Jaune grits his teeth with more and more fear and anxiety.

“A distraction to soldiers from finding the bomb...they would have soldiers patrolling the entire building in case of an attack.” Port states, remembering that fact as well.

“And now they must be looking for us...” Nora gasps as she runs.

“We need to get there now!” Jaune warns, but suddenly there is a gunshot, the bullet lands at their feet, they all stop when they see a bunch of Atlesian Soldiers emerging from the building. Amongst them is Shane Ironwood, aiming his rifle at them with angered eyes, stepping closer and closer. They can see that he is shaking with fear, because he has never been in a real combat situation before.

“Stand down! You are hereby arrested for crimes against Atlas and our people, what say you in your defence?” Shane yells with anger, but Jaune holds his hand out.

“Put the damn gun down and listen!” He demands, shouting at the top of his lungs. “Pyrrha was manipulated; she was only the tool for our enemy’s plan.” Jaune warns, begging them to listen to him. Shane stares at him down the iron sights of his rifle; he listens but clearly does not seem to trust him. “He used her as a distraction to lure all the soldiers from the Grand Hall.”

“Why?” Shane questions sternly.

“There’s a bomb, somewhere inside of the Grand Hall. And it is ticking; we need to find it before it blows up!” Jaune warns, Shane’s eyes widen and he looks at the other soldiers stood beside him.

“How do we know we can trust you?” Shane questions, still aiming his rifle at the Huntsmen and Huntresses stood before them.

“Do we really look like we’d lie to you?” Jaune questions, staring right back at him. Shane looks at the warriors, remembering the fact that all of them are heroes and have fought it battles that he could never imagine. He sighs and he pulls his scroll out from his pocket to contact his father.

His eyes widen with confusion.

“What the hell?” He mutters.

“What is it?” Ren asks.

“I have no signal, but the C.C.T is back online.” Shane states with confusion in his voice, and Jaune looks up at the C.C.T Tower, not like someone could miss it. All the power is back on, and the system completely rebooted. But that would not give them no signal, their signal would not be as good as it was before, but they could still make calls. Something is blocking the Scroll Service directly.

Then Kassius deduces it.

“The Acolytes of Lien must have a Jammer set up somewhere, to stop us from sending a message out to Ironwood and the others inside of the Grand Hall.” Kassius says to them, wide eyed with realisation. They have really spent plenty of time planning this attack, and they must act fast if they want to stop that bomb from detonating. They all begin to check their scrolls, and it is the same story. No signal despite the C.C.T Tower operational again, Kassius is right. They must have set one up nearby to prevent local communications from arriving to Ironwood and the others.

Shane sighs, since their story is starting to make a lot more sense. “Alright, we will have to split up. I will take my forces and search for this bomb. You take your friends and find that Jammer, destroy it.” He orders, and they all look to Jaune. They trust him with their lives, so they all wait for his orders. Even Port and Oobleck are waiting for him to give the orders now, because he has always been the best for strategy. Jaune nods and Shane throws him a card.

Jaune catches it and looks at it, top level access to the Armoury. “Get your weapons, you are gonna need them. Those damn Mercenaries will be guarding it.” Shane advises, and Jaune nods.

“Good luck!” Jaune hopes, turning and walking away from Shane Ironwood as he takes his soldiers towards the Grand Hall. Jaune turns to Penny, since she is a synthetic, and on a hunch he presents his idea to her. “Penny...” He says, getting her attention and she looks at him curiously to hear his idea.

“Yes, Jaune?” Penny responds.

“Do you think you can track the Jammer down? Do you have any software that can help us out?” He asks her, and Penny thinks as she searches through her features in her head. Then an idea hits her, a smile grows on her sweet face as she remembers.

“Yes! I have a radio frequency; I can detect anything affecting them and their location.” Penny explains.

“Use it.” Ren says, and she does so. Her eyes begin to glow bright green as she looks around, they begin to blink as she turns in one direction, faster and faster, and then she sets her eyes on one of the large buildings. It appears to be a large car parking building, a perfect place for them to set up an attack. Penny extends her arm and points at the building.

“Over there, it must be.” Penny states, and Oobleck analyses it with his intellect.

“Ooh...yes that would give the Acolytes a higher advantage of protecting the Jammer.” Oobleck says to them.

“Okay, let’s find our weapons.” Jaune says, cracking his neck.

 

**Willow**

The Schnee Mother continues to look around, not even listening to the President’s speech and his lies. Mainly because she knows that something is not right, Whitely is not here. He would have shown up by now, he has never been known to miss any meeting. Her eyes dart over to Klein who is amongst the crowd and he is just as concerned, then she hears more of Thaddeus’ speech, hearing him say something that infuriates her. “And from here on, all Schnee Dust Company Profits shall be directed to the politicians of Atlas and its military.” Thaddeus states, and she glares at him with disgusted eyes, then at Ironwood.

“When was that a part of the deal?” Willow sternly questions as she stares at him, but Ironwood looks just as angry as her. He clenches his hand into a fist when he stares at the proud and foolish man.

“I was never told that.” Ironwood states with angered eyes, then she turns to him as he smiles, looking around. She walks towards him and stands right up to him with a strident pose.

“When was that a part of the deal?” Willow questions with anger, narrowed eyes and he chuckles.

“If you actually intended on joining the meetings instead of drinking in the gardens, maybe you would have already known that this was happening for quite a while.” Thaddeus states with that disgusting smile on his face, and Willow scoffs, shaking her head as she backs up from him.

“You gave me your word that the Schnee name would not come into this business.” Willow snarls with repulsion as she stares at the man, and Thaddeus raises his brow.

“No – I stated that _you_ would not be brought into my dealings. Once the Atlesian Coalition has been signed, you son will be able to make more money than he has ever dreamed of.” Thaddeus assures.

“And where is my son?” Willow questions, and they all fall silent and they all look around. Only now have they noticed that the Head of the Schnee Dust Company is not present in the building. He should have been here by now, but he is still missing from the discussion. Thaddeus chuckles, looking at Willow with that smile on his face.

“It appears your precious boy has gotten himself lost.” He says with a smirk, and Willow narrows her eyes in a very similar way to how her youngest daughter does.

Ironwood checks his scroll again, for some reason his scroll does not show that the signal is down.

He must be further from the jammer than they are, they cannot call him and he cannot send them anything.

But he has nothing to fear.

Nothing to be suspicious of.

 

**Shane**

The Squad of Atlesian Soldiers continue to make their way towards the Grand Hall, weapons raised in case of incognito Acolytes hiding inside as they prepare that bomb to explode. Shane stands against the wall with another at the other side as they prepare to breach, his partner holds a shotgun and nods his head. Shane steps out and he smashes his boot against the door in order to knock it down, and he storms in first, rifle held high. They can hear the voice of Thaddeus speaking as he reads the Atlesian Coalition out to the politicians listening to what it says. “All Huntsmen and Huntresses on the eve of the Full Moon will serve the Atlesian Military, and all will only go out on missions when commanded to do so.” He speaks, proudly as the soldiers move inside.

Shane flocks a switch onto the flashlight attached to the lower quadrail on his rifle, checking his corners in the dark cellars of the building. Despite the beautiful clean surface of Atlas...in here...it is as dirty as the people that live here. Shane remains at the head of the squad as they search for this bomb; they know that this would be the most strategic place to plant such a weapon. However they need to follow the catacombs to find where the centre is, because that is where maximum damage will be acquired.

Depending on the size of the bomb.

One of the soldiers turns a corner as he aims down a corridor, finding themselves in a crossroads, four different directions, and eight of them. Shane lowers his rifle as he looks around, trying to make a decision. His hands still rattling and quivering with fear and anticipation for whatever is going to happen. Shane is not used to this sort of situation that he is in right now, he is only used to the training simulations.

This is no simulation.

This is the real thing.

He eventually comes to a decision and he pats one of the soldiers on his back. “You come with me, the rest of you split off in pairs.” He orders, and he and the other soldier head off in their direction, whilst the other pairs head down the other pathways to search for this bomb.

 

**Jaune**

Kassius raises his fists as they approach the Armoury, the Acolytes of Lien could have access to the armoury as well. Jaune slides the card down the scanner and they enter, whilst Penny protects them. She is the only one who has her weapons on her because they are a part of her. Kassius keeps his eyes peeled and senses sharp as they enter, there are no soldiers inside either.

The distraction has worked like a charm.

They all enter the armoury and approach their weapons. Jaune picks up Crocea Mors and his shield, holding them both and he sheathes the sword into the shield. Jaune reattaches his personal weapon to his belt, turning to the others. Kassius smiles as he picks up Lash Equinox and Vulcan Nox, even checking for any markings on them. “Good.” He sighs with relief, fitting his arms into the Vulcan Nox gauntlets, whilst he flicks Lash Equinox upwards. The blades fold out from the hilts, and he searches for his armour.

But it seems to have been taken; they must have taken it to a different place. He snarls with anger, they haven’t got time to find his armour, all he has is his hat now.

Nora reaches down and picks Magnhild up, transforming it into the Hammer form; she smirks with happiness to have her back. Ren picks up Stormflower and spins them through his fingers as he walks around the room. Oobleck and Port both pick their weapons up, then Jaune looks at Pyrrha.

She has seen her weapons.

Milo and Akuou are on a mantelpiece for her to pick them up. But she holds her hands out and she uses her polarity instead. Black energy surrounds them and they fly into her grasp. She stands there with her weapons in her hand and she looks at Jaune, nodding firmly to him. “Come on, we need to shut that Jammer down.” Jaune says, walking outside first, sprinting towards the building. Pyrrha and Kassius run alongside him with their weapons at the ready, they all look up though when they hear the roar of a shuttle flying overhead.

Lots of aircraft are beginning to take off around them.

Military aircraft, heading to different points in the city. They are not fools, the Acolytes of Lien never left Atlas after the Battle of the Roses, they were just in hiding. Hiding in plain sight from the Huntsmen and the Military until they are ordered to begin again. They have been waiting for this moment ever since the Drift of Wandering Star escaped the Volcanic Chain Isles.

They run as fast as they can to get to the Car Park, seeing it there and there is a landed Aircraft on there, a Bullhead by the looks of it. It carries the Atlesian Symbol and colours, but they must have taken it to remain incognito. Pyrrha runs as fast as she can, her long red hair blowing in the wind as she sprints, and Port catches up and he jumps towards the building.

The Professor slams the Axe Blade of his Blunderbuss into the brickwork. The Acolytes of Lien stand on the roof with the Jammer working away, creating pulses of energy that block their scrolls’ signals. He rips it out and slams it into the concrete once again to climb his way up. Kassius does the same, jumping to the building and stabbing Lash Equinox into the brickwork. He and Port work their ways up, whilst the others take the stairs, running up them as fast as they can to get to the jammer.

The soldiers turn and one of them is a Juggernaut. The huge soldier prepares the massive machine gun to fire as soon as they see the Huntsmen. Another one is a Seeker, his backpack pumping dust through the suit itself as he holds his Submachine Gun in his hands, staring at where the sounds are coming from through the visor. The rest are soldiers being lead by a Captain with a Heavy Machine Gun in his hands, a long clip of dust charged machine guns fed into the weapon. The Seeker slowly draws his Katana on his back as he stands there, the backpack glows bright orange.

Kassius suddenly leaps up first, landing right in front of them and he spins his sword round, deflecting the bullet from the Captain. The bullet rings off and Kassius points Lash Equinox at him with a smirk. “Sorry we’re late for the party.” He apologises with a grin.

Port jumps up and sprints towards the soldiers with a roar, firing the Blunderbuss and Kassius crosses the swords over each other as the Seeker rushes towards him at supersonic speeds, clashing the Katana blade against the two crossed sword blades.

 

**Shane**

Ironwood’s Son continues to make his way through the tunnels beneath the structure, is rifle held up as he searches for them. His soldier stays close to him as they get closer to something, and he raises his microphone to his mouth to contact his men. “Do you read me?” He asks them with a soft whispering voice, but nothing but static comes through. He sighs with frustration and keeps on moving through, getting closer and closer to the area he and the soldier have been searching for.

Shane turns a corner, and the soldier checks their six. “It must be down here...” Shane mutters, and he points his torch down a long hallway.

Something has caught his eye.

A bunch of Schnee Dust Company crates, all filled with Fire Dust all stacked up in a line. He looks carefully, but he has made a dire mistake.

He never did check his six.

The soldier suddenly spins around and fires his gun into Shane’s back, a shockwave of sharp pain rushes up his spine and he screams with agony, collapsing to the ground after the betrayal. He wheezes with pain on the ground, blood leaking from the broken armour and back where he has fallen. He coughs with agony after he was shot, and he cannot feel his legs anymore. He turns to the soldier who has betrayed him with widened eyes.

He crouches down beside him and takes the gauntlet off, and his eyes widen with horror from what he sees.

A metal hand, that transforms into a razor sharp hook.

He takes off the helmet that hid his face and he smiles, winking at him. It was the Spectre the whole time, and he turns and walks away from him, whistling as he walks away.

Shane has no idea that his men walked right into a trap. Their bodies have been ripped to shreds and devoured by Merlot Controlled Grimm that lurked inside of the building, feasting off their remains.

The Spectre engages his active camouflage and vanishes just as he appeared. Shane coughs with pain, and his eyes dart towards the dust crates...

Then he sees it...

The Bomb.

All of that Fire dust...

The bomb and that combined will annihilate the building and everyone inside it, perhaps even a couple blocks around it could be destroyed as well from how big this explosion will be if it goes off.

His eyes widen when he sees the time left.

Five minutes and counting.

He begins to crawl towards it desperately as he bleeds out on the ground.

 

**Willow**

“It appears that the Atlesian Coalition is going to change the world as we know it, all Huntsmen and Huntresses who are training or have trained in the schools will serve the Atlesian Government.” Lisa Lavender speaks to the camera, her microphone held close to her mouth as she speaks. Weiss is watching this back at Vacuo with concern, Yang watches beside her as well, along with Sun and Neptune as they observe the events.

Blake and Winter have no idea that this is happening, they have merely been trying to contact them. And Ruby and Oscar are still learning everything they can from Kragen on the information they have gathered.

Whitley watches sinisterly from Schnee Manor, and Willow cannot stop thinking about her son. She keeps on looking at the different entrances, hoping to see him enter and begin his speech to them all on his thoughts on it all. But he has yet to show up, and even Klein is looking around as well, across the room from her. Ironwood looks down at his much smaller girlfriend and he can feel her trembling with concern.

James has no idea that his son has just been crippled by the Spectre.

And that they only have five minutes before that bomb goes off.

Willow finally has enough and she walks towards President Thaddeus Brimstone again, looking polite as ever with a gentle smile on her face whilst the crowd converse over the Coalition. “There’s something wrong...” Willow whispers to him to not alert the others and incite a panic. Thaddeus looks at her and he chuckles, looking proud again as he stands in the centre of the building with the Atlesian Symbol beneath him.

“You have nothing to fear, my dear. The Coalition will soon be ratified.” He assures, but she still refuses to accept his cowardly remarks, so she puts the facts out to him.

“Whitley is not here, the face of the Schnee Dust Company is not here. Why do you think that he is not here?” She questions as she stares at him with a stern expression. Thaddeus sighs as he turns to her, patting the thick document on the podium displayed to everyone, spreading more crap in her face.

“Just because one individual is not here, does not stop the Coalition from being confirmed. The path for greatness cannot be stopped.” He laughs as he walks past her, then she snaps, making Ironwood look more concerned. Because Willow has always remained calm.

“Oh get your head out of your own asshole for one second and listen to what I am telling you!” She demands, her voice echoes off the walls, shocking the crowd as well, they all look at her like she is raving mad. “Whitley Schnee, my son, has always detested me. And he has always been on his father’s side, and he is still out there. If he is not here, then that means he has other plans, plans that will not end well for either of us.” Willow explains, and she could not be any more right than she is right now. Thaddeus stares at her with shock of her attitude towards him, stood before her.

Her voice becomes shakier as she looks at him. “The Atlesian Coalition can wait, we all need to leave.” She states.

He looks at her, and then he smirks.

He scoffs and shakes his head.

Unable to accept that their lives are at risk.

 

**Jaune**

Kassius kicks the Seeker in the chest to get him away from his personal space. He instantly aims Vulcan Nox at the Seeker and fires, but the bullet misses when the Seeker darts away in order to avoid him. Pyrrha and Jaune both rush the Juggernaut, Jaune with his shield held up and Pyrrha runs behind him. He crouches down as he deflects the bullets from the Juggernaut’s machine gun, and Pyrrha runs up his back, jumping towards the Juggernaut. She lands on the face of the huge battle suit and she drives her sword down into the helmet to take out the pilot, the huge soldier staggers back from the impact as she fights him.

Ren leaps and rolls out of the way to avoid the Katana and the machine guns of the Seeker that darts past him to attack. He stops but at the wrong moment, getting his head smashed in by Magnhild so hard his legs kick back and smash into his own head. Penny screeches across the rooftop and she smashes her robotic fist into the side of an Acolyte of Lien’s face, rippling a shockwave across his face.

Port spins his Blunderbuss round and he whacks the axe into the chest of one of the soldiers, he screams as he plummets off the building and into the ground with a heavy thud. Pyrrha transforms Milo and she fires the rifle into the pilot’s head of the Juggernaut, killing him instantly. She kicks herself off the soldier and lands on the ground, turning to Penny. “Penny! Hack into the Jammer!” Pyrrha begs.

Penny nods, then she sprints towards it and pulls the panel that covers the terminal off whilst the others fight off the Acolytes of Lien. Jaune smashes his shield against one of their faces and he pushes Crocea Mors into the soldier’s chest, forcing him towards the edge of the building, kicking him off as well. Oobleck spins his Thermos staff around as he whacks it onto another soldier, taking him down instantly.

They are running out of time.

 

**Shane /Willow**

He is so close, reaching out for it with blood leaking from his mouth due to ruptured internal organs from how close the Spectre fired that gun into his back. He wheezes with agony as he reaches for the button.

Only a minute and thirty seconds now.

Inside the building, Willow turns to all the people inside with widened eyes.

“We all need to leave, now!” Willow shouts to all of the people inside of the building. She has sussed it, that this is Whitley’s plan. That he has been planning this for a very long time to get his payback on his mother and the family itself. Thaddeus looks around as the people begin to spread panic as they attempt to leave.

Grimm outside the City of Atlas lift their heads, sensing the mass panic inside of that city. They all roar as they approach the city with the huge Goliaths walking with them.

Lisa is being shoved and barged past as they all cram against the exits, unable to get through. When all the cards are down, these civilised people will become animals, they will sacrifice each other for their own survival. Willow runs over to Ironwood and she caresses his cheek with a worried expression. “James...we need to go...” She whispers to him and he goes with her.

Klein is in the heart of the panic, being smashed against the wall as he tries to remain upright against the crowd.

Thaddeus looks around at the chaos with disbelief, and then his eyes set onto Willow with anger.

Shane reaches closer and closer.

Ten seconds....

Willow tries to get through the crowd of people that are forcing their way out the building, but none have even gotten out.

Willow turns around slowly when she sees Thaddeus staring into her soul with enraged eyes, a real scowl on his face.

Because to him...

They have just ruined his day.

Then Ironwood hears his scroll screaming for him to pick up. He reaches into his coat and pulls it out, the Jammer is down and he sees Jaune’s face on the scroll.

“Jaune?” Ironwood replies.

“Get out of there! It’s a trap!” Jaune begs with a horrified voice, and that fear can be seen on the Atlesian Headmaster’s face.

Shane is about to press the button...

Then...

It hits zero.

His eyes widen with horror, when the bomb opens up and a Jack in the Box bursts out, clapping its cymbals together with a smile on its face. Then it says the words...

“Pop goes the weasel!” The Jack in the Box cheers.

The bomb detonates is a huge plume of fire, completely consuming Shane in the fire, reducing him to ashes in the process. The red fire dust crystals inside of those crates ignite and they also erupt into flames as well, shattering the supports and blasting their way upwards towards the building itself. Shane is killed instantly from the explosion, and every single crate buried inside is destroyed.

Thaddeus stands there, above the heart with horrified eyes as he hears the muffled explosions from beneath as they rise up towards where he stands. Willow looks around as she holds Ironwood’s hand, and she looks at Klein as well who looks just as scared.

Suddenly the ground cracks and ruptures as a huge cloud of golden flames erupts from beneath, completely enveloping Thaddeus and reducing him and everyone inside to ashes. Screams let loose with terror.

Willow, Ironwood and Klein gasp with shock, unable to have any last words as the fire engulfs them as well. “Oh my go-!” Are the last words that are heard of Lisa Lavender as the bomb kills her and her crew as well. Weiss screams with terror back in Vacuo from what she just witnessed.

The entire building shatters like glass, a massive mushroom class explosion bursts from the ground with a shockwave that shatters the windows of so many buildings around it. Chunks of the Grand Hall are thrown into the sky, flames and smoke trailing from the remains. Jaune’s eyes are wide and mouth agape from what has happened...

They failed.

He drops his scroll with horror, hearing the explosion as the shockwave blows past them all, their hair blown in the wind itself.

The fire consumes some of those that did escape the building and into the streets, huge chunks of concrete and marble falling from the sky and crushing unlucky ones beneath them. The block around the Grand Hall is completely annihilated, flames burning the grass and melting the snow around it.

The explosive boom echoes for miles...

And Whitley stands there, staring at the fiery glow in the distance as he hears the feed from the news cut off. Just a constant beeping sound. His face does not change, he just closes his eyes as a tear leaks from them.

And he walks away.

He did it...

He killed his mother...killed Ironwood...killed Klein...and even killed the President...

Remnant...is left without leaders...


	33. The Clean Slate - Pt. 3

**Jaune**

Wide eyed...

He collapses to his knees with defeat, tears well up in his eyes as he watches the huge cloud of fire and smoke rise into the sky. They all stare at the rumbling sky with horror, realising that they have just failed...on a massive scale as well. All of the politicians were inside of that building, and now they are ashes in the wind...

Weiss’ mother...

Klein...

Ironwood...

They are all dead, even the President is dead as well. The world is completely lost of leaders, and now the enemy have made their presence known once more. Jaune’s lip trembles with fear as he stares at the rumbling skyscraper of smoke, rubble and fire that continues to rise, mushrooming outwards above the buildings that surround it. Windows for miles were shattered by that powerful explosion; they can actually feel the heat of the flames all the way from there.

Their deaths would have been instantaneous.

Nora grabs Ren’s arm and holds him close, looking away from the cloud of fire that continues to expand across Mistral.

Pyrrha stands there, with such guilt and a sense of responsibility on her shoulders as she stares at what has happened. “This is all my fault...” Pyrrha gasps with horror, and Kassius is the only one that snaps out of that trance of shock that he shared with them. He shakes his head and turns to them all.

“We need to get the hell out of Atlas.” Kassius tells them, walking away from them with his sword in his hand. Jaune remains on his knees – he has felt defeat before but nothing quite like this. All the lives that were just taken, not just the politicians but even the civilians nearby. That explosion wiped out multiple blocks of the city; if it were any larger it could have been enough to destroy most of the city.

Whitley did this – and he did not mess around with those crates of fire dust, he really wanted to make sure that the building was reduced to ashes.

And the whole world saw what happened, the chaos that could emerge from this event...the dread in the air...they can actually taste it. And the Grimm will as well, like sharks drawn to blood in the sea, they will come for the Kingdoms just as they did when Beacon fell over five years ago.

Kassius keeps going but he stops and turns to everyone who is frozen. He is shocked too, but he has his mind focused on getting them all out of the city, one that is soon going to be invaded. He is no fool, this is part of their plan, and they already have Acolytes of Lien inside of the city, meaning they will invade once again. “Guys!” Kassius calls, his voice echoes across the block as he stands behind them, and Penny turns to him with shocked eyes. “We have to go.” He repeats, calmly in comparison to getting their attention.

“Go where?” Jaune questions, with actual hopelessness in his voice, and Kassius looks at them with dread...they cannot lose hope in winning now. “He just won...the world just lost every single leader we had...Umbra managed to do all of it in under an hour...” Jaune stammers with fear, and Pyrrha looks at him with anguish, and she looks at Kassius. She is not overly familiar with the Cyborg Huntsman, but she looks at him with what appears to be a begging, as if she wants him to inspire them.

“Yeah, he just pulled one hell of a wildcard on us.” Kassius states as he walks towards the Hunters, they all slowly begin to turn and look at him as he speaks, hoping to bring that bravery back into them. “He killed a lot of people, I know – Brimstone was one of them – it is a big blow, I know that.” He says as he stands there, the he looks down at the streets beneath that are void of people. It is like they have been imprisoned and there is nothing they can do to free them.

But they can get to safety and make a plan. “Isn’t that what we do? We have to take the blows we suffer and learn from them.” He states, looking at his cybernetic hand, remembering Ilia specifically and the lesson he learned – in dropping the idea of revenge itself.

“Then what do you suggest?” Port asks him, things must be bad if the Professor does not have the ideas.

“We regroup with the others at Beacon, and we come up with a counter attack. That damned Vir Nominis Umbra thing, he must have been planning this for years to destroy the world’s system of leadership. Now it’s our turn.” Kassius explains to them all, Jaune feels Pyrrha’s hand gently caress his shoulder and he looks at her. Gazing into her green eyes and seeing that face again – it gives him enough hope to push forward. He takes Crocea Mors and pushes the blade into the ground, standing back up slowly.

“How do we get back home?” Nora inquires nervously, and then they hear the sound of a heavy rumbling in the sky. They all turn to the city and with widened eyes...they see it.

The Drift of Wandering Star, it blocks out the sun as it flies over the city, huge wings extended out and Barrage Cannons ready to level the city if it must. It flies over and like a swarm of insects; ships begin to fly out from the vessel and into the city. The enormous Black and Red ship with Golden accents slowly travels above the Kingdom of Atlas, dropping Acolytes of Lien into the streets. Juggernauts drop down from the hangers and they crash down inside of the city, smashing the roads into craters as they land, ordering the civilians to return to their homes or face lethal force.

They have been in the shadows all along, just waiting for the right time to return. Ortega looks at the destruction from the bridge of the Drift of Wandering Star with what appears to be some grief in his eyes...

He must have not agreed with that plan...

And here they are.

Returning in full force to reclaim control over Atlas, but this time...there is no moe hiding in the shadows.

The Kingdom is now under their command.

“Ortega...” Pyrrha whispers with shock when she sees that ship, still remembering his reasons for why he does what he does. He must be able to be reasoned with, he has good in him, she saw it. Because he did not kill her, even when he had the chance to do so.

“Oh no...” Nora gasps fearfully, but to their amazement, Kassius smirks with inspiration.

“Oh yes.” He says, they all stare at him with confusion.

“Come again, Kassius?” Oobleck questions and he chuckles, pointing at the Drift of Wandering Star, where all the ships are flying from to differing points of the city.

“I just figured out our escape plan.” He says, Nora follows his finger and she stares at him.

“The Ship?” Nora questions with bewilderment.

“What? No I’m not crazy!” He dismisses, ironically since his idea is quite crazy. “Steal one of their ships, we escape Atlesian Airspace and get back home and warn Glynda of what has happened.” Kassius explains.

Jaune sighs.

“Yeah...totally not crazy.”

 

**Qrow**

They’ve no idea of the chaos that has happened...

And what is about to come...

Qrow, Taiyang, Raven, Cinder and Hazel enter the huge Pyramid inside of Ephai, their weapons still drawn as they all look around. The building is enormous with huge walls and torches that have been extinct of a flame for thousands of years. The rust has formed on them, and the ancient paintings are extremely faded as time has affected them greatly. Taiyang looks around the huge structure, admiring the architecture, the incredible craftsmanship put into the Pyramid.

He chuckles when he looks at it with awe. “Wow – the Arkhoni had style didn’t they?” Taiyang says with awe, Hazel looks at it all as well as he walks with them. He walks with a calm posture, just looking at different areas of the building. The old paintings of the world that once existed, a world where the Grimm were not really a threat. They were tools for their usage.

Until they weren’t.

Qrow moves ahead of them, sword held back with the blade gently touching his arm as he walks. They approach a door and then he looks at it, noticing that a hand must push against the stone panel. He can tell merely from the shape of it, an old mechanism that must have worked just fine back in their day. Raven slowly looks around, despite clearing the city of Knights’ Bannermen, Grimm and even the two Knights that were here, they still feel like they are being watched. She is not the only one that feels that way, she can tell from the expression shown on Cinder’s face.

Something is not right.

It’s far too quiet...like there is an ambush coming.

Qrow pushes his hand against the wall of the door, and as he guessed, the panel slides into the door and the mechanism begins to activate. Huge pieces of stone shift round with ease as they approach it, then the wall like door rises before them. The stone scrapes against the others, pushing dust from the stone door and falling before them. “Be ready for anything.” Qrow advises, and they enter the huge chamber, lots of ancient energy still flowing through it. There are huge Knight Statues inside of the building with their swords in the ground.

The first thing that Qrow does is tap one of them with his sword to make sure it is not Isomacium. The last thing they need is to fight another group of Guardian Knights like they did back on the Volcanic Chain Isles. But luckily for them, it is just stone and they are too big to be Guardian Knights. The Knights were actually people covered in the metal, not spirits bound to statues like the Gargoyles were. They slowly walk inside, weapons held tight as they make their way inside, Raven walks ever so slowly as she checks her surroundings.

Hazel brandishes his dagger as he walks, and they keep on looking around to figure out what this place is.

Then they see it ahead of them, wide eyed when they spot it.

The Mirror.

It is on its own with stone columns beside it, an eight foot tall mirror that someone can walk through to get there. Qrow stops them, because he knows that something cannot be right with this. There must be defences for something this ancient, something so valuable. “It seems to easy...be on your guard.” He warns as he walks cautiously towards it. They all follow him, watching every area for anything, Cinder watches their back as she walks with them, holding her swords in her hands.

Then a voice emerges, metallic and deformed. “The Knights’ Bannermen have returned to serve him.” The voice speaks, echoing around them as they all look around, raising their weapons swiftly. Taiyang’s fists glow volcanically as he prepares to strike at whatever is hiding in the shadows. Then the echoing voice fades again, Cinder turns and stares at Qrow with concern.

“What was that?” Cinder questions, and Taiyang speaks to them all.

“Well let’s go found out, we’re sitting ducks here.” Taiyang suggests as he looks at his friend. Qrow nods his head.

“Good idea, come on, let’s get to the Mirror!” Qrow shouts, running first with everyone following him, the run feels like it takes hours when that voice appeared. They charge and charge, getting closer and closer to that mirror in order to analyse it.

Until a bolt of lightning crashes down in front of them, stopping them all in their tracks and leaving the surface of the stone ground where it hit fractured and charred. “Your presence in Ephai is merely wasting your own time.” The voice states, and they hear where it comes from, their eyes all rise up to what appears to be a large clock. Hundreds of cogs all working together.

Then they unexpectedly all fall from where they were built towards them with electrical forks of light connecting them together, slowly forming a body as it drops down before them. The being lands right in front of them, so hard that the ground shakes, and all the cogs connect together perfectly, creating the body of a familiar shape, that only two people have actually met in person. The green light glows within the Man of Cog’s body as he stands there, staring at them. Qrow raises his sword as he stares at it. “Are you a Knight?” He questions since he looks a lot like a Knight from his body design.

The being approaches as he introduces himself. “I am the Guardian of Time.” He introduces, his voice somehow sounds both stern and yet kind at the same time. Not that of someone that means harm but seems to want to help them, opposed to the Knights of Grimm, he is very different to those four are. He walks closer, every step he takes creates a metallic bang as he gets closer. “I am of acquaintance with your daughter’s beloved – Oscar Pine.” Time states, and Qrow’s eyes widen, so do the eyes of Raven and Taiyang since they have heard tales about him.

“You’re Time?” Qrow questions, of course since they are both out of loop in comparison to the trio they have joined up with, Hazel and Cinder look at him with confusion.

“I am.” Time confirms as he stands before them, dwarfing them from the size he stands at.

“Huh? You know this thing?” Cinder questions with the look of turbulence.

“Oscar does, he spoke with it a couple times before.” Qrow updates as he looks at the being.

“Are you gonna fight us?” Raven questions as she stares at him, still keeping her Odachi raised up, the red blade pointed at the being.

“I will not.” He assures, speaking with truth in his voice.

“Why?” She questions again, almost interrogating him.

“Because Spring Maiden and Summer Maiden are not here, I sent them off through a portal an hour ago.” He tells them, staring at them all. Hazel’s eyebrow raises, like he does not appear to be taking his word on that factor.

“Really?” Hazel questions, not believing him on that.

“I have no quarrel with you, however you have business elsewhere. With the current events that have just transpired in the past half hour.” Time explains, obviously speaking about the Invasion of Atlas and the deaths of all the leaders, even Sienna Khan included in the form of Blake. Events of which they have absolutely no idea of any of them, they all glance at each other with perturbed expressions when Time reveals that.

“What events?” Qrow grills, still not trusting the entity in any way. Then Time informs them on what has happened.

“Atlas has fallen into the hands of Jacques Schnee and the Acolytes of Lien, all of the world’s leaders have been killed in an explosion, the President included.” Time informs them, their eyes widen with horror from this realisation, and Qrow even staggers from this as well. “Sienna Khan has been assassinated as well, and Vacuo is about to suffer a massive attack as well.” He warns, and Raven’s eyes widen fearfully.

“Yang...” She whispers with trepidation.

“What’s gonna happen at Vacuo?” Cinder questions, Qrow is worried as well because for all he knows Ruby is still there, but she is far away from there. And also unaware of what has happened in the past thirty minutes.

“A Plague is buried into the city, caches of it have already been dispersed to infect the entire city. Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee, Neptune Vasillias and Sun Wukong are all in the blast radius. They will be infected, you must get them out of there quickly and get them to Beacon Academy for safe treatment.” Time advises, clearly he has seen it. Their eyes widen with fear as well, they look around with worry on their faces.

“How will we get in there without catching the infection?” Cinder asks, which is a good question.

“Engage your aura, forming a protective barrier will keep it at bay.” He assures them, he seems to be very knowledgeable on whatever this thing is.

“We need to get to them now!” Qrow states, staring at his sister, but Time is the one that opens a portal. The portal is black with electrical flashes inside, but he steps aside.

“Can we stop the detonation?” Hazel inquires.

“It is too late, it has already detonated. But you can still save them from getting infected to the point of no return.” He assures as he stands there. “Go now, while you still can.” Time states, Qrow, Raven and Taiyang are the first to sprint into the portal to find them, Hazel and Cinder then follow.

Time stands there on his own, then the portal closes. He looks at where they left and he walks away.

The only thing left in what remains of Ephai.

 

**Yang**

Five minutes beforehand...

They are standing inside of a ticking time bomb, completely unaware that there is a plague coming soon. But Weiss has her hands covering her mouth as she cries with horror, after watching her mother just die on live feed. Klein as well...she is in the arms of Neptune as she cries, he caresses her white hair as she sobs. Yang paces back and forth with fear, there is just an Emergency Broadcast symbol on the television and a constant beep that shows the text.

_ATTENTION!_

_THERE HAS BEEN A MASSIVE ATTACK ON ATLAS, ALL LEADERS THAT WERE BROUGHT THERE FROM THE KINGDOMS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED DEAD. ATLAS IS UNDER INVASION FROM AN UNKNOWN GROUP._

_THEY CALL THEMSELVES THE ACOLYTES OF LIEN._

_PLEASE REMAIN CALM FOR YOUR KINGDOM’S SAKE, DO NOT RISK ATTRACTING GRIMM ATTENTION._

_PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR LATER UPDATES ON THE MATTER._

_GODS GUIDE YOU._

Little do they know that they have mere minutes, maybe even seconds before that plague gets released and infects the entire City. Sun has his hands pressed against his head as he paces back and forth, and finally he checks his scroll to try and call Blake.

The C.C.T is down...

They must have shut the Atlesian Cross Continental Transmit Tower down during their invasion. “Goddamn it!” Sun yells with rage, throwing the scroll across the room. Yang looks at him as he stands there, unable to formulate words with this state of fear that they are in right now.

“Okay...everyone calm down...we need to think...crap this is bad...” She realises with horror.

“They just – they just killed all of them Yang! They have been playing us all along!” Sun yells with horror, he sits down in one of the chairs and grabs the bridge of his nose. “It’s like Beacon all over again...”

“We survived that, we can survive this.” Yang assures, but even she is not sure of this.

Because this makes the Fall of Beacon look like child’s play in comparison. Yang looks at Weiss as she is still sobbing, and Neptune shakes his head. She is not taking this very well, the loss of her mother and the man that was the father that she never had in one moment. Ironwood as well, one of the Headmasters has been murdered as well. And they may have hated him, but the death of Thaddeus Brimstone is going to spread panic across the world.

This is bad.

Very bad.

Nevertheless when they are trying to figure out what they are going to do, they have no idea that Team B.R.N.Z are in fact near the centre of the city. They all walk through when trying to find more clues on whatever is going on. On the murder case that will soon be completely dropped. Brawnz crouches down when he hears something rather peculiar.

The sound of something beeping faintly underneath a building. He lies down and looks underneath one of the taverns that has a stilted support structure. He looks under and his eyes widen...

He can see it.

The cache.

“What the hell?” Brawnz questions, the rest of his team approach him to investigate what he has just found.

Suddenly the cache detonates, with a small flash, then thick black smog pours out from it and it completely blasts into the team, fully infecting them. More of them detonate across the city screams of terror echo from the city and the four in the apartment widen their eyes with shock. They all stand up when they see the black smoke roaring through the buildings and the crowds of people, spreading this plague extremely quickly. The smog is jet black, getting close and closer, the haunting sound of screams across the entire city grows louder and louder the further it spreads.

Then one of them detonates outside their apartment, the smoke shatters the glass and the smoke pours inside.

Yang coughs with pain, feeling like her lungs have just set on fire, stumbling and unable to breathe. The same happens to Sun, Neptune and Weiss, unable to breathe as they inhale the gas. And then, the horrifying sight of their aura shattering appears. Yellow, white and blue crackling energy forms around them, and then it is completely destroyed. They very quickly begin to feel lightheaded, stumbling and Yang is the first to collapse, struggling to breathe from that smog. It spread incredibly quickly through her body...then she passes out, nearly hitting her head hard on the ground. Sun crashes against one of the tables, pushing the lamp over and it shatters on the ground as he falls over. Weiss rolls off the sofa and she keeps on coughing, tears still stream from her cheeks with sorrow, until she too passes out. Neptune is the last to collapse, he tries to remain stood up, until his wheezing catches up with him, and he falls on the ground beside his girlfriend, reaching for her before it all goes black.

The plague has spread during the exact same time as the Fall of Atlas.

Nobody had any idea of what was hiding under their homes the whole time. The screams in the city slowly fade away as everyone starts to pass out...

And then...

Silence...

The city of Vacuo gas completely fallen silent, completely plagued by whatever was hiding in their home.

By Yang, there is a flash of energy behind her, she is barely even conscious, but Raven approaches her with horror, crouching down and picking her daughter up in her arms, her long blonde hair droops over her vambrace as she carries her. She swings her sword with her free arm to open a doorway to Beacon. Their aura glows bright as they take the four of them and get them out of there. Qrow picks up Weiss, Hazel picks up Sun – of all people – and Taiyang picks up Neptune. Cinder backs up as she looks around, keeping her eyes peeled for anything.

Then they all enter the portal.

And leave the city as the plague flows.

 

**Whitely**

The Heir to the Schnee Fortune remains inside of his office with his hands pressed against the windowsill. He cannot stop looking at the destruction  he has wrought on the city, and he turns when he hears the sound of the soldiers still loyal to the General storming towards the office in the manor. One of the soldiers kicks the door down and aims his rifle at them, not under orders, but they know that he was behind this. They saw the feed, and he was never there. “Whitley Schnee! You are hereby under arrest!” The soldier yells with anger as he aims his rifle at him, but Whitley scoffs.

“On whose orders?” Whitley asks them, not even turning to them as he stands there, still staring out at the city as the Acolytes of Lien invade the city, dropping down in Bullheads and other ships.

“On the orders of General Ironwood!” The soldier responds, still very aggravated towards him.

“That fool is dead.” He says as he slowly turns around, holding some sort of device in his hand. It looks like a detonator of some kind, but it could not have been for the bomb because it was a time bomb.

“Put the device down!” He orders, finger on the trigger.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He states as he holds the detonator towards them, and they all start to look around out of concern.

“What is that connected to?” He questions and Whitley chuckles sinisterly as he stares at the soldiers.

“Did you really not wonder what was in those vaccinations?” Whitley inquires curiously, the  soldier remembers the vaccines that they were given. Jaune even saw it when he was going to see Pyrrha a couple days ago when they were captured by them. “A little something – called Horridus Morbus – nasty disease. You have all got it inside you right now, modified version of it obviously. Dormant at the moment...but if my hand just slipped...” He says, pointing the detonator towards one of the soldiers and pressing the button.

The soldier suddenly screams with agony, as if every organ in his body began to dissolve. His skin turns from white to black very quickly as his organs break down into a black liquid before them all. The soldier shudder with horror as he vomits the fluid and collapses to the ground, dying very quickly from it. A horrible way to die, turning into a husk that once resembled a human on the ground.

The soldier stares at Whitley and the Heir smirks at him. “Those were armed as soon as you got the injection – if you kill me...my contacts and allies will make sure that all the subjects are activated, and killed on the spot.” Whitely warns.

The soldiers turn when they hear the Acolytes of Lien approaching from behind them, rifles now aimed at them. They look at Whitley again as he stands there, still holding the trigger.

“So...what’ll it be?” He asks them.

They slowly and reluctantly drop their weapons and hold their hands behind their heads as they stand there.

Whitley smirks cruelly at them.

He now has full control over the Atlesian Military...

But not by their choice.

 

**Qrow**

The five of them emerge from the red portal that Raven opened, stood far from the courtyard of the school, but they are back home. She knows that using portals is dangerous with the Knights’ Bannermen tracking them, but she does not care, she cannot risk her daughter’s life like that anymore. They all stand there, carrying the four Hunters who have been infected with this unknown plague, and Qrow reaches into his pocket whilst holding Weiss, turning to Cinder. He throws his scroll to her since she is the only person here not actually carrying anybody. “Call Glynda! Tell her what happened! We need to quarantine a building so then we can nurse them back to health without spreading it!” Qrow begs, and she nods, opening the scroll and calling Glynda. She is still inside of Beacon tower, sat beside Ozpin in the bed actually. Her eyes staring at the cut off feed on her television still...

She saw what happened at Atlas.

Glynda gasps when she hears the scroll ringing, thankfully they still have local signals despite the C.C.T being down, meaning they can contact her. She sees Qrow’s name and she answers it immediately. “Qrow? Have you seen the news?” Glynda asks him.

“We know, but Vacuo just got hit!” Cinder answers.

“Cinder? What do you mean?” Glynda questions, springing up from her seat and into the office as she looks out the window, seeing the five of them stood there, carrying the four incapacitated Hunters.

“Some sort of Bio-Weapon was set off there, infected the whole city! Yang, Weiss, Neptune and Sun got infected! We need to Quarantine a building for them and any others that are brought here from Vacuo!” Cinder explains, she brings up a very good point. There are still many other poor souls infected, and Beacon is the only safe place left since it has not been hit yet.

In the past Half an Hour...

Vir Nominis Umbra has managed to attack three Kingdoms at once and cripple them. Without even arguing, she agrees. “Okay! We can repurpose the Amphitheatre! I’m on my way!” She assures, running down to the elevator and opening it. The doors close and the elevator zooms down the stairs.

“Engage your Aura before you get to us, it has completely crippled their aura, and we can make a barrier to stop it from getting in though.” Cinder explains, and Glynda does so, her purple aura forms a faint glowing barrier around her body as she stands inside of the elevator. It finally reaches the bottom and she rushes out, running past Adam who has returned from his walk, despite the second thoughts he his having.

“What’s happening?” Adam questions.

“Atlas and Vacuo have just fallen!” Glynda answers and he stands there with horror, clenching his hand into a fist and he follows her. He is trying his hardest to fight the thoughts from returning, he has tried so hard to redeem himself of his past mistakes. Glynda turns when she sees him following.

“How? Everything was fine!” Adam calls.

“Vacuo got hit with a plague, Acolytes of Lien bombed the Politicians of all the Kingdoms when they came to ratify the Atlesian Coalition.” Glynda explains, and Adam gasps, still thinking Blake is in there.

“Did Blake get infected?” He asks with concern.

“No, she must have gone somewhere else, we don’t know for sure though.” Glynda explains, unaware she is in Mistral, same as Ruby and Oscar. “If you’re coming, Adam, engage your aura and make a field around you. We can’t risk the spread of infection.”

Cinder opens the doors for them as they carry the infected inside of the Amphitheatre, once used for Ozpin and his speeches, now they carry them in and set them down on the floor. “We need beds, take the beds from the Dorms and bring them in here. We need to keep it contained.” Qrow explains, looking at them. They are still unconscious, and they seem to have some laboured breathing. Adam stands there and he nods, picking his radio up and contacting some of the White Fang that are still inside of the school, protecting it as they were ordered to.

“All men, we need to take the beds from the dormitories, and bring them to the Amphitheatre.” Adam orders, leaving the building as he walks out. Qrow brushes the hair from Yang’s closed eyes and he sighs.

“We need to find some medical supplies, try and stabilize them while we can.” Cinder suggests.

“How much do we have?” Qrow asks.

“The Hospital is still fully stocked.” Glynda assures.

“Okay, Cinder go with Glynda to get some meds.” He says.

Suddenly, the large screen on the amphitheatre suddenly turns on, with a loud screech. Their scrolls do as well, everything that can have a connection to the C.C.T.

They have hacked into it, and the voice they hear is the last they hoped to hear.

“Humanity, Faunus...all people of Remnant.” The voice of Salem speaks, their eyes widen when they see it. The black chess peace, the dark queen virus invented by Watts to take control of the Atlesian Knights and Paladins during the Fall of Beacon, and gain access. But this time it is not Cinder speaking, it is Salem.

When Cinder hears her voice, her eye ignites with anger, and Adam stops outside of the cell where Mazen is being held right now. He pulls his scroll out, and despite that he cannot see it, he can hear every word that the Dark Queen is saying. “You have been lied to you whole lives, believing that your warriors can save you from a doomed existence.” Salem speaks, showing footage from the Falls of both Beacon an Mistral years ago, the failure in saving so many lives. Hundreds of thousands of people died that day, devoured by the Grimm when they invaded their cities.

“But your politicians have betrayed you as well.” Salem explains, showing the footage of Brimstone’s corrupt plans. Showing the plans to have Faunus serving them as slaves, worse than before. At least when Jacques Schnee had forced labour, it was not constant and they had food and wages. But his plans were far worse, he wanted them to work like machines, with no pay and no care whatsoever. “Your beloved President was going to use the Faunus as slave labour, working you until you died, and if you tried to stop, you would be shot down.” She explains, and Adam clenches his hand into a fist.

Even Mazen does, he may have spread the idea, but hearing that he was right, it has just angered him even more.

“And what, I ask you, have your great warriors been doing? Have they been saving you? Or cutting your people and their own kind down?” She questions, and then they realise how many mistakes they made have been caught on camera.

Five years ago in Mistral when the riot was underway, Jaune accidentally slit a civilian’s throat when they attacked Thara Nikos with Crocea Mors. There was so much blood, and it was caught on the camera of a C.C.T.V camera that was watching him.

Then the footage of Ruby cutting down Dew in Vacuo from all the people that recorded it on their scrolls, the blood that sprayed from her severed limbs.

The footage of Oscar killing Octavia from the C.C.T.V camera inside of his office.

The footage of Cardin killing his own team with his mace, leaving only their corpses behind as he fled the scene.

Qrow’s eyes are wide with shock, this has been her plan all along. Let the chaos slowly begin from Humans and Faunus due to the idea of peace, and use that against them. She is turning the people against the Huntsmen and Huntresses.

But the next bit...is the one that changes everything.

“And what about the White Fang? The woman who has claimed to sacrifice so much in the name of peace and equality...and what do we have here?” Salem asks the world, and they gasp with horror, the camera showing Blake plunging Gambol Shroud into Sienna Khan’s stomach. “Blake Belladonna murdered Sienna Khan...and why?” Salem wonders, Adam’s mouth agape with horror from what he hears from the unforgettable voice of Blake Belladonna.

“I'm sorry, Sienna..." Blake sarcastically whispers into her ear, pushing the blade further into her stomach and she yelps from the sharp pain, feeling her hand holding her by the shoulder. "But this is the next step for the Faunus – and I promise you, under my leadership...the humans will suffer, and the traitors like Adam Taurus will be punished for their betrayal. Starting with you." Blake snarls, and their eyes widen from what they see and hear, truly believing that to be Blake that did that.

When it was actually Vir Nominis Umbra...

But he has already won.

Adam closes the scroll shut forcefully with hatred and betrayal in the snarling he creates, he grits his teeth with anger and draws Wilt and Blush with force, turning to Mazen who stares at him. He walks towards his cell and approaches the locker where the weapons are being kept. He opens it and picks his chainsaw up, throwing it before his cell.

Mazen looks at the Chainsword and then at Adam...

The old Adam Taurus has returned...

The one thing that kept him from returning to his old ways...

Has just been destroyed.

“You were right.” Adam states opening his cell and he stands up, towering above Adam and he picks the Chainsword up with a chuckle in his voice.

“Good to have you back.” Mazen chuckles menacingly.

Adam takes his scroll out and he contacts the White Fang. “Change of plan.” He says, walking with Mazen out of the building.

Qrow and the others are wide eyed as they stand there, hearing the rest of her message to the world. “The Huntsmen and the Huntresses are a blight on our world, created by a man obsessed with controlling your fates.” Salem speaks as it shows the amount of people who have died in recent years due to Huntsmen. “But we can free the world of their lies, of their betrayal...join the Acolytes of Lien, the White Fang, and we will work together to stop the Huntsmen from destroying Remnant.” Salem speaks, and they have never felt so defeated.

Then the feed cuts off, leaving them with silence...

Until they all hear the sound of a Chainsword activating behind them. The sound of a sword being pulled from the sheathe. Glynda turns and she gasps when she sees him stood there.

Adam glares at them with gritted teeth, Mazen stood beside him with his Chainsword in his hand. And the White Fang are all behind him.

Qrow’s eyes widen with fear.

“Oh no...”

 

 


	34. Betrayal

**Qrow**

Adam stares directly at them, through that signature mask that he wears over his scarred blinded eyes. He holds Wilt and Blush in his only hand, the red blade glimmers as the sunlight reflects off the metal, Qrow slowly and cautiously stands up as he looks at him. Mazen stood beside him with his Chainsword in his hand, growling as it pumps smoke from the engine loaded inside. Qrow slowly approaches Adam, with the hopes of calming him down as he approaches. “Adam...calm down...” Qrow attempts as he approaches him, but Adam scoffs as he glares.

“No...” Adam responds with a soft and menacing voice, sounding just like the man that he tried to change from being.

“This can’t be right, it was Salem’s voice – you heard it.” Qrow tries to explain as he approaches, but it was not Salem that turned him against them. It was the voice that he heard, and the footage that they witnessed.

“I don’t care about Salem – she betrayed us.” Adam snarls with anger as he stands there, Mazen towering above him, staring at Qrow as well with that mask still hiding his face. Qrow still remembers the footage...hearing her say what she said to Sienna – they’ve no idea that this is all part of Vir Nominis Umbra’s game. An idea crafted by deception, and the idea is growing within the White Fang.

“It doesn’t make sense; Blake never showed that kind of personality before.” Qrow states, still having faith in her, hoping to disarm the situation. But Adam seems to have been swayed by the idea, the tightness in the grip on Wilt and Blush is all they need to know. Cinder stares at him and she holds her arm behind her back – if anyone understands how Salem works it is her – she slowly and carefully begins to form fire in her hand as she stares at him. Her eyes faintly glow but have not yet ignited in their Fall Maiden ignition. Glynda has her hand close to her crop to fight Adam and Mazen if she has to, and even Qrow has his hand close to his sword for when he needs to draw it. Taiyang’s fists begin to glow brighter as he prepares to fight and Raven has her hand rested on the hilt of the Odachi which is still sheathed. Hazel clenches his massive hands into fists.

They know that a fight is coming...

“She lied to us, Qrow – she got us to believe she wanted to bring equality but she even tricked _me_!” Adam roars with rage, his teeth gritted as he stares at them. Qrow’s eyes turn to Mazen who looks at him.

“I bet you’re happy, aren’t ya?” Qrow questions sternly, Mazen just glares back. Then he answers his question.

“You humans will always treat us like dirt, and clearly Blake has joined your side to bring the Faunus down.” He growls, Raven shakes her head with disgust as she glares at the two White Fang loyalists.

“You’re letting the past blind you, don’t you see she is manipulating us on our worst fears?” Raven questions.

“If Blake comes back from Mistral, we will interrogate her. Find out what happened, ‘cause we all know that the footage on there was not in her personality. She looked up to Sienna like an Aunt, why would she kill her?” Qrow questions as he slowly moves his hand towards his sword as he waits to see how this confrontation ends. He truly hopes it will not end in bloodshed – Yang, Weiss, Sun and Neptune are not in the best situation at the moment. All Adam would have to do is stab them, because their aura is down and not regenerating at all...

The Plague – Horridus Morbus – is somehow keeping their aura at a critical level, whilst it slowly kills them.

“It does not have to end like this, Adam.” Qrow says to him, hoping to sway him. Adam stands there and he raises the blade towards him.

“I’m sorry – but the world has proved my fears to be true – and now our alliance is finished.” Adam snarls, suddenly lunging forward to attack Qrow.

Qrow swiftly draws his sword, the blade extends out from the hilt and he blocks the red blade from hitting him with a metallic bang. The impact rings out, sparks burst out from the collision of the two swords, hitting the ground and sliding across the ground. Mazen charges forward and goes for the four unconscious and dying Hunters, until Raven kicks him in the chest and ducks down to avoid his Chainsword. Mazen staggers back and he glares at her, smirking behind his mask as he laughs sinisterly.

Raven puts her mask on, staring through the red visors as she spins her sword through her fingers. “I remember hearing about you – you were there on that train six years ago.” Mazen chuckles as he paces around them with the Chainsword scraping against the floor. Raven keeps her sword held up as she walks with him, pointing the blade directly at him.

“Yeah – and you hurt my daughter’s friend.” Raven remembers, they did not meet on the train when she saved Yang from Neo...but they have heard of one another. “How the hell did you survive that crash, anyway?” Raven questions, and he chuckles.

“Isn’t that the question of the day – I managed to escape just in time before it crashed.” Mazen answers, and Raven scoffs.

“So you ran.” She corrects.

“Surviving to fight another day – I’ll always take those chances.” Mazen snarls, running at her and swinging the Chainsword towards her. She slams her Odachi against his blade, the jagged teeth of the sword scrape across her sword and he pushes against her sword as he forces her down to one knee. Taiyang leaps from behind Raven and smashes his fist into Mazen’s chest, the impact blasts him back, and he tumbles and crashes across the ground. He stabs the Chainsword into the ground to stop himself from rolling any further. He looks up at the couple and he stands back up. He chuckles menacingly again with that gruff voice he carries. “Finally – a fight worthy of my skills.” He chuckles, walking towards them both.

Glynda stands at the doors and she turns to the White Fang soldiers that all aim their rifles at her. Glynda pushes her glasses back up against the bridge of her nose, letting out one heavy sigh. She draws her crop and stands in the middle of the soldiers that all circle her. They stand firmly as they point the barrels at her – but she does not look concerned in the slightest. One of the White Fang Militants opens fire, but Glynda slashes her crop and creates a purple barrier of energy that deflects the bullet right back into him. They all begin to fire, she swings it back and forth as she deflects them, then runs towards one of them.

Glynda jumps towards him and strikes him down with a powerful slam with the heel of her shoe, smashing his helmet down into the ground with enough force to break the mask that he wears. She spins around and whiplashes her crop at another soldier which blasts a powerful purple flash of light, launching him back and she presses her fingers to the ground, using the crop to raise the chunks from the road. She then launches them at another soldier, utterly annihilating him in the process. The others draw their swords and they run towards her.

One of them jumps and swings the cutlass at her, but she swings the crop against the sword and then kicks him in the chest, blasting another one out of the air. She then turns to the remaining soldiers and summons the glowing purple warheads that shoot down towards them, blowing them up and immobilising them. Glynda sighs, pushing her glasses back up to her nose, then looking around to make sure that there are none others.

Adam yells as he slashes Wilt and Blush at Qrow, the Branwen Twin rolls backwards and spins round, slashing the sword towards his blade. Every swing makes contact with his sword, and something that is truly impressive is that Adam is fighting with only one arm. And he is taking on Qrow Branwen, Hazel Rainart and Cinder Fall. Adam guards with his sword, catching his foe’s sword and he holds him there, turning and kicking Cinder in the leg. She ducks down and swings around in a full three hundred and sixty degree attack, which knocks the three of them onto the ground. Hazel rolls across the ground, getting back up to help Qrow. Adam stands above Qrow and goes to stab him right through the chest, until Hazel grabs him and pulls him away from the Huntsmen. Hazel bellows, throwing Adam across the Amphitheatre. He crashes and tumbles into the ground, Hazel helps Cinder stand back up and she helps Qrow.

Cinder opens her hands and she forms the glass swords in her hands with fire glowing inside of it that keeps it in the obsidian form that they are constructed from. Adam stands back up with a snarl as he looks in their direction, then he hears the coughing of Yang from where she lays. She coughs with pain, sweat leaking from her skin like the others due to her sickness. Her skin is starting to turn pale and her eyes are also beginning to swell up as well. She is struggling to breathe from what this thing is doing to her. Adam stares in her direction and he growls – he has nothing against her specifically apart from the fact she is Blake’s best friend.

He pushes Wilt and Blush against the floor, using it to stand back up and he runs towards Yang to kill her out of spite of what he sees as Blake’s betrayal against everything he fought for. Qrow’s eyes widen and he goes to help, until suddenly a blast of fire impacts the side of Adam, knocking him out of the air. Still feeling like she owes them a debt, Cinder’s eyes ignite as she sprints towards Adam. Adam growls with pain, and he hears her go to strike with her Elven Swords, he immediately raises Wilt and Blush, both blades clash against the red blade and he staggers back from the impact. She instantly spins around and slashes with her swords.

Qrow runs over to Yang, seeing her coughing uncontrollably, wheezing with raspy breath. He turns her over and she coughs more and more, but does not vomit luckily. He looks at her and presses his hand to her forehead to check her temperature. She is extremely hot right now, her temperature is off the charts, the same goes for Weiss, Sun and Neptune. “Just hold on guys...” Qrow whispers to them, looking at Hazel as he storms towards Adam as he sees Cinder actually starting to lose her advantage against him.

Adam jumps in the air, spinning round and slashing straight down her torso, then kicking her into the wall. He immediately spins round to attack Hazel, but he catches the blade of his sword and pins him against the wall. Hazel growls, holding him there with his own sword pressed against his neck. “Stop it, Adam! We both know who the real enemy is! This is all part of their plan!” Hazel roars, but dam snarls with anger.

“You don’t get it, do you?” He yells with rage, kicking him in the chest to get him back. “I loved her, I trusted her! And her true colours have just been revealed! I will not let her destroy the Faunus!” He yells with anger.

“It isn’t her! It couldn’t have been!” Hazel replies, not blinded with rage and is actually thinking straight. But Adam only heard what she said, and he knows her voice – Vir Nominis Umbra did a phenomenal job when it comes down to how well he mimicked Blake. Qrow walks past the sick warriors and stands with the Hazel and Cinder.

Despite being outnumbered, he can still challenge them in combat. “He murdered Sienna Khan...to take over the White Fang.” Adam snarls, completely convinced that what he heard is real.

“It does not have to end like this, Adam – when she comes back she will answer our questions. It does not feel right – none of this does, Adam. Think about it! Atlas is invaded, Vacuo gets attacked with a Bio-Weapon and now Sienna Khan is assassinated in Mistral.” He explains as he stands there, and even Adam can see his point, thinking on it. But Adam is so spiteful and stubborn...that it is not even just the situation of Blake – it is that combined with humanity starting to treat them like dirty again despite everything they sacrificed. “They are taking control of the Kingdoms one by one.”

Adam stands there, silent whilst they can hear the roar of Mazen as he battles Raven and Taiyang behind them in the building. But then he stares at them with gritted teeth. “It doesn’t matter – because mankind will never treat us like equals...I see that now.” He snarls, sprinting towards the three Human Hunters.

“Damn it, Adam!” Cinder yells, crossing both swords over to block Wilt and Blush.

Mazen bellows as he swings upwards with his Chainsword, scraping a deep gash through the ground and throwing debris towards Raven and Taiyang. Raven slashes the sword and breaks the rocks before they can even hit her, whilst Taiyang sprints towards the massive Former-Huntsman. He spins round and slashes the sword towards him with a roar, he ducks down and punches Mazen in the chest. He grunts from the attack and then stabs downwards where he was, but Taiyang rolls between his legs and punches him in the back, where Raven jumps at him, slashing across his aura. Mazen tumbles, rolling across the ground, then drags his hand across the floor as he stands back up. He spins the Chainsword round, pointing the blade with the spinning teeth across the moving belt across the blade.

He charges towards Taiyang and smashes the blade into him, knocking him over and then turning round as he stabs the sword into the ground where he laid. Taiyang rolls out the way at the perfect time, until Mazen rips the sword from the ground, spinning round and kicking Yang’s father in the chest. Taiyang grunts, thrown back from that attack and he tumbles across the floor. Raven snarls as she rushes towards Mazen with her Odachi held in both hands, slashing the sword fast and hard at him. Mazen raises the sword and holds it there, blocking her attack and then he grabs her by the hair. Raven yells out with pain, he lifts her above the ground and smashes her head-first into the ground, then throws her back in the air. Her mask flies off her face, and Mazen spins round after throwing his sword in the air and catching it, holding the blade backwards as he spins round. Doing a very similar attack that he did to Weiss on that Train when they faced off.

Before the spinning teeth hits her, suddenly the bare hands of Taiyang press against the Chainsword blade. He holds it there but the belt continues to move at great speeds. The teeth shred his aura around his hands, Taiyang roars with distress as the jagged triangular pieces of metal cut into the aura and if he holds it for any longer it will cut through his hands. Mazen snarls, then with all his might he smashes Taiyang into the floor with all his might, pressing the Chainsword against him with all his might. Mazen chuckles monstrously as he slowly cuts his aura down, until Raven jumps onto his back and pulls him back from Taiyang. Mazen staggers back, reaching for her when she tips back and falls to the ground, throwing the titan across the Amphitheatre again.

Mazen smashes against the wall, then crashes against the ground, his Chainsword lands beside him and he stares at her, standing back up as he picks it up by the hilt. Raven stands in front of Taiyang, and her daughter, quite defensively as well. He looks past them and at Adam as he fights them, he is struggling and then sees Cinder blasting a fireball into his chest. Adam grunts, thrown back and crashing down beside Mazen. Mazen helps him back up, and he backs up. “This is not a fight we can win.” Mazen tells him sternly, and Adam snarls. He backs up though, they are both not fools and can tell that this is really not a fight that they can win.

Qrow stands there, staring at them. Still wanting to give both of them a chance. “It does not have to end like this!” Qrow yells as he stares at them, Adam stares back and Mazen glares at them. He spins the Chainsword round and turns, walking away.

“I’m sorry – but Humanity must pay for what they have done.” Adam coldly responds, walking away with Adam. They both sprint and run away, fleeing towards the landed Bullhead, but Qrow chases after them with Cinder beside him. They both get inside, there is a White Fang sat inside of the cockpit as he turns it on. The thrusters activate and Qrow folds the sword down, firing at the Bullhead as it rises into the air and blasts away from the school and off the landing platform.

Qrow watches helplessly as Adam and Mazen escape...

The alliance between Humanity and the White Fang has officially come to an end...

 

**Jaune**

Kassius is leant against the wall with Vulcan Nox loaded up with a fresh magazine inside, he peers round the building when he can hear the sound of Acolytes of Lien Gunships and Troop Carriers hovering down into the city around them. The Acolytes of Lien have completely invaded Atlas, Armoured Personnel Carriers driving inside with powerful cannons built onto the top. They never saw anything of this degree, seems that the Acolytes have more weapons than they realised. And must have been stealing Atlesian Tech, since there are Paladins painted with the Acolytes Colour Scheme. The huge M.E.C.H Suit stands there in the street, powerful guns folded outwards and aimed at the civilians who walk with hands behind their heads.

There is a Juggernaut in the street and a Captain, the Captain has a loudspeaker in his hand that he speaks into. “This change of guard does not have to be violent, please comply with us and you will not be harmed.” The Captain assures as he speaks into the loudspeaker that he holds.

“This is bad...we need to sneak to where that ship landed.” Nora whispers, she points at the Troop Carrier that has landed in the distance. It appears to be on top of one of buildings...a skyscraper to be exact. The troops dropped down from the ship and used their thrusters in their suits of armour to soften their descent. The Mercenaries are everywhere. But first they need to figure out how to get past all these Mercenaries in the street, there are too many of them to take on. And their weapons are too lethal for them to risk it, they could be packing dust charged rounds that could puncture their aura with no trouble at all.

On some of the buildings, holographic signs and screens that are being projected around the city...they realise that they have done something that will make this job a lot harder. Jaune gasps when he sees his own face on the screen, then Nora’s and then Pyrrha’s...all of them. They are on a wanted list to be killed or captured. “If you see these people, please contact one of our people. These are high value targets that have committed crimes against Remnant and they must be punished.” The Captain speaks as he stands there, holding a rifle in his other hand as he speaks to the people with the hands above their heads.

Jaune slides back behind cover, realising that this is really bad for them. At the end of the day this is Atlas, not Vale. They do not have many allies here, and they were the ones that were arrested. For all the civilians know, the Acolytes of Lien are right. “What do we do?” Nora whispers with concern, holding her grenade launcher in her hands.

“We can’t risk attacking those Mercenaries...too much firepower. We’re strong, sure, but we can’t risk it. And we can’t risk those civilians getting hurt as well.” Jaune explains, holding Crocea Mors in his hand, his shield in the other. Pyrrha’s eyes turn to Jaune and then to the buildings, they are pinned down at the moment, and the Acolytes are getting snipers on the rooftops of multiple buildings. They can in fact see one of them, the glowing red light from his four lenses in his goggles, the black and red cloak that blows in the wind and the shimmer from the reflection of his scope.

Before they can even think of anything, though, that A.P.C turns towards them, driving in their direction. It has no idea that they are there at the moment, so they swiftly take cover behind the dumpsters that are near to them. The huge truck drives by slowly, the cannon swivels round and searches for where they are. A.P.Cs and Tanks are patrolling the streets. They have the whole Kingdom on lockdown as they search for the Huntsmen. Jaune grits his teeth as he waits for that truck to pass by, and it does eventually, the rumbling growl of its powerful engine fades as it turns down a lane and keeps driving.

Jaune sighs with relief – that was too close – then he carefully emerges from cover, watching the soldiers that patrol the streets. They need to be stealthy to get there, and they have also noticed how they can get to that building. There is a crane attached to one of the lower buildings, the crane is long enough for them to turn it and get onto that rooftop. However there is a huge amount of risk with this, if Acolytes of Lien fighter jets fly past or Sharpshooters spot them, only fate will be in their hands there. The soldiers continue to walk around, they have also set up Surface to Air Missile Batteries in different places around the city, and they see what it is capable of first hand.

A ship attempts to fly away from the city, and the S.A.M Site turns around swiftly and flames burst from two missiles that launch from the battery. They both fly out and chase after the aircraft, exploding when they make contact with the vessel. The ship erupts into flames, just smouldering wreckage plummets into the icy cold depths of the Atlesian Ocean. Pyrrha closes her eyes with grief, there were people on that ship, and could have been families inside of it when it was blown out of the sky. And they just shot it down so callously, her eyes move up to the Drift of Wandering Star that seems to float above the city, its powerful cannons ready to level the city if need be.

“How the hell are we getting out of here with that thing watching the sky?” Jaune questions as he looks at Kassius. He has more knowledge on the Acolytes of Lien than they do, he has dealt with them more than they have.

“S.A.M sites aren’t tough to avoid – and either way, that is a Troop Carrier. Hopefully it will not lock onto us because it belongs to the Acolytes of Lien – if it does, it will have flares to confuse the missiles.” Kassius explains as he peeks round the wall at the soldiers that are still stood there in the street. Their breath visible in a misty form as they breathe the cold Atlesian Air. The Acolytes of Lien pace back and forth as they keep the area secure, they would be crazy to think they could make their way across the street without them noticing.

However...

They could make a distraction, Kassius has a brainwave and he turns to Penny. She looks at him with confusion, raising her brow, she is also on the list of suspects. “Penny...” He whispers, she sneaks over to him quietly to hear what he has to say.

“Yes?” She softly responds curiously.

“Do you think you could hack into that S.A.M site? Make it malfunction or something to turn their eyes away from the street so we could make a break for it?” Kassius asks her, and Penny smiles. Thanks to Merlot, she has a lot more functions than her old body had. She has been upgraded a great deal with some impressive pieces of both hardware and software. She presses a small – nearly invisible – button on her wrist, and the skin folds open, revealing the circuitry beneath. Along with some tiny insect like robots that she controls with her mind, her eyes glow bright green as she controls them. They all fly towards the S.A.M Site and they approach the console, hacking into it.

They cannot see what it is that she sees, but she can actually see their network right now, hacking into it carefully to take control of the Surface to Air Missile Site. The soldiers have absolutely no idea of this happening right beside them. She smiles as she takes control. “I have control.” Penny tells them softly, and they watch as the S.A.M Site suddenly turns to a building and fires a missile at it, exploding into the building before the weapon sparks with electricity and deactivates. Just as soon as all the guards turn, her little robots fly back to her and enter her arm again. “Jeez Penny...” Jaune whispers.

“I checked that floor, there were some soldiers in it, no innocent people.” She promises, Kassius chuckles, gently patting her head.

“Nice work.” He whispers, all the soldiers are looking at the malfunctioned S.A.M site, fiddling with it as they try and repair it. The Captain pushes one of the soldiers with annoyance.

“What did you do?” The Captain questions with a raised voice. The soldier looks bewildered as he scratches the back of his head.

“I-I dunno what happened! I didn’t do it!” The soldier defends himself.

“You’re supposed to be the tech expert!” The Captain argues, they keep moving carefully and quickly across the road towards one of the buildings. They all enter it and keep their heads low to not get spotted. Penny is the last one inside, just before the Juggernaut soldier turned around and looked down the street. They were very lucky she had those little Nano-Bots to help them out. Kassius leans against one of the marble pillars, holding Lash Equinox in one hand, and Vulcan Nox ready in the other. They all take cover, noticing a couple of soldiers are both walking into the building that they are in, looking around as they hold their rifles, searching for them.

Kassius looks at Jaune and he nods. They get ready as the soldiers approach them, Kassius holds his sword tight, waiting for the soldiers to get closer. They’ve no clue that they are behind those pillars. Kassius holds his fingers out Jaune, counting down.

_Three_

_Two_

_One_

Kassius grabs one soldier and Jaune grabs the other. Jaune strangles him to knock him out, pulling him into one of the cupboards to hide him. But Kassius is not as kind, he takes the blade of Lash Equinox and slices it clean through the soldier’s throat. Blood sprays out and he chokes on it, but Kassius pulls his body behind one of the rooms, hiding him in there. Pyrrha looks at him and she does not agree with his tactic there. “Did you really have to kill him?” She questions, since Jaune chose not to, but Kassius is not like them.

“They’re Acolytes – they’d do the same to us.” He responds, taking point as he approaches the exit of this building. The next street leads to that Office Building which has the crane on top of it. The huge arm hangs over the city, holding a huge counterweight that could really do some damage. Kassius looks at the counterweight, then at what is in the street, if they move the crane, get into the ship and blow the cable...they could take out a fair few soldiers and a S.A.M Site beneath them. Kassius points at the building with his index finger, and he moves out first, but he instantly has to take cover, and the others copy him.

A drone hovers across the road, scanning the area for facial recognition, it is quite large with big propellers inside the wings, and a powerful gun attached to it as well. The high calibre would do some damage to someone who has not engaged their aura. Even to a Huntsmen or Huntress with their aura activated, it could do some pretty serious damage. It remains hovered there, then it eventually floats off, as a battalion of Atlesian Knights march down the streets, their optics glow bright red as they are being controlled by the Black Queen Virus, but clearly their orders are different. To secure the city and work with the Acolytes of Lien to keep Atlas under their control.

Who knows what is happening at Mantle right now?

They keep moving down the street, like a huge battalion of marching soldiers, loud steps over and over move past them. Their day has been filled with close calls at the moment, so they keep moving when the coast is clear. They can still hear the voices of soldiers speaking across the city. “The Kingdom of Atlas has now entered a state of Martial Law! Curfews at eight o’clock, anybody out at night past that time will be punished!” An Acolyte of Lien roars, his voice echoes across the city.

They keep moving, then Jaune’s eyes widen and he gasps. “A.P.C!” Jaune calls out, as a huge armoured truck roars around the corner and fires the cannon at them over and over again. Lethal shells shoot and explode around them as it attacks, they keep on running towards the building as it fires at them, parked in the street, and they keep sprinting as fast as they can. Jaune and Nora both turn to cover them, using his shield to block the next shell. Whilst Nora launches a grenade towards the armoured truck, it explodes against the armour but does not destroy the tank. Then it fires, the shell explodes against his shield, throwing Jaune back into Nora. They both are thrown right through the glass and across the floor, shards of glass slide around them.

Jaune and Nora both groan, but Pyrrha and Ren run to them, helping them both back up. “Come on! We need to get out of that thing’s range!” Kassius orders, just as it fires again, a shell smashes through the glass and explodes against one of the pillars, dust plumed out and chunks of marble are thrown everywhere. They get up and run with them to get inside of the building, it keeps on firing at them, holes blown in the walls around them as they flee the huge engine of war. There are other soldiers inside of the vehicle, controlling machine guns that are inside of it, firing high calibre bullets at them. The Armoured Personnel Carrier continues to open fire at them, explosions surround them as they reach the next floor, and a shell comes flying through it.

An idea comes to Oobleck’s mind, and he grabs a chair and throws it through one of the windows to make it sound like they are making an escape in that direction. The A.P.C fires again, but then it stops, they all stay motionless and silent as the huge vehicle slowly drives round the building and sees the broken window, and it starts to search the area for them. Port gives Oobleck a thumbs up for his quick thinking and they sigh for relief.

“Hopefully that’ll keep them searching for a while.” Oobleck sighs as he stands there, catching his breath.

“That was close.” Ren says with a chuckle.

“Seems to be the theme.” Kassius chuckles as he presses his hands against his knees. The Acolytes of Lien gunships continue to patrol the airspace to find them, lots of Snipers watching both the ground and other buildings. They need to be careful with those Sharpshooters, because they have tactical advantage right now. They can see the long laser pointers attached to their sniper rifles darting around as they examine the streets to find their targets and other Huntsmen that are here. They are killing all Huntsmen that do not join them and kill anyone that challenges them.

As they climb up the stairs, Penny sees someone trying to attack an Acolyte with a Baseball bat. He strikes the soldier against his helmet, but a Sharpshooter fires a bullet into his head, killing him instantly. Blood splatters against the floor and Penny sighs...such a waste of life. Pyrrha walks beside Jaune, touching her arm as she walks and she looks at him, and she smiles kindly. “We’re gonna get through this.” Jaune softly assures, holding her hand. She rests her head on his shoulder, terrified of the whole situation, and Nora holds Ren’s hand as well. They continue to make their way up the building, when they see a Sharpshooter on the level with his Sniper Rifle out, watching the streets. Kassius stops the others, and he flicks the sword round so then the blade gently touches his arm. He carefully approaches the soldier, then he slashes him across the back of the leg to bring him down to one knee, then drives the blade into his sternum, killing the soldier. He lets the body fall to the ground and looks around.

They must be twenty stories up at this point now.

They are about to approach another staircase...

When they notice that something is happening outside of one of the military bases. All of the Atlesian Soldiers have been rounded up inside the courtyard. Their weapons taken from them and a fair few soldiers watching them. Along with a couple gunships.

Then they see him emerge.

They must have brought him here on the Drift of Wandering Star.

Jacques Schnee.

He emerges from the building, walking out and looking down at the soldiers beneath him with his arms behind his back. All of them have that plague in them right now, it could be activated at a flick of a switch. The proud man looks down at them with a smile, and stood with him is the Spectre with his arms crossed. The Spectre has a cunning smirk on his face as he watches the event.

They watch from the building, they could take him out right now but they would lose the element of stealth. They nearly lost it when that Armoured Personnel Carrier saw them. “Jacques...” Jaune whispers when he stares at the man that looks down at the soldiers that have been rounded up. Then they hear him speak, and it makes their blood boil.

“So here we are...” Jacques begins as he looks down at them all with a smile on his face. “I must say I have missed this place...” He admits as he breathes the clean Atlesian air in, Whitley is there as well but he does not look as proud as his egomaniac of a father. Whitley has grasped his arm and cannot even look at the soldiers, clearly he does not feel comfortable with what is happening. Or is still shaken by what happened in the Grand Hall, he might have hated her but she was still his mother.

Or perhaps it is both.

But Doctor Merlot is nowhere to be seen.

They have in fact never seen him in person, only seen holograms and footage of him. But never in person, very few people have actually met him in person. Even when he returned during their training mission...there was only a screen to speak to. Nothing more than that – what a coward that man must be. “I am also quite disappointed, that the world would completely disregard the sacrifices made on those islands...” Jacques explains, with a chuckle as well. Despite he is against them, he still seems to be disgusted by the actions of President Thaddeus Brimstone.

He paces back and forth as he speaks. “You all know now, that you have a trace of the virus that struck Vacuo mere minutes ago.” He explains, their eyes widen with horror. Especially Kassius’ since he knows that Yang is down there in Vacuo somewhere. “Although it has been modified on you, in Vacuo it infected everyone in the Kingdom instantly – but with all of you, you have a choice.” Jacques explains as he looks at them all with a smirk on his evil face. He has the look of a man that is so proud of what he has done...all this cruelty...all that sacrifice...all so then _he_ could win. “You can either join the Acolytes of Lien, or die. Those who will stand against us may raise their hands.” Jacques tells them, and they watch as the soldiers all look at each other. Jaune remembers seeing that vaccination taking place when he tried to get to Pyrrha – but he never knew it was something like this.

Then...

Only five percent of the thousands of soldiers actually raise their hands. Not many at all, but they must have been the ones who were loyal to General Ironwood, the others are only loyal to their own survival odds. One of them even speaks out, very bravely as well. “We made a pledge to serve until death. I will not break that pledge.” He states bravely, and even Jacques seems to admire his courage.

He applauds the honesty of those soldiers.

“Thank you for your service.”

Jacques presses his finger against a button on the table, then they watch with horror as those poor soldiers meet their grizzly end. Choking on the black liquid that pours from their eyes, nose, ears and mouths as they are killed agonizingly by the Horridus Morbus plague. This could happen to Yang and the others just under a much longer period of time, because this is a modified version of it. They collapse to the ground, their screams being drowned out by the horrific choking sounds coming from them. Eventually their bodies lay on the ground, black stains cover their bodies as their skin breaks down.

The soldiers look horrified...

Jacques Schnee smiles.

“Welcome to the new world order, turn against us...and that is what will be your reward.” Jacques warns as he walks away, grinning away as he leaves them. Jaune stands there, clenching his gauntleted hands into fists with anger, gritting his teeth with a growl as he stares at the man.

He has always wanted Jacques Schnee punished or hurt for what he dead.

But he has never wanted to physically drive Crocea Mors into his sternum before.

Until now.

Kassius looks at him and he starts to walk towards the steps. “That is why I don’t leave my enemies alive.” He states, walking up the steps. He and Pyrrha both look at him as he walks up them – clearly part of him is still quite resentful of the Onyx Phantom, like that would ever go away. He has always had a very black and white way of looking at his enemies.

_You are either with me or against me._

Eventually, they arrive at the rooftop of the building, feeling the icy cold Atlesian wind brushing up against their skin as they walk over to the crane. Kassius approaches it and he clambers up onto the vehicle, and he sits inside of the cabin, looking at it as he figures it out. Port walks over to him and rests his hand against the side of the crane. “So...Kassius...” Port begins.

“Mhm?” Kassius responds as he fiddles with the controls.

“You...do know how to fly that Troop Carrier, right?” Port asks him, and Kassius chuckles.

“How hard can it be?” He responds, not necessarily with a yes or a no. But Port just pats his soldier, waiting for him to figure out how to control the crane. He grabs the gearstick and he wiggles it a little, and the huge arm of the crane wiggles, dropping a couple things from it that it carries. It plummets down and lands right between a couple of Acolytes of Lien Mercenaries beneath them. The both look at the bit of metal, then look up at the crane.

“That was close.” The soldier chuckles.

“Got it!” He calls to them, turning the huge crane arm towards the building slowly to not arouse suspicion. And yet The Spectre turns his head when he notices that the Crane is moving, surprising considering that nobody would really be working during an invasion of this scale. The crane swivels round and finally comes to a stop at the other building. Only just missing it. The soldier looks up at the crane and he chuckles.

“Someone give that guy a promotion, he keeps working no matter what.” The soldier jokes, not even realising that it is their High Value Targets making their escape. They all begin to climb onto the crane arm, carefully walking across it. The wind that blows against them really does make them concerned as they walk across it. Also trying not to arouse suspicion. Pyrrha has her eyes focused forward as she climbs, because her fear is being realised right now. Her foot just slips on the crane and she gasps with horror, grabbing onto the crane and not letting go. Jaune looks back at her, seeing her terrified.

She is terrified of heights.

Ironic considering their first mission, but this is different. There were trees for her to use to slow her descent. Here it is just a sheer drop to tarmac that would kill her whether or not she has armour on or aura activated. She would be killed instantly from a fall like that. Her eyes agape with fear as she looks down with horror, Jaune lets Nora get past and he goes back to help her.

He reaches out to her. “Pyrrha...” He whispers gently as he holds his hand out to her, her eyes look over to him and she sees him. “It’s okay...take my hand.” He asks of her, his hand reached out to her. Her breath shakes erratically as she looks at him, then she closes her eyes and reaches out to him. Then feels the soft warmth of his hand as he holds her, then he slowly and carefully pulls her closer. She wraps her arms around him as she holds onto him, keeping her eyes closed. He helps her walk back across the crane to get to the rooftop where the ship is waiting for them.

Kassius gets off the crane first, and he stabs one of the soldiers in the chest with Lash Equinox, the pilot in fact and then throws the other into the chest of the second soldier, the co-pilot. One by one they disembark from the crane, very lucky that the plan did not go up in flames as well. Jaune helps Pyrrha get across, and he lets her get off the crane first, and even though it doesn’t, Pyrrha’s anxiety scares her. She sees the possibility in her paranoid mind of the crane collapsing with Jaune on it, and she turns to help him off as fast as she can.

But it never gives.

Just her paranoia getting the better of her. But she is always expecting to see Vir Nominis Umbra whenever she turns around, he has been following her for so long now. It has become a force of habit to be on her guard. Kassius gestures to them to get inside of the Troop Transport and he gets into the cockpit, sitting in it with Port beside him in the cockpit. He flicks some switches and Port looks at him. “I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing?” Port questions.

“I said _how hard can it be?_ ” He repeats and Port presses his hand to his face, sighing. Pyrrha rests her head on Jaune’s shoulder, holding his hand and closing her eyes...feeling so at home with him...so safe. Nora is the same with Ren as she holds his hand.

And finally...

After nearly six years...

Team J.N.P.R is back together.

Kassius flicks the right switch – finally – and the thrusters roar to life, the Aircraft rises off the ground and it flies away from the building. They are tense, hoping to not see a missile pursuing them...

But it didn’t.

And Kassius didn’t do what he thought of doing...he didn’t drop the counterweight.

Clearly he knows when to kill and when not to. Making him very different to Mr Hyde at the end of the day.

The Troop Carrier flies across the ocean to return back to Vale.

Thinking they are safe.

Until the eyes of the Spectre watch the ship flying away. He transforms his cybernetic arm into the hook form and he smirks, turning to his gunship.

“I don’t think so.”


	35. Aftermath

**Ruby**

So much has happened across the world...

And the leader of Team R.W.B.Y is completely unaware of the fact that two members of her team and two friends have been incapacitated by the Horridus Morbus Plague. No idea that the world has just descended into chaos after the Attack on Atlas and Vacuo, and the coup from Vir Nominis Umbra in Mistral. Only Vale remains that has not been broken yet, and Vir Nominis Umbra is ruthless.

He will not stop there.

He will never stop.

Although, being out of the loop on some things, Ruby is sat down on a stone step outside of the huge building where so many secrets are kept. She can hear the conversation inside between the other Silver Eyed Warriors and Serena, she is babbling on about some things that are of no interest to Ruby. Scientific theories being completely blown to pieces by the Knights of Grimm and Vir Nominis Umbra.

Ruby has her large silver eye gazing down at her Rose Badge; she has taken her caped hood off by unclipping the badge above her chest. The red velvet cape is wrapped up on her lap, but she gently slides her thumb across the metal rose that was made for her outfit. She sighs, thinking of her mother when she was alive. Ruby was very small when Summer was around, and sadly does not have many memories of her, especially the ones that surrounded what happened to her.

 

Ruby closes her eyes...letting her mind fall into the memory.

Ruby must have been around three to four years old at this point, absolutely tiny and adorable. She has a hood but no cape at this moment, wearing a fluffy puffer jacket due to it being in the middle of winter. Her short black and red hair blowing in the icy cold wind, playing with Yang happily. Yang only being five or six at the time, skating with her sister on a frozen lake. Taiyang sits there on a bench, watching over them as they play around together; they have always been a very close pair the two of them. He has his leg crossed over the other and a mug of coffee sat on his knee as he watches them, an open eye for any signs of Grimm.

His eyes then notice something in the trees.

A Crow...And a Raven.

It truly does surprise him, since the two siblings have always been at each other’s throats for a while, not so much as they were after the death of Summer Rose, but more because their sibling relationship was not as cute as their daughters’. The Crow and the Raven both watch the little girls play, also keeping a watchful eye on them to make sure that they are safe and sound.

Although the presence of Qrow causes something to happen.

Ruby skates along, giggling to herself as she does...and then the ice begins to crack beneath her feet. Taiyang gasps, sitting forward with shock and just about to run out to her and his eldest daughter. Or perhaps his real daughter – but Ruby has always been a daughter to him, since he had to raise her. Especially after Summer passed away and Raven vanished again.

Yang gasps, skating towards her to try and save her. “Ruby!” Yang calls out with distress, wide lilac coloured eyes. Until a rock comes flying in from out of nowhere, they all believed it to be down to Qrow’s semblance. Perhaps a rock came loose from the mountain and came tumbling towards the lake and happened to land there. But with everything happening – it is becoming far more possible that this may not be the case. She nearly slips into the water, but she regains her balance, seeing the ice crack beneath Ruby.

Taiyang springs up from his chair and sprints to help the two of them; Qrow takes off in his Crow form, whereas Raven does not even move. This must have been back when she was still a very cold person, one that wanted Yang to learn through experience, not through the help of others.

 _Survival of the Fittest_ and all of that.

He sprints out to help them, seeing them both slipping closer and closer towards the freezing ice, until suddenly there is a blast of wind that rushes past him. White petals trailing behind her as she sprints to their aid, and the two girls find their lucky bodies away from the lake and onto the snow beside their father. Qrow turns round, not wanting to spoil the moment or worse...confuse them in any way.

They are both panting and gasping with shock, when they see her stood before them. Her long white cloak blows in the wind, and she pulls the hood back, revealing her beautiful face and smile. It is stunning how much Ruby looks like her mother now, almost an exact replica in fact. The same style of hair that blows in the cold wind, the same smile and nearly even the same voice. She crouches down beside them and the two girls wrap their arms around Summer happily, hugging her tight. “I’ve gotcha.” Summer whispers affectionately to them both as she holds them so close.

Taiyang sighs with relief, looking at the two girls with a smile and then at Summer. He would be lying if he said that he was not falling in love with her, but he and her never did anything on the lines of Romantic. She has devoted to Qrow, and he loved Raven – despite her abandoning him for her duties with the Branwen Tribe. Summer looks at the two young girls with a smile, gently brushing their hair from their eyes as she also wipes their tears from their eyes. “Come on, I’ll go bake some cookies for you.” She promises, her voice was so tender and kind, she stood up and smiled as she walked them to the cabin.

The cabin that is now destroyed, along with so many memories that were left behind of her inside. Now only ashes that are being blown through the Remnant Winds to be forgotten...but never in their hearts and minds. Taiyang watches her leave and he turns around, seeing Qrow stood there. Ruby never remembered this, but it is still an event that happened. Taiyang stares at him and he sighs, the guilt in his younger red eyes is very clear for everything that he has put his best friend through.

Taiyang says nothing, just turns and walks away from him with a scowl on his face. It is unclear if he ever forgave Qrow for how he handled the situation of Summer’s pregnancy with his child. Because he did slowly begin to fall in love with her, and Qrow could see that as well. Qrow reached out for him to try and explain, but he kept on walking to catch up with Summer. “Tai...” He softly says, but he never turned around. Qrow sighs, and then looks over his shoulder to see Raven stood there by the tree, out of the sightlines of the children. She has her hand rested on the scabbard of her sword, then slowly turns and walks away.

The Raven flies away as soon as she passes by one of the trees.

Qrow sighs.

“Family...”

Some time passed when Summer was making the cookies for them, and the aroma created some sort of addiction to cookies for Ruby. This could have been the very thing that caused the little bundle of pure adorableness to fall for Cookies so much. She gently stirs the mixture in the bowl, with an assortment of chocolate chip bits in them, whilst the little girls play together with their toys. They have plastic Beowulves that they make fight each other, mimicking their growls and barks. Yang giggles when she wins, and Ruby crosses her arms with a sad expression to losing.

Yang gasps, not wanting to upset her. So then she makes the sound of pain to her Beowulf, like a pained whine. Ruby’s large silver eyes turn when she sees that her Beowulf falls to the floor. “Why...I didn’t want to...Urgh...” Yang titters as she makes a silly voice to give her Beowulf some character. Ruby smiles, and she wraps her arms around her sister, nearly knocking her over in the process. Yang’s lilac eyes dart over to the silver ones of the woman she believed to be her real mother at the time.

Summer looks at the two of them with a smile, then she walks over to them, still with the bowl of cookie mixture in her arm, and she sits down with them both. She continues to stir, and Ruby’s eyes seem to follow the wooden spoon, admiring the mixture which will form into her cookies soon. “What are you two playing?” Summer asks them both with a kind smile, and they don’t notice that Qrow flies over to one of the tree branches. He watches over them, Raven does as well, but more for her daughter opposed to Summer’s. But that does not mean she does not care for her, she has saved her a few times as well. Qrow also looks at Summer – his love was unparalleled to her...he adored her with every fibre of his being. And she loved him as well, and that is the reason he tried to stay away from them.

But love was unfortunately the very thing that ended their bond that they shared.

Leading to when the Knight of Death struck her down that fateful day.

Yang smiles when she looks at her mother-figure, holding one of the toy Beowulves that Taiyang bought her. “The story of two Beowulves, they both chose different paths, one chose the path of the light, and the other was confused and joined the dark path.” Yang explains to her mother, and Summer’s eyes widen with astonishment. She has always been a real book nerd, even when she was a little kid like Ruby. She is the reason that Ruby enjoys them so much, although Yang did not get as attached to reading, she was the more gung-ho kind of gal.

“Oh my goodness – what happened between them?” Summer asks them both as she listens to their words. She continues to mix the ingredients together as she listens to their story, so captivated by them. It really is true about what Yang said about their mother – she really was Super Mom. _Baker of Cookies and Slayer of Giant Monsters..._ For a time anyway...

Ruby is the one that continues, since she was always the one that came up with these fun little adventures. She always wanted to be the heroes in the books, and most of the time Yang would be her partner, and in others they would fight each other. But very rarely, much like their relationship in real life as well. They very rarely get into fights and always have each other’s backs. “Well, the Wolfie that chose the light wanted to help his friend...but the friend was so confused and so happy where he was...that they fought each other.” Ruby explains, leaving the Beowulf on the floor beside Yang’s one. Summer raises her brow curiously at the story, never expecting it to go that way.

“Who won?” She asks her.

Ruby looks at the two toppled over Beowulves, and she answers her. “Neither – they died together.” Ruby answers, and Summer tilts her head sadly.

“That’s sad.” Summer points out, but Yang smiles.

“Not really – now they are both in their places of happiness – now they are both free.” Yang explains with a kind smile. What sweet kids they were before she passed, neither really understood what the Grimm actually were. It must have been a true shock and horror for them to see the Beowulves in that cabin for the first time in person. Nothing like what they imagined, not these romanticised characters in their heads – but monsters with only one purpose.

To bring death and destruction wherever they go.

Nothing more...

Nothing less...

Summer smiles though, putting the bowl down and she gently caresses their cheeks and hair, pulling them close and hugging them both. They both snuggle up to her and hold her close, their arms wrapped around her tight. She kisses both of them on the dome of their head, whispering softly to them like a lullaby.

“I love you...” She whispers as she rocks them both back and forth in her arms.

“I love you too...” They both answer.

 

That was the last day they ever shared with her, because the next day she left on the mission with Qrow that led to her death. Ruby and Yang were both fast asleep when she left, but she did kiss them goodbye and left them both something to remember her by. It was almost like she knew she was not going to come back, but she always made sure she said goodbye before every mission and left them something if they were asleep.

Because there was always the possibility she could die out there.

Yang was left a purple bandanna, one that she always liked the look of, and she has kept it ever since. She has it wrapped around her leg in the present day, in fact.

And Ruby – was left the Rose badge.

However the original one was broken by Tyrian during her tortures when captured by Salem and her minions. Tyrian destroyed the only memory she had left of her mother and he laughed as he did it, Yang and Oscar both rebuilt her one but it does not carry the same strength that her original one had. It just is not the same without it, she just stares at it and sighs, closing her eye as a tear drops from it.

_What would mom think of me..._

_I’m a freak...a one eyed murderous bitch..._

However she stops thinking like that when she senses the presence of someone approaching her. She turns round, instinctively reaching back to Crescent Rose, but there is no need. Because it is just Kragen, he looks down at her with a smile, noticing that something is clearly on her mind. “You’re a little defensive.” Kragen notices as he smiles, spinning his staff through his fingers. Ruby sighs and calms down, looking down at the floor, and her mentor sits down on the step next to her. “What’s on your mind?” He asks her, since he is not blind.

As always as well, Ruby is her natural defensive and quick-to-deny self in an instant. “Wuh – What? What’re you talking about? I’m fine...” She promises, so quickly that she nearly flubs throughout her sentence, touching her long hair instinctively. Kragen chuckles at her response, since she could not have shown him the truth any clearer.

“My dear – you shan’t worry about anything with me. I will listen to whatever you have to say.” He assures, and Ruby looks at him and then at the rose that she holds. She breathes deep to slow her heart rate down, thinking to herself.

_Mommy would want you to get better._

She lends the rose over to the Old Wizard, not actually looking at him, and he politely takes and looks at the rose. He observes it and seems to instantly know what she is feeling so upset about. “You’re mother?” He guesses, Ruby nods her head as an answer.

“Mhm.” She adds as she looks down at the floor. “That was the last thing she ever gave me before she died...I never even got to say goodbye...” Ruby explains, hell she does not have many memories of her. She was too tiny to remember any of them, Yang remembers Summer better than she does at the end of the day.

“Ah...” Kragen responds, giving her the rose back, and she gratefully accepts it and clips her hooded cape back onto her body, around her shoulders and just above her chest on the right hand side. It clicks into place and her cape ever so smoothly flutters with the wind that brushes past them, her beautiful hair does as well. “You miss her?” He asks her, a question he already knows the answer to.

“More than I can bare...I just want her to...I just want to hug her...you know?” She asks him, he may be immortal but he was born and had a mother at some point. Every person knows what it is like, to just want to hug their parent so then they can hush them and tell them that everything is going to be alright. Especially now, more than ever, with Vir Nominis Umbra bringing terror across Remnant.

“When I was younger...yes...” He admits, she looks at the floor and she sighs. Then...an idea sparks into Kragen’s mind as he smiles. He stands up and he gently pats her knee as he does so, getting her attention.

“Come.” He tells her, walking down the steps and in a different direction to what they are currently familiar of. Ruby raises her brow with confusion as she stands up.

“Wh-Why?” Ruby inquires nervously as she follows the old man. “Where are we going?” She asks him as she tries to catch up with him as he walks, tapping the staff across the floor as he walks.

“I’ve something to show you.” He says as he approaches another building, not the barracks since this one is another one of the towers. He presses his hand against the panel and he activates his Silver Eyes, transferring his power into the lock in order to open it. The white energy passes into the metal and it pulls the lock to open the door. He then steps inside after opening the door, Ruby follows him inside as he takes her somewhere. She walks in there, and there are more Artefacts from different Eras stored in here.

But not just from the Arkhoni Era, some of the things in here are actually quite recognisable. The sword that a great warrior during the Great War used, won the war in fact on Vytal. A statue of a powerful Grimm that once stalked a village, became known as the Imperator of the Sands, the same thing that Cardin Winchester was nicknamed in fact. It was a powerful Beowulf that killed and devoured nearly twenty people. Children included, it did not discriminate. And beside the statue is the grave of the Silver Eyed Warrior that killed it, with his Silver Eyes as well.

It is not a statue.

It is the Imperator of the Sands itself, turned into stone by the power of the Silver Eyes. Ruby has always been curious to know how the power of the Silver Eyes came about, and what makes them so special. What makes her so special as well? But Kragen keeps walking through, and he approaches a certain door which he opens. There is a frozen Griffin inside of there, still in the pose to be roaring as it stands there. Roman stands beside Ruby, staring at the frozen Griffin and he shudders. “Never wanted to see one of those things again.” He says to her, but Ruby ignores him.

Then she gasps with disbelief.

There is a mannequin that has her White Robes around its body. It is the exact same one that Summer Rose once wore, and she walks towards it with shock, touching it and it brings forth so many memories. It is not but a replica...this is her cloak. The same silky feeling across it as she runs her finger across it ever so gently. The dust leaves the white cloak as she does that, and she turns to Kragen, seeing him stood there with his hands on the staff. “Why? Why do you have all of this?” She asks, looking around at the room. He has devoted a whole room just to her mother, all these heroic icons...and now there is her.

Then he answers. “Your mother – was one of the kindest and bravest people I have ever met.” He admits with a kind smile, she looks around and she looks at the frozen Griffin, then at the transcription on the base of the stand.

_Summer Rose first kill with her Silver Eyes_

It was a Griffin – good girl...

“We learned of your mother and sought her out on our own initiative. A fantastic warrior with great potential.” Kragen explains as Ruby walks around the room, like a museum created specifically for her mother. Her eyes set onto the photograph that brings a tear to her eye as she picks it up. It is a picture of her with Ruby and Yang with a happy smile on her face. Ruby smiles timidly whereas Yang has the biggest smile on the world. And Summer just looks so happy...and so beautiful as well, with her hair the same as it always has been. Ruby really has taken from her mother, especially the beauty she has grown up into, despite the scars given to her by Tyrian. If anything, they make her even prettier, makes her more and more unique than any other girl.

“You see, Ruby, you mother was a part of our order for a few years. She wanted to enhance her skills, wanted to learn about herself and the World of Remnant. She never brought her team with her, she did not want to involve them after she learned of the things I told her about.” Kragen explains, Ruby stops and turns to him with confusion.

“What things?” She asks.

“Salem, the Grimm – The Knights of Grimm...” He reveals and her eyes widen with shock.

“My mom – she knew about them?” She questions with shock.

“That she did, but we had to keep it secret – until Ozpin informed the Branwen Twins and your father, giving them different missions and so forth.” He explains as he walks around the room, towards a glass cabinet. Ruby gasps when she sees it, and he taps the glass with his Staff. “This was Summer Rose’s weapon of choice – _Silver Sage_ – she called it.” He tells her, and it looks just like Crescent Rose. But it dwarfs her one, and clearly has Isomacium woven into the white and red metal that comprises it. It too is a High Impact Sniper Rifle like Crescent Rose, but looks more advanced than what she ever made.

“Whoa...” Ruby softly exclaims as she admires the beautiful craftsmanship of her mother’s weapon.

“Your mother assisted us on many missions to protect the people – one in fact was a village in the highlands of Mistral, where she accomplished her first kill with her eyes.” He explains, pointing at the Griffin.

“What happened?” Ruby inquires curiously.

“The town was under attack by a squadron of Griffins, they were carrying people off to feed on them in the mountains. But we got there first, and I gave her the chance to test out her gifts first hand.” Kragen explains as he looks at the frozen Griffin that stands there, still roaring from when it tried to attack her. Cleary the confrontation did not end well for the poor Griffin.

“Did you save them?” Ruby asks him, and he smiles.

“Yes – she did.” He answers, which gives Ruby so much happiness to know her mother was an awesome warrior like her as well. Her eyes dart over to the cloak and she smiles happily. “You’re making her proud, Ruby – remember that.” Kragen says.

Suddenly the door bursts open, and Oscar is stood there, panting and they both stare at him with concern. “Oscar?” Ruby questions with confusion as she looks at him. He looks at them with fearful eyes.

He knows...

“You need to see this...”

 

The feed cuts to static after they watch the replayed footage of what happened at Atlas and then the message from Salem. Ruby clenches her hand into a fist with anger, then it hits her. She remembers what she said about the plague being spread into Vacuo. “Yang...Weiss...” She realises with widened eyes, she is worried for Sun and Neptune as well, but their names are the only ones that actually seem to come out. She covers her mouth after her realisation when she looks at the Emergency Broadcast System that has started to play before them.

_ATTENTION!_

_THERE HAS BEEN A MASSIVE ATTACK ON ATLAS, ALL LEADERS THAT WERE BROUGHT THERE FROM THE KINGDOMS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED DEAD. ATLAS IS UNDER INVASION FROM AN UNKNOWN GROUP._

_THEY CALL THEMSELVES THE ACOLYTES OF LIEN._

_PLEASE REMAIN CALM FOR YOUR KINGDOM’S SAKE, DO NOT RISK ATTRACTING GRIMM ATTENTION._

_PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR LATER UPDATES ON THE MATTER._

_GODS GUIDE YOU._

Kragen stares at the holographic screen, holding his staff tight, the Architect stood in there as well. Oscar looks at them to see what they think, Vos, Serena and Gray are inside of the room as well. Serena looks extremely shocked, she has left Atlas for only a few days and this has happened. “What do we do?” Oscar asks them all, but most of them are completely lost. But Kragen knows exactly what to do.

“We’re going to Beacon.” He tells them, opening a portal of white energy behind them and spinning his staff through his fingers. He sighs with hope as he looks at the portal. They all stand with him, ready to move. “Hopefully the others – if they survived and are there – will be waiting for us.” He explains, but Ruby has to ask the question that is on her mind.

“Is it him?” She asks him, and he stops, turning to look at her.

“Vir Nominis Umbra?” She asks with a nervous voice, and he stares at the Broadcast System.

“Undoubtedly this is part of his cruel game.”

 

**Yang**

Yang lays there on the floor, still unconscious due to the Horridus Morbus Plague that flows through her body. In her bloodstream, in her skin, in her organs...in every part of her body. It has spread unbelievably fast through their bodies. She has been having some strange hallucinations, it is odd because she somehow seems to feel like she is in Beacon despite being in Vacuo moments ago.

Yang is stood in the Food Court with her eyes navigating the room, trying to figure out where she is. But when she looks forward, she gasps with shock from what she sees.

It is Ruby...

But her with a spear that has been thrown right through her sternum and it has pinned her against the wall. Her blood trickling down the spear and onto the floor. “No!” Yang shrieks out with anguish and horror, reaching out for her sister. She touches her foot, but she vanishes in a cloud of smoke.

Yang gasps with confusion and she looks around, trying to find where she is. “Ruby?” Yang calls out with fear. She staggers around, spinning round as she tries to find her baby sister. The one that she has always wanted to keep safe, whatever this plague is – it appears to be playing on her fears. Her fear of losing her sister is the strongest of them all. “Ruby!” She screams out, her voice echoes endlessly into the chilling domain.

She has never even noticed where she is...

The Food Hall is plumed with smoke and fire dances around her from outside, with charred trees that stand tall. Red skies that are polluted with ash and smoke.

This is the Charred Forest once again.

She has been here before...

Her nightmare of Adam when she was suffering with her P.T.S.D after the Fall of Beacon. When he walked towards her and she could not hurt him, but he could hurt her. She was terrified of him, and he attacked her.

That was in the Charred Forest Version of Beacon as well.

She spins round again.

Adam stands right behind her and he smirks at her...of all the people that could be there it was him.

She still fears him in some way after losing her arm to him. She gasps with fear, but then she sees the mask crack and crumbles away from his face.

Instead of the blinded scarred eyes, there are  pair of brown ones. His face becomes more round and square like. The red hair and the horns fall from his head and his clothes change...he forms into Vir Nominis Umbra. “Hello again, my dear.” He greets cunningly with a smirk, driving Wilt and Blush into her stomach.

Yang gasps with pain, her eyes open into the real world again, sweat trickling down her skin and her face in particular. She grabs her stomach where she really thought she felt the red blade sink into her body. She looks at where the wound would be – but there is nothing...nothing at all.

Adam...

The nightmare she had at her home five years ago...

It was Vir Nominis Umbra all along...

Messing with her head as well.

He really has been behind it from the start, he has been planning these events for a very long time. That is clear enough to them all, she pants with shock and distress, feeling as if her throat is on fire. Raven turns round when she hears the sound of her daughter suffering, but also to the fact she is awake. She coughs with pain, like her stomach is jolting or her throat is being burned.

Raven runs over to her daughter, still able to keep her aura up in order to protect herself from the plague itself. “Yang...” Raven softly says as she stands there, feeling her temperature.

“M-Mom?” Yang weakly rasps as she looks up at her mother, pale skinned and with rashes forming around her beautiful lilac eyes. She can barely even open her eyes themselves, due to how much they feel like they are burning. Her breathing is heavy, just like the other three who have been infected with this plague. They too are sweating heavily, and appear to have the same forms of rashes around their eyes that burn just as badly. “Am I dreaming?” She weakly asks her mother, making her smile – even laugh for a little bit.

“No, you’re not. Just hold on, okay? Glynda and Cinder are bringing some medical supplies, and Hazel is finding the beds for you to be comfortable in.” Raven promises with a smile, calming her daughter down as best as she can. But then she catches onto something.

“Why aren’t the White Fang doing that?” Yang inquires nervously. Raven stammers, looking at her with worried eyes, then her eyes widen. “What happened?” She asks fearfully.

Raven remembers that she would have never known about what happened, the footage of Blake murdering Sienna Khan in cold blood. Despite it really being Vir Nominis Umbra all along. All she remembers, is the bomb exploding underneath the Grand Hall where Weiss’ mother and Thaddeus were...and Ironwood...but not anymore. They are all gone, she still can remembering the terribly heartbreaking cries that she heard Weiss letting out. She has never heard her cry like that before, it was understandable, but it was sorrow combined with horror of what happened.

“Things have gone wrong – something happened in Mistral – it looked like Blake betrayed us.” Raven tells her, and Yang’s eyes widen with fear.

“N-No...she wouldn’t.” Yang stammers, but Raven stops her.

“We’re not sure yet, it was part of a message made by Salem of all the things that have happened recently.” Raven explains, and Yang coughs again, gasping for air almost as she lays there. Raven looks forward when she sees Cinder kicking the doors open so then she can help Glynda push the cart of all the medical supplies to them. “Finally!” Raven calls out with relief, and Yang moans with pain, touching her head from how hard her voice has hurt her.

“Not...so loud...please.” Yang weakly requests, and Raven covers her mouth, wide eyed.

“Sorry.” She apologises, and Glynda gasps.

“She’s awake?” She points out.

“Yeah, the others may come to as well.” Raven assures, and Yang notices that Cinder is here. She knows she is on their side now, but it is still pretty strange to see after all.

“Cinder?” Yang weakly mutters, and Cinder looks at her as she preps an I.V Bag.

“Hi, you’ve looked better, Goldilocks.” Cinder comments cheekily, leading up to Glynda whacking the back of her head with her head. The smack is loud and she yelps. “Ow!” She exclaims.

“Don’t be mean.” Glynda orders as she takes the needle, gently pushing it into Yang’s arm. She groans with pain as she feels it plunge into her body. Cinder walks past her and sticks out her tongue, continuing to help out. It is incredible to think that is Cinder, she has made a complete turnaround. She was once this very proud and cocky crazy gal and now she is this childish gal who is actually helping them. She is – in fact – more like Sapphire Locke than Cinder Fall now.

They hang the I.V Bag up beside her, connecting it to one of the stands that they have brought with them. She feels the drugs enter her system, it does not cure her but it does make her feel a little better. She can actually think about something other than the pain that she is in. Her eyes move onto the other victims to the plague, hearing Weiss groaning as she begins to wake back up. The same with Sun and Neptune, she feels the cold towel gently rub the sweat from her brow to try and cool her down.

She may have not been the best mother when she was a child, but she is making up for it right now. Raven looks at her daughter as she lays there, coughing painfully from her disease that is rapidly spreading throughout her body. “Where am I?” Weiss groans with distress, she sounds so frail just like Yang and the others. She hears the sound of Sun coughing with pain and he tries to sit upright, but Cinder pushes him back down so he can rest.

“Rest.” Cinder orders, and he sighs.

“We’ve...got to find...” He weakly says to her, Cinder knows he is going to say Blake, but she does not bother to let him worry.

“She’ll be here soon, I’m sure of it. But you are in no position to go anywhere right now.” Cinder tells him, and Sun sighs with annoyance. The last place he would ever want to be is in a hospital, especially when he has been infected with an unknown pathogen that has practically taken over the entire Kingdom of Vacuo.

Suddenly the doors open aggressively once more, and they hear what is clearly the middle of an ongoing discussion. Hazel, Qrow and Taiyang enter the building, and Hazel is carrying two Beds at once, one in each arm, whereas Taiyang and Qrow are having to share the work on a single one. “Who’s damn idea was it to hang beds off the ceiling?” Hazel questions as he walks in, whilst they all hear Qrow and Taiyang arguing.

“Turn!” Taiyang yells.

“I swear, Tai, tell me to turn again, and I’m gonna turn you inside out!” Qrow threatens, then he looks over and sees they are awake. Taiyang gasps, seeing Yang’s eyes looking at him and she coughs, softly speaking.

“It was Ruby’s idea.” Yang informs Hazel and he groans, not seeming to be overly surprised that they are awake. Then again, it is Hazel, it is probably in his nature to not be surprised by anything anymore. He sets one of the beds down by Yang and another by Weiss. He crouches down and picks up Yang ever so gently, putting her into the bed and actually tucking her in. She looks at him, she never expected him to be so gentle considering who he worked with. But Hazel is not the kind of man they were expecting. He is a man of honour and he has always truly been quite a good man, just on the wrong side. And willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. He walks over to Weiss and does the same for her, and as he does that, he looks at Sun, seeing the young boy glaring directly at him.

Hazel closes his eyes as he tucks Weiss in and he walks outside to get the fourth bed that they have for them. Sun clenches his hand into a fist when he stares at Hazel, despite him being on their side now, he still hates the man. He did see him murder his parents after all, but not in cold blood or callously. He made sure that their deaths were quick and painless, and he did not do them out of choice. He was ordered to by Salem, but sadly that does not atone for what he did – because _he_ still had a choice.

Cinder stares at Sun and she plants her hand on her hip, in an almost sassy way as she stares at him. “Hey, give him a chance.” She tells him, trying to help and smooth things out between them both.

Sun glares at her, sweating heavily and barely able to open his eyes. “He killed my mom and dad.” Sun retorts with a glare as Cinder pushes the I.V needle into his arm.

“We’ve all made mistakes, Sun. I’ve made more than I can count, and I am still trying to make up for what I did to Pyrrha...to all of you. So is Hazel.” Cinder explains as Qrow and Taiyang set the bed down beside Neptune, and Hazel carries the last one in for Sun, setting it down beside him. He goes to pick up Sun, but he pushes him back. His push did practically nothing, but Hazel still stepped back, the guilt is very clear on his face.

“I – I can do it...” Sun snarls, struggling to stand up but he does it. He strains through gritted teeth, pulling his body up into the bed and laying there. He sighs and looks away from Hazel, his fist clenched. He would punch him, probably even try and fight him...if he could stand. Cinder looks at Hazel and he just walks away.

He does not expect him to forgive him, or to ever trust him, and that is what saddens Cinder. She looks at Sun – but she cannot blame his hatred either. She cannot see it, but his eyes are actually watering from the bad memories of what happened to his mother and father. His Silver Eyed Mother who never even learned how to use her powers.

Yang’s eyes are focused on Sun, whilst Neptune holds Weiss’ hand as she lays there. Her mind is starting to return to normal now, thanks to the I.V Bags which are holding the hallucinations back and keeping them hydrated. But that is not what Weiss would have really appreciated...because now she remembers that her mother and one of her best friends are dead. And Ironwood is dead as well, he may have been flawed but he was always good to the Team. He could have had Yang arrested for what she did to Mercury in the Vytal Festival, but he didn’t, and instead only punished her with disqualification.

Yang turns and looks at her mother, resting her head against the soft pillow that she has found such happiness in. Her sweat has already started to stain the pillow, but the sweating is starting to slow down and she is slowly getting a bit better. Well, as better as she can get, this pathogen is doing some immense damage to her body. Her aura has not recharged at all, none of them have yet.

Whatever Horridus Morbus is...

It seems to affect Aura constantly.

Almost like some sort of disability plague, completely shutting their auras down. Until what though? What is the final stage? Team J.N.P.R and the others have seen what Horridus Morbus does when accelerated into a couple seconds...what happens when the clock reaches zero with the normal strain?

Raven turns to Taiyang and she feels his hand touch her back. She has to step away for a moment and she walks with him. “Tai...I – I don’t know what to do...” Raven stammers fearfully, showing her inexperience as a mother. She is struggling to keep her cool right now, and it must be hard for Tai as well. But he is keeping his cool really well, he holds her hands and looks her dead in the eyes to get her attention.

“Raven – listen to me. We cannot scare them, we have to stay calm and collected. We don’t know what this thing can do to people, and we cannot risk scaring them. It could accelerate it or something.” Taiyang warns and she looks around with fear, she sighs and looks at him.

“Okay...but Tai...without the White Fang guarding the school...” Raven stammers, then Taiyang has an idea.

“You can help us fix that.” Taiyang tells her.

“How?” She questions.

He points at the Branwen Tribe symbol on her chest plate and she looks at him.

“The Tribe?” She questions.

“Yeah...they follow you, honey. Get them to come here and protect the school whilst we figure out what to do next.” He asks of her.

She looks at him and then at Yang.

She collects her cool.

“Okay...”

**Kassius**

Their Aircraft has made some immense distance from Atlas.

The Spectre must be catching up to them by now, but they have absolutely no idea that he is on their tail.

Kassius is sat there inside of the carrier’s cockpit with the Autopilot online, brandishing his Lash Equinox swords and looking rather annoyed that his armour has been stolen. Although he does have his weapons and his hat, which is always good. Penny approaches the cockpit and she leans against the doorframe, something on her mind. Penny looks at him curiously, sat next to Port as he looks around the skies for any signs of anything chasing them. They are close to Vale now, so close that they can see the green of the Emerald Forest from here.

Penny finally gathers the courage to talk to Kassius. She clears her throat first to get his attention, which works like a charm, his amber eyes flit up to her cybernetic green ones. She smiles cutely at him and that is always a nice thing to see. “What’s up, Penny?” Kassius asks her curiously and she fiddles with her fingers.

“When we were in Atlas – you didn’t shoot down that counterweight onto the soldiers, even though you were going to.” Penny points out, Kassius remembers the Crane that had the Counterweight placed perfectly above it. Kassius flicks Lash Equinox downwards so then the blades fold back into their hilts and he fits them back onto the magnetic strips of metal in his trousers. Luckily not actually a part of the armour themselves.

“No...I didn’t...” He admits, and she raises her brow curiously.

“Why didn’t you?” She asks him inquisitively, and he thinks on that. Clearly she remembers back when he killed those Snipers without hesitation and then he had the opportunity there to kill those other Acolytes of Lien soldiers. But he knows why he didn’t, and it is not as deep and meaningful as she was expecting.

“Didn’t need to – if I did we would been detected and they’d have shot us down. No use in blowing our cover.” Kassius explains to her.

“But there was a possibility of detection when you killed those other soldiers.” Penny points out.

“Sure, but the possibility was smaller. If I messed the attack up, yeah they would have alerted the others and we’d be screwed. But if I did take out the crane’s counterweight, all eyes would go up to the building and see us escaping.” Kassius explains, also showing his logic as well on the matter. “It’s all about statistics, yeah – and that is why I didn’t.”

Penny nods her head, then her eyes widen with shock from what she sees on the centre as they fly closer and closer to the Beacon Grounds, above the Emerald Forest now.

_MISSILE LOCK-ON_

Kassius looks back with wide eyes as the alarms begin to blare, then he sees the gunship that pursues them.

It’s the Spectre.

And he has been waiting for them to get close.

Gave them the hope of escaping before he shot them down. He launches a missile from the pod attached to the left wing and the rocket flies towards them. “Crap!” Kassius exclaims and Port’s eyes widen.

“Damn it! Deploying flares!” Port exclaims, pressing the button that does so whilst Kassius sharply moves to the left, and the glowing red flares burst from the battery that held them. The missiles go haywire, flying all over the place and exploding when they meet the missiles. Kassius dives downwards and attempts to use the Treeline to try and make it harder for the Spectre to keep up with them.

But the Spectre is not giving up just yet, he chuckles menacingly as he fires a missile, but this one shoots so fast that Port was not quick enough to react.

The missile impacts the left wing of the Acolytes of Lien Troop Ship, and the fiery explosion shreds the wing into smouldering debris. It peels away and the ship begins to spin out of control. He fires another missile into the ship, this explosion is so powerful that it completely blows the ship apart, throwing all of them out the ship. Luckily they all engaged their aura just in time to survive that. Kassius yells, crashing into the ground with the cockpit, but the others have been split up.

Jaune and Pyrrha has landed the furthest away in the forest.

Penny is alone.

And the others have all crashed together with the wreckage. Port groans, hand pressed to his head and Nora stumbles, the impact has weakened their auras down to the point of being critical. Ren reaches for Stormflower as he sits there, trying to stand back up with his hand against his side. Blood leaks from his side as a branch has broken and a shard of wood has been lodged into his side. Not too serious but it still hurts quite bad. Oobleck grabs his arm, and it has been broken in the crash.

Port has also taken a chunk of metal to the leg as well, wounded quite bad.

They all try and find out where they are...

Until they see the same Gunship shoot overhead with a deafening roar. Then he drops down with a quaking boom, Nora’s eyes widen.

The Spectre rises back up before them with an insane smirk on his face as he stares at them. His eyes seem to glow as he stares at them, with that insane smile on his face...

It terrifies Nora to her inner core...

Not far from where they are...

The white portal opens in the Emerald Forest, they all step out and they all look around, trying to figure out where they are. “What the hell? How did we get here?” Oscar questions as he sees the tall green trees that stand before them all.

Ruby walks around with Kragen walking with him, then she sees it in the sky.

The smoke where the missile exploded and the trail where their ship crashed. Her eye widens with fear, when she hears the distant booms of nearby combat. They are out of their league, not only is the Spectre skilful...but he has full aura.

And he is ruthless.

Kassius sprints as fast as he possibly can to get to them, he saw where they landed, but he also saw the Gunship fly over him.

_Please don’t be too late!_

_Please don’t be too late!_

_Please don’t be too late!_

He sprints and sprints...

So close.

He can hear the voice of Nora scream with pain as he runs up the hill, jumping over to see him stood there.

His eyes widen with horror.

Port...

Oobleck...

Nora...

Ren...

The four of them are on the ground not moving. Blood leaks from Nora’s nose as she leans against the tree with Magnhild at her side. Ren on the floor, Port on the ground where the Spectre stands with blood dripping off the hook. Oobleck groans as he lays there...

They could be alive...

They could be unconscious.

But that is not what Kassius sees.

As he stares at their bodies...

Flashes of his team return in his memory...

Vetra...

Rajah...

Draven...

Their deaths fill his mind as he remembers watching their bodies decay when Death arrived to take his soul. All murdered by a faceless monster...

Suddenly...

His eyes flush with volcanic fire as the skin on his face cracks and erodes with embers and flames erupting from within him. Smoke and cinders pour from his face and eyes, even in his chest and his human arm. The rage that has built up in him has become so powerful that Hyde is fully in control...all that rage...directed at the Spectre. Kassius is gone, and now Hyde has taken over. Kassius lets out a hauntingly powerful howl that echoes throughout the forest as he lands and slides towards the Spectre. Kassius roars constantly as he arches his cybernetic fist back, the Spectre slowly turns around and is met by the metal fist that takes him off the floor, launching him through the forest.

The Spectre crashes into the ground, tearing the floor up in the process.

Saliva pours from the open jaws of Kassius, gnarling rabidly as he glares at the Spectre as he slowly gets back up with blood leaking from his mouth. He was not prepared for that attack, no time to put up his aura in defence. The inside of Kassius’ mouth glows like fire is burning in his throat, and the cracks even follow up his neck as well. Hyde rips the clothes off his chest, revealing the markings that have burned through his skin, roaring with pure animosity. His amber eyes are fully fiery red balls of hatred as he stares at the Spectre.

Penny in the distance turns around with a gasp, hearing that roar.

Ruby, Oscar, Kragen, The Architect and the other Silver Eyed Warriors do the same. Ruby knows that roar, but never like that before. “Hyde...” She realises with a sharp intake of breath.

“Wait a second! Ruby!” Oscar calls out as Ruby sprints in the direction she heard the roar.

Jaune stands up and hears the howls echoing in the forest. Pyrrha beside him with a few cuts on her cheek.

“That roaring...this isn’t good...” Jaune mumbles.

The Spectre is on one knee as he recovers from that stunning attack from Hyde, rubbing the blood from his split lip and he looks at the claret. Then his eyes move up to the bellowing Kassius Locke possessed by Mr Hyde who has fully returned. The howl passes by him, and that would normally send chills down other’s spines.

The Spectre smirks sinisterly.

“Finally...” The Spectre cunningly chuckles.

Kassius charges towards the Spectre, roaring as he does it, leaping towards him with his cybernetic fist pulled back...

Attacking him.

Hyde is back...

And he is pissed.


	36. The Spectre's Shroud

**Hyde**

The howls of Hyde echo throughout the Emerald Forest, along with the booms of a body being thrown through the trees themselves. The sound of tonnes of wooden towers collapsing as they smash each other into them is haunting, like thousands of monsters battling at once and suffering endlessly.

A body is launched straight through a tree, blowing shards of timber across the grassy landscape; he bounces and tumbles across the soil. His cybernetic hand transforms into the hook, and he stabs the hook downwards into the soil to decelerate. The Spectre grits his teeth as he scrapes across the soil, standing back up with his other metal hand clenched into a fist. The cannon built into his arm folds out and activates, charging dust through it and into the firing mechanism. The Spectre’s aura is now fully recharged as he prepares to battle with the rage-fuelled spirit that controls Kassius.

The Spectre is also wearing the armour that belongs to Kassius, modified to carry the Acolytes of Lien symbol on the chest plate. Which most likely pisses Mr Hyde off even more just by seeing this guy wearing his host’s armour.

His eyes focus across the field and the smashed over trees, the birds flutter from the safety of their canopies when hearing the terrifying demonic roar from Hyde. Kassius is stood there across the forest from him, the burning hot scars still splayed out across his torso, arm and face as Hyde has taken over the body. His shirt is ripped open and the coat on the ground with the shirt, and his hat is somewhere else, thrown from his head during the crash.

Nora groans with pain, pressing her hand against her head with distress as she feels the blood leaking from the side of her head where she struck herself in the cash. Her blurry vision can faintly see Kassius stood there, muscles are so tensed up that they could be torn if he moved to quickly. That is how angry Hyde has made Kassius’ body become, that the muscular definition in his body can be visible, along with the embers and smoke that leaks from the fissures in his body that glow volcanic orange.

Hyde explodes with fireworks of vehemence, Kassius’ once amber eyes burst with flames as he sprints towards the Spectre. The Assassin chuckles menacingly as he stands there, ready to fight him. Hyde charges and jumps in the air, pulling his arm back as he punches towards the Spectre. But the Assassin grabs onto his forearm and pulls him down, then spins round and slams his metal forearm across Kassius’ face. Kassius staggers back slightly and the Spectre kicks him in the chest, instantly raising the cannon and firing it at him three times.

Three powerful explosive red dust shells towards him, Hyde’s eyes stare at them and he draws Lash Equinox, crossing them before his shirtless body, causing them to explode upon contact. The blades are not harmed from the attack, but the flames seem to wrap around him and his aura. The Spectre slowly lowers his arm cannon and his eyes are focused on the possessed warrior, watching as the flickering cinders leak from the fissures made in his body. The Spectre chuckles when looking at him, never seeing Kassius like this before. “Damn...never seen a semblance quite like that.” The Spectre scoffs, staring directly at him as he waits for Hyde to make his attack.

But the Spectre has made a grave mistake in misjudging how Hyde fights. He may fight through rage and even with animalistic intent, but that does not mean that Mr Hyde does not know how to fight tactically. Hyde clenches Kassius’ cybernetic hand into a fist and he stands tall, staring right back at the Assassin. “I’m sure Merlot would love to pick away at that cute little ability of yours.” The Spectre adds sinisterly, pacing back and forth in the shattered trees that surround him. Hyde growls savagely as he paces with him, moving more like some sort of rabid animal, hunched forward and even using Kassius’ hands to stay mobile.

Then Hyde speaks...

“Spectre...you call yourself a warrior...when you hide behind another name?” He scoffs as he slowly moves back and forth, watching every single movement that his foe makes. The Spectre looks rather surprised, and intimidated in a way, because it is not the voice of Kassius at all. The accent is closer to that of a British accent and is far more aggressive sounding than the host’s. And the voice is so demonic as well, like multiple voices speaking together under a single tongue. “You’re nothing more than a coward...” Hyde snarls aggressively, remembering everything that he has done.

But something really seems to drive Hyde over the edge about the Spectre, because he never forgot what he did to Yang five years ago. When he smashed her face into that tree over again when they last faced him. And he smirked when he tried to kill her – a good thing that Summer showed up when she did. But this time – Hyde is not playing with the Spectre.

He is going to try and kill him this time.

“How can you possibly work for someone who is trying to destroy everything we have built?” Hyde snarls as he stares right back, the entity that haunts Kassius has also come quite a long way as well. He actually seems to give a damn about the World of Remnant and not only his own existence. But saying that actually seems to hit the Spectre in a way nobody expected...he looks at his cybernetic hand, at his own reflection of his face in the metal and he clenches the hand into a fist.

“You wouldn’t begin to understand the things I have seen.” The Spectre sternly replies as he tightens the fist at his side. But Hyde shows no understanding or any kind of forgiveness for whatever he could have seen.

He hurt Yang.

He hurt his friends.

Now he is gonna pay.

“Fighting’s your whole world...but what exactly are you fighting for?” Hyde snarls with anger, and as he speaks, he begins to see the faces of Willow, Klein, Ironwood and Yang...all the people he has had a hand in killing for this evil campaign he has become a part of. “What could possibly have been worth – all this death and destruction?” Hyde bellows with choler, the flames in Kassius’ eyes ignite brighter and hotter with more embers pouring from his body. The cracks in his skin glow bright orange with intense heat, actual flames actually ignite within the cracks, and Hyde bursts into a fit of fury.

Hyde lets out a thunderous repercussion of demonic screams at once, swinging his fist towards the Spectre as he does it. The Spectre crosses his arms over and just blocks the punch that he threw, the impact of the fist onto his arms creates a shockwave that blows the leaves from some trees and it echoes from how loud the impact was. The Spectre thrusts forward with his crossed arms, and then slams his head against the face of Kassius, spinning round in order to kick him. But Hyde catches his leg, holding him there before lifting the Assassin off the floor slightly. Hyde builds up more strength, shrieking with anger as he throws Hyde into a Boulder that has been sitting there the whole time.

The Spectre groans from the shock of them impact, then his eyes widen with shock after seeing Kassius charging towards him with his eyes burning with fire as he lunges for him, screeching as he attacks. The Spectre leaps and rolls out of the way at the perfect time, and Hyde goes to smash his fist into the back of his head, but the Spectre spins round and slashes his hook across Kassius’ aura. But another factor that Hyde has on Kassius is that he actually fortifies his own aura, therefore making him much stronger.

The issue with the semblance of course is that he is not the one who decides to make the decisions when it is activated. Hyde is in full control now, and that makes him unbelievably dangerous for both sides. Because there is so much anger in him right now that he could mistake everything as his enemy. Unless he can calm down just enough to recognise who is friend or foe, until then...the others must stay out of his way.

Kassius’ volcanic orange aura reconstructs the mark of which the Spectre slashed at him with, becoming invisible once more. Hyde snarls with anger, rushing the Assassin once more, throwing one powerful punch at him, and the Spectre dodges it, ducking down before upper cutting the Huntsman. Kassius grabs onto the brown hair of the Spectre and tightens his grip, pulling him so hard that he rips some hairs from his head. He spins round with the warrior in his grasp and slamming his head towards a shard of wood that sticks up from the ground. The Spectre’s eyes widen, he forces his hands downwards to keep his face from the shard of wood, whilst Hyde grits Kassius’ teeth with animalistic fury in his burning eyes.

The Spectre swings his head back to knock Hyde off his back and he immediately turns round and fires a powerful explosive shell that detonates against Kassius’ chest. The explosion throws him backwards after he did that, and he crashes into the ground, smoke trailing off his aura as he rolls along. He snarls as he lays there, pressing his cybernetic hand into the soil as he gets back up, seeing the Spectre sprinting towards him with the hook blade folded out from his hand.

Hyde lifts his metal arm up and catches the hook in the hand, sparks burst from the impact, and he grips the blade tight, letting out a guttural growl as he rises back up. He instantly smashes his fist into the Spectre’s face, knocking him back before Hyde goes and tackles him into the soil, pushing his head into the ground with force as he drags him. Flickers of red aura scrape across the face of the Spectre, he snarls with rage as he feels the stones and flint that are buried in the soil scrape against his face.

Hyde bellows, swinging round with the Spectre still in his grasp and throws him into one the trees that surround them. The Spectre crashes against it, back first and deep cracks spread up the trunk of the tree. He looks forward, seeing Hyde leaping towards him with a deep metallic roar, flicking one of the Lash Equinox Blades upwards to fold it outwards. The many pieces of razor sharp metal fix together as he approaches, slamming the blade against his neck. The Spectre raises his hand and catches the blade, feeling the cold steel pressing against his throat. Hyde grits his teeth hard as he forces against him, saliva drooling from his jaws.

The Spectre stares his foe right in the eyes with a smirk, his blue irises focusing onto the burning hot orange-ish amber ones of Kassius. “Not bad...” The Spectre compliments, suddenly thrusting his boot into Kassius’ chest and stepping away from the weakened tree. He spins round and slashes with the hook across their aura, making him stagger back. “You’ll have to try harder than that, though.” He states, sprinting straight at Hyde.

The Spectre yells with strength, swinging diagonally towards Kassius with the sharp hook hand that he fights with, and Hyde scrapes Lash Equinox across the curved hook, reaching down and pulling the second one out with his spare hand. He flicks it upwards and slashes them inhumanly at the Spectre, and the skilled Assassin backs up, using his hook to parry the attacks. Sparks burst from every impact as Hyde makes contact with the hook with every thrash, scraping and thwacking onto the hook. Hyde spins the swords through his fingers as he battles against his enemy, making multiple hits over and over again against him.

Hyde then engages the same powerful attack that Kassius does at times, one that is lethal against many foes. He activates Vulcan Nox to the fully automatic setting and he spins round with both Lash Equinox Blades stretched outwards. Hyde jumps in the air, spinning round at incredible speeds as the blades clash against his hook and his other arm he uses to block the attacks, and he fires Vulcan Nox at the exact same time. Bullets spray out across the air and even against the Spectre’s aura as he makes the attack, gunfire echoes throughout the forest.

Hyde performs a perfect back flip which sends his foot cracking up the Spectre’s chin, making him stagger. He immediately spins round and builds up the momentum into a powerful strike with both fists into his face as he fires both Vulcan Nox bracers. The impact creates a shockwave and throws the warrior backwards, across the forest and through another tree.

The Spectre is good...

But he is no match for Mr Hyde’s fury by the looks of things.

But...

The Spectre just keeps getting back up...and his aura does not even appear to be getting close to the weakest point yet. The Assassin stares at Hyde as he stands there, he throws his arms back and howls with animosity, he can see the cracks in his pecks and the rest of his body burning hot with smoke and embers pouring out from them. The Spectre smirks...then something in his arm changes. He stands back up and his hook hand suddenly folds outwards and extends into the blade of a sword, scraping through the plates of metal in his arm.

The Spectre holds the blade of his sword near the cannon he has, then he blasts flames from the cannon and ignites the blade. Smoke trails from the ignited blade and he stands tall, scraping the blade across the dry grass from the summer heat. Nora crawls across the ground and her eyes widen when she sees what the Spectre is doing.

The dead grass ignites into flames around him, and it begins to spread through the Emerald Forest. Nora gasps, looking back at the others who are all still unconscious, and she is too weak to lift them all up.

He is making an opportunity from Mr Hyde, he is not going to turn and help them because there is too much blood rage in him. He has only one objective and that is to kill the Spectre, if Kassius was still there he would be able to help...but he cannot get to them.

That is what the Spectre is playing off.

No matter how this ends...

He will make sure that they die as well, that is if nobody can rescue them from their fate. Nora’s aura is slowly recovering its strength to repair the damage, but the Spectre dealt some nasty blows to her legs. Deep gashes across her thighs and ankles, one of her legs is indeed broken as well. She cannot even stand up due to the damage that he dealt to her. She crawls towards Ren and shakes him, trying to wake him back up. “Ren! Wake up!” Nora begs, but he is still unconscious.

The Spectre is stood amongst the flames, his aura is completely protecting him from the heat, his aura is unlike anything they have ever seen. The only reasons he has been beaten before is because he was caught by surprise, Jaune cut his arm off when he was not looking, and Summer cut his other arm off because he thought he won. His aura is not even being affected by the flames that surround him, but they will affect Kassius and Hyde. Hyde stares at the flames and snarls like a predator that has seen a threat, he backs up slowly, then focuses his eyes on the Spectre. His Aura is still at full strength, so for now the fire will not hurt him, but if the aura runs out...

The Spectre blasts flames from his flamethrower attachment in the cannon, fire dust crystals in powder form being ignited over and over again as he blasts it into the ground. He has an insane smirk on his face as he stands there with a burning blade, then he charges right at Hyde. The Spectre grunts as he swings extremely hard towards Hyde, and he deflects the burning sword with Lash Equinox. But the Spectre just keeps on attacking him over and over again, scraping his blade downwards and across one of the Lash Equinox Blades, then slashing across Kassius’ amber aura, then kicking him in the chest.

Hyde grunts through Kassius’ vocal chords, but the Spectre sprints towards him as he lies there, and he slams the blade against his neck, pushing him across the ground with that burning blade pushing against his aura. He can feel the aura level dwindling slowly as the fire shaves it down, he slowly pushes him towards the flames by the neck. Hyde grabs onto the burning blade with his metal hand and pushes the other into the ground, accidentally releasing Lash Equinox in the process; both blades sit in the grass as the insane Mercenary pushes him closer.

Hyde stares at the fire that is merely inches from his face now as the Spectre pushes him closer, seeing the fire spreading through the grass and towards his face. “Hush now...little Kas...it’ll all be over soon.” He whispers sinisterly through a gritted smirk on his face as he pushes him closer and closer. Hyde strains, then his eyes focus onto the blue ones of the Spectre and he roars with rage, releasing the blade and letting it press against his throat. But he takes the chance and grasps him by his brown hair and pulls him over into the flames.

The Spectre grunts as he falls into the fire, but he just gets back up. The fire crackles across his red aura as he stands tall; he cracks his neck and rushes towards Kassius again, swinging towards him with his burning hot blade. He instantly clashes the blade against his cybernetic arm, scraping across the metal plates that comprise it. Hyde uses his arm to deflect the attack, before rolling across the patches of untouched grass to scoop Lash Equinox back into his hands. He turns round and crosses the blades across each other, catching his burning blade-arm; the Spectre is smirking maniacally as he does that.

The weak and wounded Nora reaches out for Kassius, trying to get his attention, or at least for Hyde to hear her. She knows that he cares for them now, but she does not know if the rage he is channelling with makes him a threat to her or blind him from her existence. “Hyde!” She cries out to try and break him away from battling the Spectre.

Hyde bellows with pure anger, slashing across the Spectre’s chest which seems to have no affect on him, then turning and kicking him in the chest to make him stagger back slightly. The Spectre instantly turns around and slams the blade of his burning blade into Kassius’ chest; the impact is like that of a shotgun, throwing him back. Hyde just gets back up, charging right back, tackling him down into the ground. He wraps both arms around his waist as he lifts him off the ground and smashes his spine into the ground, pounding his fists into his face over and over again. Hyde grabs him by the collar of Kassius’ armour, pulling him towards the punch his throws into his face. The Spectre’s head smashes into the ground and there is a flicker of red aura that just appears to fortify itself instead of getting weaker. The Spectre chuckles menacingly. “You can do better than that.” He scoffs, and Hyde erupts with a roar as he goes to punch him again.

The Spectre thrusts his boot into Kassius’ chest to send him into the air, he instantly stands back up and he shifts the sword into the hook form, still burning with flames. He jumps up with Kassius, hooking him by the throat as he falls with him, smashing him down into the ground extremely hard. The impact shatters the soil, but Hyde swipes him off his feet, but the Assassin rolls it off, they continue to fight one another.

Nora’s eyes are widen, trembling fearfully as she notices...

“He can’t hear me...” She stammers fearfully.

She feels the emotion of terror and dread come upon her, as she hears the sound of crows around her. Nora’s cyan eyes rise up as she watches the crows fly overhead, all cawing at once as they congregate not far from her in the flames. Black smoke manifests and her eyes widen, seeing the branches being ripped from the trees as they form the huge seven foot tall body with long clawed arms. The skull of an old Stag forms on its shoulders, missing an antler, staring directly at her with burning eye sockets, snarling faintly.

The Lord of the Wood...

It is here as well...

And it has come to fulfil the curse that binds them both, and Nora looks truly terrified. “I’m not ready...”

 

**Ruby**

She sprints as fast as she can through the Emerald Forest to find her friends that are in danger. The echoes of Hyde’s roars can be heard from where Kragen’s portal opened. For some reason they ended up here, instead of Beacon Academy itself. Something drew them here, perhaps it was the presence of the Lord of the Wood...or maybe he miscalculated the location of where he opened the portal.

But that does not matter; they are here and have to help them.

Ruby wields Crescent Rose in both hands, running as fast as she can with Oscar on her left and Kragen on her right, and the Architect is right behind her. Gray, Serena and Vos are with them as well, weapons at the ready. Opposed for Serena due to the fact that she is not a warrior, just a scientist who came along to help them figure this all out at Beacon. But not in the middle of the Emerald Forest where all manners of Grimm could be lurking in the forest.

Like a powerful Ancient Leshen with a binding to one of Ruby’s dearest friends.

Ruby knows Kassius well, and Hyde well too. Considering that she is one of the three people that Hyde trusts the most, it is very possible that she might be able to calm him down to the point of where he will not attack them on sight. “Hyde! Hyde!” Ruby calls out, screaming as loud as she can to try and find him, but the roars seem to echo throughout the entire forest. Oscar looks at Ruby as he sprints with her, holding Traveller’s Atrocity.

“Ruby – I’ve never heard Hyde like this before, something really bad must have happened for Kassius to let him get _this_ angry.” Oscar warns, and it is true. Most of them saw Hyde in his pissed off form when he attacked Adam in Raven’s Safehouse five years ago, but it was nothing like the sounds they are hearing. The roars that he is creating are like something from a horror movie; all they can hope is that he will not turn on them instantly when they locate him.

“I know – but when he sees me I’m hoping he might calm down a little so then he can focus on his surroundings.” Ruby explains, and Oscar looks at her as she runs.

“I hope that still applies here.” Oscar states.

“Hyde trusts me, he trusts Yang, me and our dad the most because he’s known us for the longest.” Ruby explains as she sprints. They move past some trees and Ruby gasps when she spots her limping, pressing her hand against one of the trees. She took some pretty serious surface damage in the crash, pieces of her skin ripped off which reveal the circuitry and metal plates underneath. Her leg is damaged the worst, a piston inside has been pulverised and sparks and leaking from the kneecap. “Penny!” Ruby calls out, Penny gasps when she hears her voice, turning to see her with relief.

“Ruby! Oh thank the gods!” Penny exclaims with relief, limping towards her, and they all approach her.

“What happened?” Kragen asks her as he looks back up at the smoke trails, the ones where they can see where the missile flew and exploded into the ship. Then the smoke that trailed the wreckage as it crashed into the forest. They’ve not yet noticed the smoke that pollutes the forest slowly, the fire slowly spreading in the forest that the Spectre had created.

“We escaped Atlas when the Acolytes of Lien attacked, stole one of their ships, the Spectre chased us, shot us down.” Penny explains as she presses her hand against her side, a branch lodged into her body. Sparks leak from her wound and she hisses with pain, showing she is really alive despite being a Synthetic.

“Okay...Gray, Vos, Serena – stay with Penny...we’ll find the others and stop them.” Kragen assures, spinning his staff through his fingers as he takes point. Serena holds her arms out with confusion, still quite lost on what is happening right now.

“What happens if Grimm attack us?” Serena nervously asks, since she does not know how to fight.

Vos and Gray pull their weapons out, Vos holds a War Axe in his hand and Gray holds two cutlasses, looking at her with a wink. She sighs as she presses her hand to her face, Kragen chuckles as he keeps walking with Ruby, Oscar and the Architect. “There’s your answer.” Kragen responds as he keeps walking.

 

**Hyde**

The Spectre performs a powerful roundhouse kick that slams into the side of Kassius’ face, launching him across the forest, crashing through one of the trees. He tumbles across the rocks and the soil, dragging his fingers down in the dirt, staring up and towards his enemy. The Spectre extends the curved burning hook blade, back into the straight sword one. He charges towards him and fires his cannon from his other arm as he jumps at him. Hyde sprints around the Spectre as the shells rain from above, exploding into the soil, throwing chunks of burnt soil into the air. The Spectre lands beside him and he slashes his sword through one of the trees, the heated blade cuts through like a knife through butter. Timber shatters inside of the tree from the heat, smoke and burning hot embers burst outwards from the attack, the tree tips over and Hyde leaps out of the way.

Kassius has got dirt and ash stained on his shirtless body, some dirt covers the scars he has collected over the years and from the Terror Bird Grimm that savaged him when he was a child. The Spectre walks towards him and he holds the blade at his side as the flames surround him, his aura deflecting the dancing flames, he rushes towards him again, and Hyde fires Vulcan Nox at him, the bullet scrapes across his aura and he ducks down, just avoiding the horizontal swing from his burning blade. Fire trails from the steel blade built into his cybernetic arm, he punches him in the side with a left hook, then sends three rapid strikes into the Spectre’s chest, then a powerful punch right to the head. The impact stumbles him, he the Spectre snarls, staring at Hyde who has Kassius’ arms raised up in the fighting position. Guarding his face in case if the Spectre goes for an attack.

The Spectre paces back and forth as the smoke travels between them, the forest is slowly being engulfed with flames. “I must say, Kassius...this buddy of yours is pretty decent in a fight. But I can do this all day and night – what about you?” The Spectre questions as he keeps eye contact with Hyde. The possessed man snarls through gritted teeth, and then he roars with rage.

“Shut up!” Hyde bellows, and the Spectre smirks, then he remembers.

“Ooh...now it makes sense.” The Spectre scoffs, reminiscing to the last time that they fought, when he nearly killed Yang in front of him. “I guess what I did to your cute girlfriend really stuck...didn’t it?” The Spectre asks him, and Hyde snarls, and so does Kassius inside where he is buried from where Hyde has taken over. “You know, after I kill her...maybe I’ll pay her a visit at Beacon. See how she likes it in bed, huh?” He challenges, and Hyde roars with rage, sprinting towards him with anger. That is exactly what the Spectre wants, to push Hyde more and more so then he can beat him down, but Hyde needs to locate his weaknesses to find out what makes him tick.

Surprise attacks are worthless against him now; he has his aura activated at all times. And it just does not seem to go away. Hyde swings his fist at the Spectre, but the Assassin just dodges it, and smashes his fist right into the cheekbone of Kassius, launching him into the air, he crashes down into the soil and dirt covers his torso. He slides and slides across the grass, the blades sit on his skin, he lays there and snarls. The Spectre smirks, walking towards him as he prepares to fight some more, he deactivates his blade and his metal hand forms once again. Steam trails from his body, due to the immense level of heat that fills the forest from all the fire that grows around them. “I’ve always liked Blonde Girls; maybe I could be her new boyfriend after I carve your head from your shoulders.” The Spectre adds, just poking him further and further.

Hyde snarls with anger, rising back up, Nora watches with pain as she tries to get to him. She knows what he is doing, and Nora tries her best to ignore the Lord of the Wood that watches her. It does not approach her yet, it just...watches her for some reason. “Hyde! Don’t! He wants you to attack first! Stop!” Nora begs as she screams out to him, but Hyde’s anger seems to block everything out that surrounds him.

Hyde rises back up and he swings straight towards the Spectre, but the Assassin smashes his cybernetic fist directly into Kassius’ face again, so hard that it has badly damaged his aura. And the Spectre is not even close to the level that they are currently at. Any more hits like that and Kassius’ aura will be at zero in no time and he could kill him. The Spectre is smart, he has figured out that Hyde is fuelled with rage...and he cares for Yang just as Kassius does, not in the same way perhaps, but he can still gain the advantage by speaking poorly of her. Kassius crashes back down into the ash covered grass, dust coats his body and he pushes his hand against the floor, slowly getting back up.

“Hyde! Stop! Fall back!” Nora begs, trying to get back up to help him, but her wounded legs are making that plan very difficult. But she is slowly beginning to regain feeling in her legs again as her aura repairs the damage over time.

“Who gives a damn? What’s the point in it all? Nothing matters! Not when I feel like this!” Hyde roars as he stands back up, his demonic voice echoing, Nora’s eyes widen with horror when she sees him refusing to start defending himself. She can see his aura counter on her scroll and it will be diminished if he does not stop.

“Hyde! Please! You can’t beat him in a fist fight! Hyde! Don’t be rash!” Nora yells again, then she gasps, seeing a burst of red petals in the distance. Ruby stands there in the treeline with the others and her eye widens when she sees Hyde hollering monstrously at the Spectre who walks towards him like it is too easy. Kassius’ once amber eyes erupt with flames and smoke pours from his jaws, eyes and the fissures in his body.

“Hyde! Stop it!” Ruby shouts, trying to stop him. The Spectre scoffs, and he goes to punch him, the metal fist approaches him at great speeds.

Suddenly Hyde ducks down and he moves quickly towards the Spectre’s torso, wrapping Kassius’ muscular arms around him. The Spectre’s eyes widen, totally not expecting Hyde to have done that. He hooks one arm around the Spectre’s neck and grabs his wrist with the other arm, lifting him off the ground, standing on one foot as he slams him down into the ground. Hyde scrapes the Spectre through the soil, pinning him down, and the Spectre cannot move, he writhes around as he attempts to free himself. Ruby gasps with both disbelief and pride for Hyde in general, because he did not let his rage control him...

He used the rage to trick the Spectre into attacking him.

Hyde pushes his hands against the Spectre to hold him there, the Assassin snarls with anger as his enemy holds him down like that. Hyde chuckles as he stares straight at the Spectre, raising one fist upwards. “I don’t know what it is that you fight for, but now that I think about it, it seems that you and your buddies’ master plan has a few chinks in its armour!” Hyde roars as he slams his fist towards his head, but the Spectre moves his head out of the way. “Wanna know your problem? You talk _way_ too much!” Hyde roars as he battles him, the Spectre smashes his hand against Kassius’ chest to push him off, but Hyde wraps Kassius’ legs around his neck, holding him there and he squeezes against him, holding him down like that.

“He’s doing it!” Ruby gasps with happiness.

Hyde grits Kassius’ teeth and he growls with anger, forcing so much strength onto his neck and aura to hold him there, then they see the weakness. His aura begins to flicker red slightly as he holds him there, until the Spectre stands up, and pulls Hyde off the floor. The Spectre roars, spinning round and throwing Hyde across the area again. Hyde tumbles but rolls back to his feet, sliding back across the ground.

Ruby saw the weakness, and so did Kragen. “His Semblance...” Kragen realises when he watches the Spectre shaking it off, his aura still flickers but then it regenerates. “He generates pain into aura, but applying constant pain will weaken the aura, we just need to hit him enough times constantly to shatter his aura.” Kragen explains, and Oscar has to ask the question.

“How do you know that?” Oscar asks, and his answer does surprise them.

“I’ve seen Semblances like this before; they are thin but regenerate extremely fast.” He briefly answers, and with this information, they now know that the Spectre does have a weakness. His aura is technically very thin, but it regenerates extremely quickly through converting pain into aura, but he needs a gap of time between the attacks that delivers the pain for the aura to regenerate. Once broken, they can take him down, it is merely the issue of trying to break the aura in the first place.

His aura has already fully regenerated after Hyde’s attack just then.

Hyde stands there, fists clenched as he stares straight into the menacing blue eyes of his enemy, fists raised to battle him. The circle of untouched grass is shrinking by the second as the fire slowly consumes everything around them. The Spectre paces back and forth, like a predator that is waiting to make its next move against its opponent. “Hyde!” Nora calls, and this time he actually hears her. He turns his head and looks at her, listening to her now that he has calmed down enough to be more observant of his surroundings. “The others are unconscious! You need to keep him occupied while the others get us out of here!” Nora tells him, and his eyes widen, noticing she said _others_.

“What others?” Hyde questions, then seeing the Architect and Oscar carefully sneaking through the treeline, but he is unable to see Ruby at this time. He does not draw attention to their flanking to get to them; he clenches his hands into fists, staring back at the Spectre who glares right back. “You’ve got it.” He assures, so different to how he used to act around them. Nora watches the Spectre as his blade extends out from his arm again, flames bursting from the cannon on the other. He continues to pace back and forth, waiting for Hyde to make his move.

Hyde crouches down, scooping Lash Equinox back into his grip, spinning the blades round so then they are both facing forwards for the fight that is just about to continue. Hyde snarls, and then sprints at him, and the Spectre sprints towards him, jumping in the air and spinning round to build up the velocity in the attack. Fire and smoke trails from the steel blade as he slashes towards him, and Hyde deflects the blade with Lash Equinox, slamming his boot into the Spectre’s chest, knocking him onto the ground. Hyde remembers what he did last time that crackled his thin aura, so he tackles him once again into the ground and smashes his head into the dirt with force, roaring as he does so. He wraps his legs around the Spectre’s torso and squeezes, slowly crushing his aura downwards into itself to break it.

The Spectre digs his fingers into the soil as he tries to get back up, locked in this attack that Hyde has managed to get him into. The Spectre presses the barrel of his cannon against the ground and fires it, blasting Hyde up into the air. He instantly turns and fires a shell that explodes against Kassius’ aura, throwing him back. He tumbles and rolls across the ground, but when he looks at him again. He can see the Spectre’s aura was diminishing, but the pain has repaired the damage done to the aura itself.

The tactic works, he just needs to get him in a position where he cannot free himself with the use of his cannon. He needs to either destroy the cannon or wedge it in a way that the Spectre cannon fire it into the floor, and pin his other arm into the floor. Easier said than done, and the Spectre clearly has figured out that Hyde knows his weakness now. The Spectre scrapes his sword that is coated with flames through the soil as he walks towards him, igniting the dry grass, and then accelerating into a sprint as he charges towards him.

The Spectre slams his shoulder against Hyde, jolting him backwards and he grabs him by the arm and the leg, swinging round and smashing him into one of the trees with great force. He instantly spins round and kicks him across the face. Hyde grunts with pain, pressing his hands against the floor as he falls forward. The Spectre pushes his boot onto Kassius’ spin, forcing him down onto the dirt and the grass, Hyde snarls with anger and distress. The Spectre slowly lifts the blade up with a snarl. “It’s been fun, but the game’s over now.” The Spectre states, thrusting downwards to impale Kassius.

Suddenly Ruby rushes in from the treeline with Kragen sprinting alongside her with his Isomacium Staff in his hand. The Spectre spins around slowly when Ruby yells, slashing Crescent Rose across his aura, firing it behind her to throw her high in the air and sailing overhead. Hyde’s orange eyes focus onto Ruby’s silver one with recognition. “Ruby...” Hyde mutters with disbelief, she drops down towards the Spectre and spins Crescent Rose through her hands, slamming it into his chest.

He bellows as he is thrown across the field and crashing against the ground from the impact. Ruby stands there beside Hyde, offering her hand to him and he takes it. She pulls him back to his feet and looks at him, it might be Kassius’ body but she knows he is not there right now. “What are you doing here?” Ruby questions.

“Tell you later, in short? This asshole shot us down.” Hyde answers through gritted teeth. Kragen paces back and forth with his staff in his hand, and then the Spectre does something that really shocks them with disbelief. His blue eyes focus onto the old Silver Eyed Warrior...and something in him changes. The cunning smirk fades into a...rage fuelled scowl, clenching his hand into a fist as he stands back up.

He points his cannon at Kragen and bellows with rage. “Kragen!” The Spectre howls, getting the old man’s attention, he instantly sprints towards him and jumps. The Spectre tackles Kragen and they both tumble down a hill in the Emerald Forest, the Assassin keeps punching him over and over again in the face.

Ruby gasps, running to help him. “Kragen!” She calls out.

Without warning, the black crows with crystal skulls all caw and congregate in black smoke before her, and a huge clawed bark hand slashes across her red aura. The impact throws her back, she grunts as the impact launches her into Hyde’s arms. The smoke parts and they stand there with awe as the Lord of the Wood stands before them, eyes burning hot with coals inside. It faintly growls, walking towards them as the crows caw on its shoulders.

“Let’s hope Kragen can handle the Spectre on his own.” Ruby sighs, and Hyde picks Lash Equinox back up, they both charge towards the Lord of the Wood.

 

**The Spectre**

The Spectre hooks Kragen by his arm, the blade folds around his forearm and he launches him across the field, the old man slams into a tree with force. Kragen grunts from the impact, but his silver aura is not even harmed from the impact, he stares right at the Assassin that went for him for no apparent reason. He stands back up slowly, scooping his boot under his Isomacium Staff, kicking it up into his hand. The Spectre snarls as he paces back and forth, his blue eyes are focused on him at all times, they have never seen the Spectre show this much emotion before.

This is...

Real hatred...

What has Kragen done to him?

Kragen stares at him with his calm silver eyes and he points his staff at him. “Who are you? I saw the way you went for me...what have I done to you?” Kragen questions, but that question only seems to enrage him even more. The Spectre screams out with anger, lunging forward at him with his hook blade to attack, but Kragen bats his arm aside with a well placed tap with his staff, barely even moving as he circles the Spectre.

The Spectre paces with him, snarling through gritted teeth. “You don’t even remember me...do you?” He questions with anger, Kragen stares at him and he does sense that they have met before...but he cannot place when.

“When did we meet? Under what circumstances was it?” Kragen questions, truly trying to understand whatever it was that he did to wrong the Spectre. And since he has always been seen as a Mercenary that enjoys the hunt, this could be valuable information behind his motives of why he does all this. The Spectre stares at him and he shakes his head, scoffing more and more as he cannot believe what he hears.

Then he stops, glaring at him as the smoke passes through the trees from the spreading fire.

“You really have forgotten me...haven’t you?” He softly questions with a pained voice, and Kragen narrows his eyes with confusion. He really does feel like he recognises him...the voice...even his face is familiar. But he still struggles to place it; he has lived for thousands of years and has met many people.

_Who are you?_

“Look upon my eyes...and tell me if you remember me now.” He demands, and he closes his eyes, and Kragen’s eyes widen with shock.

Silver energy begins to course through his veins and his armoured cybernetic pieces in his arms...there is Isomacium in his cybernetic arms somehow. Light continues to bleed through the Spectre’s closed eyes, then he slowly opens them and he gasps with shock, nearly fainting from disbelief.

His irises are no longer blue...

They were disguised the whole time...

He is a Silver Eyed Warrior.

And Kragen remembers his name now...he cannot believe the name he whispers through aghast lips. “Kannix Volantis?” Kragen gasps, the Silver Eyed Warrior that was dragged off into the grass thousands of years ago on the Volcanic Chain Isles, when the Knights of Grimm tried to rescue him and ended up finding Axzura...but they never found him.

Clearly...

Somebody found him...

And has turned him into a monster.

The Spectre – is Kannix Volantis...

Kannix glares at his former mentor with those Silver Eyes of his, eyes narrowed with resentment of the man that stands before him. “Remember me now, old man?” Kannix asks him, still circling him as he walks around him, pointing the cannon in his metal arm at him constantly. Kragen is lost for words, because he searched for so many years to find him. He promises he would get him back to the girl he had feelings for so then he could tell her.

And this is what he has become...

“Kannix...I...” Kragen stammers with horror and dread, feeling so responsible for what has happened to him.

“What’s the matter, old man? Lost for words? I expected more...I’m hurt...” Kannix growls as he walks around him, keeping that cannon raised to his old mentor’s head.

“I searched for you...I searched for you for decades across Remnant to find you...How...How can you be here?” He questions with shock as he tries to comprehend all of this. He was given immortality through the relics, the Knights became infinite through a curse that eventually killed them, the Witches used dark magic...how can he still be alive after all these years? After millennia have passed?

“You think you’re the only Arkhoni Survivor to have found the secret to immortality?” Kannix scoffs. “Well...I didn’t choose this immortality per say.” He adds with a scoff, keeping the cannon pointed at him...

Then he tells him what happened...falling into his own memory.

His own nightmares...

“Whilst you lived safely in your shack with Yenna – I was an exile...” Kannix tells him, remembering the pain that formed the Spectre. The sight of the Grimm that dragged him into the grass in the never ending storm. The Grimm threw him into a cave where he was abandoned, but the Grimm never killed him. He did not even see what the Grimm was that attacked him that day. “An outcast...on the verge of oblivion...” Kannix laid on the cold water covered surface of the cave where he was left...for days that passed, starving and dehydrated. Poisoning himself with salt water that crashed into the opening to the sea that was open before him.

The young man was dying, and he knew it. “I was starving in that cave for nearly a week, I could not perceive the Grimm approaching me...curiously watching.” Kannix explains to Kragen, creating so much pain to the old man’s heart...when he was searching for his apprentice for decades and he was merely on the same island that they fought on. As he suffered, Beowulves and Creeps cautiously approached his cave, growling and licking their lips with excitement to taste his blood. His pain and his negative emotions drew them closer and closer.

“My weapons were taken from me...the Grimm were to devour me alive – but no threat would grip me...no legion could confine me.” Kannix narrates his memories, the young man stares at them with gritted teeth with rage in his silver eyes. He stood up before them with only his hands available. “I did not need my blade to slaughter them all, feeling their terror as I ripped their hearts from their ribs.” Kannix explains.

Through frozen memories, like images that flash before him in his mind, he can see the moments he fought the Grimm. Grabbing a Creep by its jaws and pulling its bottom jaw from its skull with all his might. Black smoke poured from its wound after he did that, and killed it instantly. It was at that moment that he found his semblance, every slash that they gave him, the pain in his stomach...he was practically invincible against them. He slammed his fist into the face of a Beowulf over and over again until he crushed its head, ripping another’s arm off and beating it to death with its own appendage.

Smoke filled the cave where he was trapped, and he left it, untouched from their attacks, still starving with pain. He felt his way out the island, blinded by the salt water itself to free himself and eventually his sight was regained. “Everything I have become is a reminder of the pain and suffering which forged me...like metal struck over and anvil. I am a sword, forged from suffering itself.” Kannix explains as he walks endlessly throughout the island. Kragen’s eyes focus onto his cybernetic arms, Jaune cut one off, and Summer cut the other off. But what they do not know, is that he has cybernetic implants in his legs as well. After they were broken from a fall on the Volcanic Chain Isles.

“I found one of our dead comrades, and due to my broken legs...I was forced to take his sword and cut my legs from my body...the agonizing pain...it was unlike anything I have ever witnessed.” He continues, remembering the screams he let out, the amount of blood spilled as he severed his own legs. “And I replaced them with the cybernetic legs of the droids we brought with us.” He states, remembering as he fused the metal to his own legs from the tools left behind on the Dauntless which was left inoperable after the Lighting Bolt destroyed the Mast.

“We were there for weeks...trying to find you...” Kragen stammers, unable to believe all of this horrible information. He never thought that he was so close at the beginning of his search, he only got further away the more he searched, and the Spectre was slowly being born from his agony.

“I know...I finally found you on those Islands...watched as you sailed away in Axzura’s ship.” He states, stood there on the island, screaming out to them as he watches the ship disappearing into the fog, abandoning him on that island. They could not hear his wails over the thunder claps, the rain...and the distance they travelled.

Kragen’s eyes are wide with horror, he never realised that his apprentice was right there after all this time. Kannix fell to his knees with defeat, screaming out with anguish, finding himself trapped on that island. His wails attracted the Grimm, and they approached him from behind. “I could have fought them...but I didn’t...I let the Grimm take me. They dragged me away and took me somewhere...into a doorway.” Kannix explains, and the memory shows the Grimm dragging him into the portal that was opened...embers trailing out from it.

“I saw it...” Kannix states, sitting upright in his memories. Charred trees surrounded him, a red sky filled with smoke and embers, a completely shattered moon and destruction stretched out for miles. Extinct oceans with no water filling them at all, just chasms left behind. He turned round and his silver eyes widened as he saw him stood there. “And I met him...my saviour...the one who gave me purpose.” He tells Kragen, seeing Vir Nominis Umbra approaching him ominously with his hands held together.

“He gave me a second chance...another chance to improve...gave me the gift of never aging from that point on...if only I served him.” Kannix told him.

All the pain swelled into one...

And he made his choice.

“I agreed.”

The memory ends, and Kannix stares at him. “I returned to our home, and it was naught but ashes, nothing more than a memory to be forgotten. And from that point on I swore a new oath...” Kannix explains, charging dust into the cannon as he keeps it pointed at Kragen. “To end the Silver Eyed Warriors...once and for all.” He snarls, firing the cannon, but Kragen jumps and rolls out of the way, walking around him still. He never realised this...that Kannix is another one of Vir Nominis Umbra’s pawns in his cruel game that he plays. Using people and turning them against their best beliefs.

“Kannix...please...you do not have to do this! There is always another choice!” Kragen begs, but Kannix scoffs, shaking his head.

“Cinder Fall and Hazel Rainart may have had a change of heart...but they did not suffer for thousands of years because of _you_!” The Spectre bellows, firing more shells at him from where he stands, Kragen jumps and rolls behind another tree, taking cover. He is finding it hard to actually attack him now.

“You are better than this! Don’t let Vir Nominis Umbra’s lies control you!” Kragen begs, but Kannix laughs at that statement.

“For someone who claims to be so wise, you really don’t understand how he works, do you?” Kannix snarls as he stands there, staring at the tree where Kragen hides. Kragen listens to his voice from where he takes cover, wide eyed as he still cannot comprehend that he is alive still. “Of all the things that Umbra has done – I have never seen him lie once. Create ideas? Yes. Commit cruel actions? Yes. But lie? No.” Kannix states and Kragen thinks to what they saw on that feed, the footage of Blake...

_An idea..._

But before he can think on this factor, Kannix fires at him again, the explosive shell of dust blows the tree trunk apart, shards of burning wood thrown past him. Kragen walks out, as the tree collapses behind him staring right at his old apprentice with his staff in his hand. Kannix snarls with hatred, extending his hook blade into the sharp sword-like blade and igniting it as well. “So what are you now? Just one of his toys? We swore an oath, an oath of honour.” Kragen shouts, which sends him over the edge.

“Honour? Want to know what honour demands?” He bellows, sprinting towards him and slashing the blade at him. Kragen steps back and blocks the attack with his staff, holding him there, staring at the glowing silver eyes of Kannix. “Honour demands death! Nothing more!” He roars, scraping the blade across his staff and kicking him in the chest. Kragen staggers back and Kannix breathes heavily with anger.

Kannix knows that Kragen is not fighting him; he is acting defensively because he does not want to hurt him. Because he still sees the young boy he cared about, the boy he trained for years but thought died ages ago. “What are you waiting for? Fight me!” He yells with anger, and he attacks first once more, firing his cannon at him. Kragen swiftly spins his staff through his fingers to block the explosion from hitting him. He immediately spins the staff round and strikes him in the chest, pushing him back.

Kragen pushes the staff down into the soil, staring at him. “I never wanted this...” Kragen whispers with pain in his heart. Kannix snarls, standing tall.

“You think I did?” He questions, leaping directly at him once more with a bellow.

 

**Ruby**

The Lord of the Wood slams its huge wooden hand down into the ground, roots tunnel into the soil beneath them. Hyde and Ruby watch with shock as they can see the dirt rupturing where the roots tunnel closer and closer. Ruby fires Crescent Rose down into the round, riding the recoil as she sails over the massive Leshen, whereas Hyde waits for the Roots to rise up, severing them with well placed attacks with Lash Equinox. Chunks of bark and root matter are thrown everywhere, Hyde dodges one of the sharp roots that rises up and shoots down towards him, just missing him and Kassius’ aura.

Ruby flies over the Leshen and then dashes towards it, red petals trailing behind her fluttering red cape as she slashes across its body with her scythe. The Leshen growls with anger, black smoke leaks from her attack but it does not seem overly affected. It instantly swings its claws hand towards her, and she turns round, firing a fire dust charged round at him. The Leshen suddenly bursts into smoke and crows; they all caw as they fly around them. Then it forms behind Ruby, slashing across her aura hard.

The impact knocks the young woman onto the ground; she groans with pain from the attack, her aura repairs the slashes in her skin swiftly. Her eye widens with shock when the Lord of the Wood stomps towards her and stamps down at here she was. She vanishes in a burst of petals, grabbing her Scythe as well. The colossal ligneous nadir of the monster crashes down into the ground, roots dig into the soil and it looks around, trying to find her.

Hyde roars, spinning round and slashing the Leshen across the skull to cause it to stagger. He pumps Lash Equinox upwards, loading the explosive clip of shells into the chamber and he points both fists at the Leshen. He squeezes the triggers and the explosive shells blast into the chest of the Lord of the Wood. The Leshen flinches from the eruption of flames and shrapnel, clenching its hands into fists from the attack. Hyde smirks but his eyes widen with disbelief as the smoke parts and the monster is still standing, staring directly at him. “Oh come on!” Hyde exclaims with annoyance.

Nora watches with shock, seeing the Lord of the Wood again is always terrifying. But it never comes straight for her; it takes its time about it. But to the Lord of the Wood, it is not about how quickly it claims her; it is just that it kills her. It could kill her when she is ninety years old or in a couple moments. Time is not an issue to something like a Leshen; they can wait for centuries until some foolish soul angers it.

Nora turns when she hears the groaning of Ren, he slowly tries to sit up in pain, Oobleck and Port slowly wake up as well, weak and wounded, but their auras are slowly recharging. Suddenly Oscar zooms over to them, using his time travel speed to get there as quickly as he possibly can, Nora gasps with relief when she sees him, and the Architect is nearly there as well, hoping to not alert the Lord of the Wood. “We’re gonna get you out of here...How many of you can walk?” Oscar asks them.

Port raises his hand as he gets back up, cracking his neck despite having some shrapnel in him. He rips some of it out and spits blood out, as if he is ready to fight now. He isn’t but that is just in his stubborn nature to be that way. Oscar can tell that Nora cannot walk, and Ren is just able to walk but not quickly. Oobleck seems to be the best off out of all of them. “Okay...Architect, carry Nora, I’ll help Ren.” Oscar orders, and the Architect immediately obliges. He gently picks the young woman up and holds her, with Magnhild rested on her belly.

“Hello again...” Nora softly and sweetly says with a smile, and the Architect chuckles.

“Looks like you’re looking after yourself.” He chuckles; Port picks up his Blunderbuss and looks back at the Lord of the Wood.

“We need to help them fight that thing.” Port coughs, but Oscar shakes his head.

“No – they can handle it.” Oscar assures, and Oobleck appears to be on the same side as Port on this.

“But it’s a Leshen...” Oobleck states.

“I know – but they only need to keep it and the Spectre occupied. When you guys are safe, I’ll call them to fall back.” Oscar explains, and they sigh, knowing that they have to agree. And they are currently in no position to fight, when they return back to Beacon and recover, then they can get back into the action.

Hyde roars as he slams his fist into the side of the Lord of the Wood’s face, it hardly even flinches from the contact of Kassius’ metal fist. In return, the huge Leshen grabs Hyde by his neck, lifting him off the ground and staring right into his eyes. Hyde scoffs as he stares at the Leshen’s burning coals for eyes. “I bet I look better looking than you!” Hyde snarkily comments, the Lord of the Wood does not even respond, just snarling at him. Until Ruby swiftly darts towards the Leshen, slicing Crescent Rose directly through the Lord of the Wood’s arm, black smoke billows from the arm and it roars with pain.

The Lord of the Wood staggers back and stares at them, Ruby stands there with glowing silver eyes.

But then...

The Lord of the Wood retreats, transforming into the swarm of crows and black smoke, flying towards where Kannix is fighting Kragen. Kannix is thrown back by Kragen; he is good but not good enough to beat his former mentor. Kannix is too impulsive to outmatch him; Kragen calmly stands across the fighting area from him.

Kragen’s eyes widen with shock when he sees the black smoke and cawing crows fall behind Kannix. The Lord of the Wood forms behind him and grabs him, and he clearly does not seem to agree with this. Kannix reaches out for Kragen and yells with rage. “No!” He bellows, trying to kill him with one more shot from his cannon. Kragen just steps out the way, and the shell travels right past him, exploding behind him.

Watching as the smoke leaves.

The way it left so quickly...

Something must have ordered it to leave.

Must have demanded that they both return.

Kragen clenches his hand into a fist and closes his eyes with grief...

He still cannot get over the fact...

Kannix Volantis is alive...

And the Spectre’s shroud is now gone.

 

**Jaune**

Jaune and Pyrrha both sprint as fast as they can through the Emerald Forest, trying to find where they heard Hyde roaring...

They have missed the battle...

But then Pyrrha hears something...

Jaune stops when he notices her stopping, staring at her. “What is it?” He asks her, and then he hears it, noticing Pyrrha is shaking with pure fear in her body.

The sound...

It is whistling...

And she knows the tune.

_"A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,"_

_"His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,"_

_"Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye."_

_"Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,"_

_"His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,"_

_"Anger through truth, loss through acceptance."_

_"For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,"_

_"Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,"_

_"The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,"_

_"Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter..."_

She stares at Jaune fearfully...

And now he knows.

“He’s here...”


	37. Luctuosa Dæmoni Agnus Dei

**Ruby**

Kassius sprints beside Ruby, still possessed by Hyde but his energy is dwindling and soon Hyde will have to retreat back into Kassius and let him take over again. Ruby keeps up with them, her eye focused onto Nora as she lies in the arms of the Architect; they are not far from Beacon Academy at the moment. Ruby begins to count everyone, seeing Ren being helped by Oscar to get them back to the Academy.

Then it hits her.

“Where are Jaune and Pyrrha? You guys did find her, right?” Ruby inquires, looking at them, and Ren coughs as he turns to her, Oscar still holding him upright due to his injuries inflicted upon him in the crash.

“They were thrown the furthest...we didn’t see where they landed.” Ren answers as he looks around, Nora does the same as well, wanting to go and search for them. Hyde’s burning hot eyes stare up to the sky and he roars out.

“Jaune! Pyrrha!” Hyde bellows, his voice reverberates between the trees as he hopes they can hear his voice. They heard his roar earlier when he battled against Kannix, but now they are being hunted down by none other than Vir Nominis Umbra.

But they hear no response.

Ruby feels her hand shaking ever so gently as she holds Crescent Rose – it feels like the Fall of Beacon all over again, the two of them missing out there and in danger. She makes her decision, closing her eye and then turning to them with a sharp exhale. “I’m gonna find them – both of them.” She promises as she looks at Ren and Nora, feeling like she failed them last time. Oscar reaches out for her so then he can help her, and Kassius catches Ren before he falls.

“Go! Help her!” Hyde orders, helping Ren to get him to safety. Hyde truly has come a very long way, he is still in control of Kassius’ body and he is actually helping them now. It really shows how much he trusts them all now, unlike how he acted in the past whenever Kassius snapped and let him take over.

Oscar dashes after her, the clock slows down around them and he catches up to her as she runs, then lets time resume again, running beside her. Ruby’s eye turns and she gazes towards him with a happy smile to see him with her.

“Together.” Oscar states, and she nods her head to him.

“I won’t fail them...not this time.” Ruby promises with stammered breath.

Little do they realise that they are charging head first into Umbra’s cruel little game...

 

**Jaune**

The whistling continues around them, Pyrrha holds Jaune’s hand ever so tightly, recognising the chilling tune so well. Crows caw as they flutter around them, landing in the trees. Jaune stops, his blue eyes focus onto one of them that stares directly at him. It tilts its head, the beak appears to be constructed from some form of diamond or crystal, with glowing red eyes. Unlike Qrow and Raven, the eyes seem to share the same burning hot light that the Grimm seem to have in their eyes. They all look exactly the same as each other, all with feathers formed from black smoke that trails off their bodies.

Pyrrha is shaking with terror, seeing the horrific memories sparking before her eyes, the sights of other poor souls being tortured in the worst possible ways. Either from their very fears or just in other gruesome ways, such as being eaten alive by Beowulves but never dying, in eternal suffering. When he drowned her in a lake of blood, when he fed her to Grimm, when he tore her apart with his bare hands. Vir Nominis Umbra is a force that should be feared, because he does not care who you are...only what you carry.

She closes her eyes, tears of fear stream down her cheeks from her eyes, sharp intakes of breath form in her body as she tries to fight her fears. She cannot get the terrible memories from her head, now she wishes her shattered memory could remember at least all these things. The terrors she saw in the Charred Forest, the screams of billions of tortured souls that never cease.

But all that fear...

It seems to pass when she feels his hands gently surround hers, his warmth passing into her arms and the rest of her body. Her green eyes open and he pulls her close, his arm round her to keep her safe from harm. Pyrrha cannot help but pull herself into his chest, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing her head to his chest, hearing his heartbeat. Jaune caresses her long soft red hair with his hand, watching the Crows, then he softly whispers into her ear to ease her fears.

“Okay...no matter what happens next – at least we’re together, so that means we’ll be safe.” He promises with a smile on his face. He has always known just what to say to ease her heart when she is scared, but that does not stop her pulse from beating out of control. She nods her head as she holds onto him.

“Yep...” She softly agrees with a tender and fragile voice.

“You’re half-right.” His voice states, causing Pyrrha to nearly leap out of her skin when the kind voice emerges from the shadows of the trees. Vir Nominis Umbra emerges from the shadows, hands held together above his waist, walking with what appears to be glee in every step he takes. “I mean...you are together.” Vir Nominis Umbra clarifies with a chuckle, turning on his heel to face them, Jaune instantly stands in front of Pyrrha, and between her and Vir Nominis Umbra.

He knows what he did to her...

He will not let him do it again.

For such a simple and ordinary looking man, Vir Nominis Umbra creates one hell of a nerve-wracking aura whenever he appears. But that is exactly what makes him so scary, he can blend in so easily from the way he speaks, acts and even how he looks. “But safe? Tsk, tsk, tsk...I think not.” He adds with a smirk on his face, shaking his index finger towards them. Jaune draws Crocea Mors, pointing the tip of his steel blade at him with resent in his blue eyes.

“You...” Jaune snarls with anger. Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles.

“So tell me, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos – why shouldn’t I just kill you now?” He curiously and yet casually asks them with his kind-sounding voice, walking towards them. The couple are left speechless, unable to answer that question due to not having a clue of his motives in being here right now.

Vir Nominis Umbra slowly walks towards them, but Jaune grits his teeth, pushing forward slightly with Crocea Mors aimed at the Merchant’s head. Pyrrha grabs his arm fearfully, because she knows what this being is capable of. “Back up!” Jaune orders with a snarl in his voice, Umbra recoils back and he looks back to see if anybody is behind him. He turns back and seems to playfully point at himself with a smirk, the man is so charismatic it is truly terrifying to witness. “You’re not gonna hurt her anymore...I know what you’ve done, Umbra.” Jaune snarls with animosity, eyes narrowed.

Pyrrha has never seen him this angry before...

Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles in his closed lips, actually dipping back slightly as he does it. “Oh you don’t know the half of it, sweetie.” He mockingly states as he stares at him. Jaune yells with anger, swinging Crocea Mors towards him, the blade cuts through his body and black smoke erupts from his body and he vanishes. Jaune backs up, and he thinks for a second he just killed him.

Until he turned around, seeing Pyrrha with wide eyes as Umbra stands behind her, looking at her with a smirk. She can feel the icy cold aura behind her back, then his hand as he touches her shoulder, walking around her. Vir Nominis Umbra stretches his arms out with a smirk as he walks between the two of them. “Missed me.” He scoffs, and Pyrrha moves around him, standing behind Jaune again. To see her, this scared is actually heartbreaking, the girl that was never scared of anything seems to be more jumpy than ever whenever this Soothsayer appears around her.

“Interesting...” Jaune says as he keeps Crocea Mors pointed at him, despite seeing that the attack did absolutely nothing. And yet he burst into the same black smoke that the many Creatures of Grimm tend to explode into when they die.

“Indeed, however it is in my name at the end of the day.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, piquing his curiosity from that statement, clearly his name means something. Otherwise he would have never mentioned that in the first place.

“What the hell are you?” Jaune questions, almost snarling as he says it, keeping the tip of his sword placed towards his face.

“Ah...ain’t that the question of the day. Why don’t you try and guess, or let the gooseberry next to you have a crack at it.” Vir Nominis Umbra scoffs, calling _Pyrrha_ the gooseberry, essentially calling her the third wheel, the unloved one in a love triangle. Pyrrha stares at him, and Jaune scoffs.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jaune questions. “She is no _gooseberry_.” He coldly states, making Umbra snicker at that though.

“Well, there’s an idea I’m not responsible for.” He scoffs.

“I fought like hell to find her, I am not letting her disappear from me again.” Jaune states, which does warm her heart, but their foe always seems to know exactly what to say next.

“Oh, Jauney boy...You can’t lie to me, I have seen your dreams in your life. I have been watching the group of your brave warriors for a...very long time now. I saw the way you looked at Weiss Schnee. Although...” He chuckles, and Jaune’s eyes widen when he walks towards him, his body slims and gets shorter, the curves in his body form and his clothes transform into a white dress. Long white hairs grow out from his bald head and the ponytail drops down his shoulder, her large blue eyes gaze up at him longingly. “Who could resist me?” He asks him in the voice and form of Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha looks utterly shocked but she knows the game he is playing. Because he tortured her with this idea when she was trapped in the Charred Forest.

“Enough!” He yells with rage, striking Umbra disguised as Weiss, the only reason he did that was because he saw Umbra shift into her body. Little do they know that this ability he has displayed to them has already sparked the fall of the White Fang as they speak.

Umbra suddenly appears behind the three of them. “I must say...some of your cute dreams definitely would make me blush...if I had a true organic form like you fleshy things.” He says, waving his hand towards the two of them. Jaune approaches him again, he is very brave to challenge this mysterious being so aggressively, but he has now sheathed his sword back into the shield on his belt, simply because he knows there is no point in doing any of this.

“Where’d ya pick up this crappy personality of yours? Huh? Because it’s really getting on my nerves.” Jaune snarls, staring at him, and Vir Nominis Umbra scoffs at that. The Soothsayer points at his chest and then laughs.

“Me? You should look in a mirror, dear boy.” Vir Nominis Umbra advises, but Jaune’s face does not change at all.

“Should I?” Jaune grills, Pyrrha looks increasingly concerned because this is all part of his cruel game. He is pushing all of Jaune’s buttons to anger him as best he can. And he is doing a valiant job so far.

“Without a doubt, do you not remember yourself seven years ago? Good god you were so annoying!” Vir Nominis Umbra groans, grabbing the bridge of his nose. “You see...” He casually approaches Pyrrha and heavily plants his hands onto her shoulders, she jolts and fear courses through her veins, her green eyes bulge from her sockets with trepidation. “The stunning Miss Pyrrha Nikos here was head-over-heels for you, she could not keep her feelings bottled up forever...she was about to explode. You know I’m surprised she didn’t just leap onto you and start making sweet, sweet love in a bed...” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles, using his ability to create the different scenarios based around the Seven Deadly Sins again, here he is using Lust. “But...you were still too thick to notice even when she was spending so much time with you. Even at the dance, she practically told you she was falling for you, and yet you let her walk away.” He states, slowly walking towards Jaune.

Jaune’s blue eyes dart towards Pyrrha, and it hurts his heart when she sees the look on her face. There is the hint of sadness and jealousy over Weiss, since everything that Umbra is saying is unfortunately all true. Pyrrha must have hated Weiss for how much Jaune fell for her instead of Pyrrha. “However...there is still one thing that amazes me – a beautiful warrior, one who could have the most handsome knight bed her...she fell...for you?” He scoffs, pointing at the young Arc.

Jaune stands there and he looks at his reflection in a puddle, and he can see what he means...he has always seen that side of it. _Why me? She could get so much better than a loser like me..._ ”Exactly what I was thinking.” Umbra states, hearing Jaune’s thoughts as he approaches him. “You are literally the example of what someone would _not_ want to be a Huntsman for: your inability to fight without the help of your comrades, your blindness to a girl’s love, the ridiculous blonde hair on your head...” Vir Nominis Umbra comments, even poking his head when he says that. Pyrrha stares at Umbra, now clenching her hand into a fist.

Yes he made mistakes...

But she loves Jaune, and will never let Umbra torment him like that. But he keeps going and going and going. “The weapon passed down as a family Heirloom, the lack of armour, the voice of a ten year old boy. I’m surprised you don’t have a little puppy at your side, just to show the world how much of a pathetic failure you are.” Vir Nominis Umbra concludes with a smirk, staring directly into his eyes.

Pyrrha can’t take it any longer. “Shut up! He is _not_ a failure!” Pyrrha shrieks, surprising Umbra and he swivels round to her, smiling as he sees her there. He chuckles, walking towards Pyrrha, she instantly begins to regret her choice now to defend Jaune. But Umbra does nothing, as always, he always tends to do that sort of thing. Just to scare them.

He sighs.

“Alright then, enough chit-chat...let’s get to the matter at hand, because you’ve yet to answer my question, children.” Vir Nominis Umbra gleefully states, still circling them with his hands now behind his back, walking with a skip in his step, smirking constantly with what appears to be purely evil confidence.

“Uh...Question?” Pyrrha nervously asks him, and he stares at her, she can see the glimmer of red inside of his brown irises.

“I know you remember, I can see your memories...” He says, but he repeats the question anyways, perhaps because he just loves the sound of his own voice. “Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you both now?” He asks them, continuing to walk around them. Pyrrha raises her finger, stammering as she attempts to give the evil entity an answer.

“W-Well...B-Because...Jaune why?” Pyrrha asks him, struggling to actually figure out why he has not done it. He could have done it, he managed to bring three kingdoms to their knees in the span of half an hour, and he could easily strike down to Hunters.

Jaune looks at her with confusion, with the expression of _really?_ Pyrrha though is stumped by his very simple question. Jaune’s eyes focus onto Vir Nominis Umbra, he still smiles, and they are right to be scared.

He looks normal, no fancy clothes, no ridiculous haircut, just a middle aged man with an average body type and looks. He never screams or whispers, just talks intelligently and very monotone. He does not wield a giant sword, does not move like a ninja or blast laser beams out of his eyes He does not transform to a monstrosity, to a magical entity or to a dark lord of the underworld...

His normality is what makes him so frightening, a very calm and down to earth individual, some might say he could be your neighbour. But when the time has come, he stops time, takes a soul, appears and vanishes into shadows or perhaps just pushes somebody’s age to the point of death in a second, _all_ while remaining his temper, as it would be another day at the office.

That is what makes him so terrifying...

So what would it be like...

If he did raise his voice?

He did lose his temper?

Jaune does not want to find out, so he comes up with an answer to his question, one he believes to be correct as well. “Because...killing us quickly would be too easy for you, wouldn’t it? You like to make people suffer, you feed off it, and so you want to see us struggle instead of having a quick end.” Jaune presumes, and Vir Nominis Umbra stops circling them, then approaches the pair of them, stopping right in front of them.

A smile curves across Vir Nominis Umbra’s face as he stares at them, and a faint laugh grows within him. “You guessed...correctly, Mr Arc. Perhaps I had you wrong, you are not as blind as a mole.” He scoffs, and Jaune looks confused, since he was not with Oscar for the mole comment in Arkhonex when he first met the entity.

Vir Nominis Umbra suddenly appears on one of the branches of a tree, posed in a rather comical position, like he is posing for a camera. He has his hand supporting his head and elbow pressed against the branch. “So then! Here is the game I have set up for you, neither of you will be leaving the forest until you complete it.” He begins to explain. “I have developed a collection of Realms, all of which are like Mazes that you must find the exit point in order to gain entry to the next.” He explains to them, Pyrrha continues to hold Jaune’s hand tight as they listen to his explanation. “But the thing you must remember is that every single realm you enter will have a threat created from your own natures, your fears...and all your sins...” He warns them with a smile on his face.

“How do we know we’ve done it?” Jaune questions as he stares at the Soothsayer in the tree.

“Ever played a video game?” He inquires, and Jaune raises a brow.

“Yeah...” Jaune answers suspiciously.

“Tell me, how do the level structures work?” He asks, and Pyrrha is the one that answers. That surprises them both, since Pyrrha would have been expected to know the least about Video Games.

“Every level gets harder...and ends with a boss fight...” Pyrrha remembers from playing games with Jaune and Nora, even with Yang and Ruby at times. She never won but was just happy to actually have fun with her friends for once.

“Points to Nikos.” Vir Nominis Umbra cheers sarcastically. “In the same way, every single layer of the Mazed Realms will each have a deadly danger, and each of them will become more threatening the deeper you go.” He warns with a smirk.

Unexpectedly, they both begin to feel extremely light headed, seeing the landscape around them crumbling apart and pieces of it rise into the sky around them. Jaune glares at Vir Nominis Umbra as he smirks at them. “Good luck – and sweet dreams...” He sinisterly says with a smile on his face.

They both pass out onto the ground, Pyrrha falls into his arms, and he holds her close to keep her safe, and their eyes close, falling asleep before him. Umbra remains there with a smirk, watching them both with a smile.

The game has begun...

 

**Pyrrha**

The chirps of morning birds resound from outside of their window in their bedroom. The sun has risen over what appears to be the fields of Mistraalian Farmland.

They own a lovely little house and a large plot of land outside of the Kingdom of Mistral, with a cat curled up in the corner with black fur covering its body. In their bed, Pyrrha is still asleep, wearing a night gown around her body as she is snuggled up to Jaune, who has his arm around her. They both slowly begin to awaken from their slumber, looking around, then their eyes meet.

They both gasp and like two people that have huge crushes on each other, they start to act very nervous and shy. Even embarrassed as she sits upright. “I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to...” Pyrrha stammers, not certain of what is happening. She then looks at her finger and gasps, seeing that she has a wedding ring and a beautiful emerald and diamond engagement ring on her finger. Jaune has a wedding ring as well, meaning they have been married and are living a happy life together.

But...

They have been transported here...

This must be the first layer of Umbra’s little maze of realms he has created. Pyrrha moves the bed sheet off her body and she sits there, rubbing her head and Jaune sits beside her, they both look at each other awkwardly. But she smiles and rests her head on his shoulder, as if she is happy of this environment that they are sat inside of. Pyrrha stands up from the bed and Jaune stands up as well, they both look around the room curiously to feed their confusion. “Are we...married?” Jaune asks her, and they both look at their rings, then Jaune’s eyes focus on something behind Pyrrha. She follows his eyes and gasps, seeing the photographs of them both on a cabinet behind her.

A picture of them both with happy smiles on their faces, Jaune wearing a suit and a tie, and Pyrrha looks utterly beautiful in a white Wedding Dress. Her tiara around her head and her red hair curled to bring out her large green eyes. She slowly approaches the picture frame, picking it up and gazing at it...rubbing her thumb across Jaune affectionately. This...is what she has always wanted, a future with Jaune. She turns to him with a smile on her face and he smiles back nervously, despite the fact they both know they love each other...they still are nervous around each other.

Jaune looks down when hearing the black cat meowing as it rubs its body against his leg, running down the hallway and into the living room. Pyrrha puts the picture frame back down onto where she found it, and she follows Jaune into the other room, looking around. The living room has a couple sofas inside, a television above a fireplace, pictures on the walls of their times together. The kitchen is attached to the living room, tiled with white marble pieces everywhere, and she walks over to something on the wall.

There is a mantle on the wall, one that has Milo and Akuou attached to it, and Crocea Mors with the shield as well beside hers.

She continues to look around and Jaune enters another room, seeing a cot in the corner...and he gasps. His eyes widen when he sees what is inside...

A tiny baby that has Pyrrha’s eyes, a little baby boy...

Pyrrha follows him and she covers her mouth with her hand...astonished by the beauty of what appears to be their child. The baby coos, reaching up to Pyrrha’s finger as she gently tickles the baby’s belly, making the little boo giggle playfully. It brings a tear to her eye as she sees what appears to be her own baby, and Jaune smiles when he sees her so happy. He has not seen her that happy since the dance...and he cannot stop admiring how beautiful she is. Her eyes are taken away from the baby, and she looks directly into Jaune’s eyes...longingly.

She holds his hand and she lets him pull her close. She gently presses her forehead to his, then they get closer and closer to kiss.

Then they hear the sound of the door knocking...

She sighs...

So close...

They both leave the cot and approach the front door of where the baby is sleeping. Jaune reaches forward and grabs onto the handle of the door, opening it.

Stood there is a man, wearing a beige suit and a hat on his head and some formal trousers and shoes. He takes the hat off, revealing his shaven head as he smirks, and bowing before them. “Ah! Hello there, I hope you like your home!” Vir Nominis Umbra greets charismatically, their eyes widen with fear when they see that he is here.

They nearly forgot that this is actually one of his Mazed Layered Realms...

It has taken the beauty away from it pretty much instantly.

Vir Nominis Umbra steps into their house, scuffing his boots that he wears on the mat before entering. _At least he has some respect._ He approaches the cat that waddles over to his feet, meowing curiously before him. The entity slowly looks down at the cat and smirks, and then turns to his two subjects that he is testing. “Lovely place...really is, beautiful views...” He speaks, stretching out his hand towards the stunning green fields of Mistral.

Jaune and Pyrrha know his game, and they are not falling for his hollow words, the constant theatric at all times. “Get to the point, Umbra.” Jaune demands, his eyes turn to Crocea Mors on the wall. He can expect that he will need it soon, not against Vir Nominis Umbra though; against whatever it is he has waiting for them in this layer. Umbra looks at his clothes and he sighs.

“But I got all dressed up for you!” Vir Nominis Umbra complains like an upset child, pouting his lip at them both. Jaune is not smiling; he is ready to strike him if he must, despite it having no affect against the entity. Vir Nominis Umbra’s face then changes, into a sinister smirk and they can see very clearly...the glowing red irises that flicker behind the brown ones that he has forged to blend in with his prey. “As you wish.” He sighs; suddenly there is a blast of black smoke around his body which transforms the clothing that he wears. The beige suit and trousers transform into his original clothes, the coat he wears over his shirt, and a detached hood around his neck, hood draping down his shoulders. The belt with a multitude of potion vials and other assorted form as well, and he paces back and forth before them, smiling away.

“What is this?” Jaune questions, looking around at the place, confused of how this place would have some sort of deadly danger. It is all so beautiful opposed to anything he has stated would come first. Vir Nominis Umbra continues to walk around the room, picking up the photograph of her and Jaune, and then his eyes swivel round to meet those of Pyrrha Nikos. She feels a jolt of nervousness and fear in her heart when his brown irises meet hers.

“Why don’t you tell him, my dear?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her casually as he stares at the picture he holds in his hand. Pyrrha looks at him with timid eyes, even beginning to blush as she looks at him. Jaune looks confused, and he raises his brow when he looks at her, to find the answer to his question.

“Pyrrha? What’s he talking about?” Jaune inquires...her voice is soft spoken and with a shaky breath.

“It’s...my dream...” Pyrrha shyly answers, looking down at the floor with what appears to be sadness. She does not want to risk scaring him off, since if he knew that she wanted this with him when they first met, he would have run a mile from her. Jaune looks around at the place, and it all begins to make sense...it is in Mistral, the architecture is very similar to her style of clothing as well. Lots of bronze coloured cutlery and mugs as well in the cabinets. Even the baby, she has made it clear that she has always wanted to be a mother some day, but Jaune would have never expected that he is the one she would want to father her child. His eyes return to her emerald ones, and he smiles kindly to her, as if he could not fall even deeper in love with this girl.

But before he can even say a word to this elegant beauty that stands before him, making his heart beat faster than it normally should...Umbra just has to sneak his own little words in there. “Aw...isn’t she just adorable?” Vir Nominis Umbra coos, crossing his arms as he stands beside Jaune and bumping his shoulder. “How could you have not noticed her love for you sooner, Jauney-Boy?” He inquires, still using the nickname that Cardin gave him years ago...he nearly forgot about that name.

_Well...I guess it’s better than Crater-Face._

Jaune sighs, closing his eyes when he keeps on mentioning that. “I was young and stupid.” Jaune admits, which does upset Pyrrha slightly since she never wants him to pull himself down on past decisions. They have each other once more, that should be enough, but with Vir Nominis Umbra still seeming to be interested in poor Pyrrha...they may never be free. Not unless they can find a way to beat him once and for all...but at this rate? That does not look very likely from how powerful this entity appears to be.

“Yes you were!” Vir Nominis Umbra laughs, walking past him and Pyrrha, exploring their house and he approaches their baby. Pyrrha runs towards him and stands between him and their child, despite it not really being their baby...she still acts like a mother would. Umbra scoffs and Pyrrha realises that the cooing of her baby has vanished...her heart goes cold and she spins around.

The baby is gone.

She gasps and spins back around, seeing Umbra holding the baby in his arms somehow with a smirk on his face. He walks around with their baby in his arms, muttering to the child as he wiggles his finger just above his head. The baby reaches up to his finger, giggling adorably, and then he stops as he holds the child, staring at them. “This is all her idea, Mr Arc. The wish she has dreamt in her head ever since she realised who you were.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, still holding the child, Jaune stare at him with his fist still clenched.

“I know, Umbra...she told me everything. About how you tricked her.” Jaune snarls with anger and Umbra raises his brow questionably at his statement there.

“ _Tricked_? I think not – I am no liar or cheat, Jaune Arc, I simply create fun little ideas into people’s heads...all based on facts.” He explains, walking past him, still holding the baby, and Pyrrha walks forward, standing beside Jaune as he stands in the open doorway. “The idea of Destiny? Who says that was a lie? Destiny has always been an idea, that someone is destined for a certain fate; I merely planted an idea in her head. No lie was created; her friends never did care for her, only her money and her fame. Unfortunately that was her childhood until she met you.” He explains to him, stood in the doorway, and Jaune looks at her, feeling even worse for her when he realises that her _friends_ never cared about her. No child should ever have to learn that in their lives.

Jaune releases his fist, calming himself down to also ease the feelings of the girl he loves stood right next to him. “Fine...what’s the danger here then? This place looks quite nice.” Jaune questions, and Vir Nominis Umbra looks around at the place.

“Indeed it is – constructed from the dreams of Pyrrha Nikos after the Night of the Dance when you gave her the best night of her life. I mean it could have been better if you were alone that night.” He comments with a cheeky grin on his face, making a very suggestive idea. They both look at each other and then blush shyly and he chuckles. “Well...perhaps one day you will experience what it is like.” He states with his hands together, still using the Sin of Lust as he speaks to try and manipulate their thoughts.

Luckily they are both too socially awkward to fall for that.

Vir Nominis Umbra chortles through his closed lips, still holding the baby in his arms, and he begins to explain this layer to them. _Allegedly this is the easy one, so hopefully it is not too difficult to complete._ “We all are able to create beautiful landscapes with our minds...with every dream...every idea...a realm is created, an alternate universe is formed where your idea is real.” He explains, pacing back and forth in front of that doorway. Parallel universes are an absolutely terrifying idea indeed, because what he just said – in theory – is correct. Every idea one creates in theory creates a completely brand new universe way that idea is actually real, so if someone created the idea of Dinosaurs driving cars and humanity were fossilised...that would exist in a parallel universe.

Infinity is truly a scary concept to think of.

“But even the most beautiful places can turn cruel...can become monstrous to look upon.” He says, and he slowly turns around to face them with a smirk on his face, holding their baby in one arm as he raises his hand above his head.

“Everything changes...in an instant.” He speaks with truth and power, snapping his fingers, their eyes widen with shock when they hear the distant boom, like a deafening crack that echoes across the entire world. Their hearts skip a beat with awe when witnessing the blue sky flushing with a blood red hue, the grassy fields ignite across the entire landscape, and the stench of fires burning everywhere fills the once clean air. Jet black smoke rises into the sky, turning the once white fluffy clouds into aggravated storm clouds that crackle with red lightning, torturing the planet itself. Pyrrha’s eyes watch in horror as her dream transforms into what she feared seeing again, seeing Umbra smirking constantly as the wave of destruction draws closer. The shockwave nearly knocks the two of them over but Umbra does not move, but the baby vanishes into a cloud of orange embers around them, since it was not real. Just an idea or a wish created by Pyrrha’s dreams that has just been annihilated by Vir Nominis Umbra. The shockwave burns the clothes they were wearing off their bodies, and now their bodies are wearing the armour they wore before being thrown into this Realm, Pyrrha’s Onyx Phantom version of her armour, and Jaune’s armour. The windows shatter around them, smoke flows inside and the plaster render peels off, charring the wood and the walls themselves. The distant screeches and wails of millions of souls crying out in agony at once echoes around them.

Jaune stumbles...this is his first ever time seeing the Charred Forest with his own eyes instead of only hearing it from the words of Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang of what it appeared as. The moon is completely shattered above their heads, Umbra retains that smile on his face and his eyes faintly glow bright red behind those brown irises of his, hands still held close together. The ground is cracked in places, mountains crumbling and floating into the sky in the distance, souls being tormented endlessly in this realm.

Pyrrha’s eyes are wide and glassy.

She is back there...

The Charred Forest has reclaimed her and now has Jaune as well. This must be the first part of his cruel game. They both walk out from their destroyed home, feeling the hot howling wind that blows their hair around as they emerge, Umbra stood out there in the charred grasslands. “Wh-What have you done?” Jaune questions fearfully and Vir Nominis Umbra smirks villainously.

“Welcome to the first Layer...to make it to the next one you must find the exit point in the Charred Forest. But beware; the creatures around here are rather...unforgiving.” Vir Nominis Umbra warns as he walks backwards, vanishing in a puff of black smoke and the black crystal skulled Crows and Ravens all fly away from where he was stood, cawing constantly. The two of them watch the crows; Jaune turns to Pyrrha and sees the terror in her eyes, feeling her shaking palm in his.

“This...This is a bad place...” She stammers, utterly terrified. He turns and looks her in the eyes affectionately.

“We can do this – together.” He assures, feeling something against his foot. Seems Vir Nominis Umbra has honour after all, since he has left them their weapons at their feet. Pyrrha crouches down and picks up Milo and Akuou, whilst Jaune picks Crocea Mors back up as well, sheathing it in the shield, then clicking the trigger. The shield folds the blade out and extends into the Claymore which he holds in both hands, looking around.

Suddenly there is a roar, and they both stare forward as a pack of Grimm Beowulves emerge from the fog, snarling viciously with glowing red eyes.

“Just like old times.” Jaune chuckles, raising his Claymore up.

They must find the exit point from the Charred Forest into whatever challenge awaits them.

The light gleams across their blades at the Beowulves growl savagely, foaming at the mouth, licking their jaws with their red tongues, flaring their white bony teeth at them. One of them barks, charging towards the two of them, and Jaune rushes forward with his Claymore, roaring as he swings with all his might, carving straight through the black fur coated creature. The Beast yelps with agony, jet black plumes of smoke billow out from its wound, glowing red innards shine bright from its injury. He severed corpse erupts into black smoke around them both, and Pyrrha jumps through the smoke towards her foe. She yells out as she spins around through the air, cutting the tip of her sword across the leg of one of the Beowulves. The huge Wolven Creature collapses to one knee and she spins round and slams her shield held sideways across its face, cutting a deep gash into the bone where the black smoke pours like blood from. She swiftly follows that attack up with the aggressive thrusting of Milo into its left eye, killing it instantly.

Her eyes widen with shock, still with the monster caught on her blade, seeing another Beowulf bounding towards her and lunging forwards. It roars monstrously, but Pyrrha transforms Milo from its sword form and into the rifle form, pushing the barrel further into the dead Beowulf’s eye. She pulls the trigger and there is an almighty crack that resounds, sending a bullet that flies straight through the back of its head. Black smoke erupts from the corpse and the bullet flies towards the other Beowulf, nailing it in the head, they both slowly evaporate into ashes.

Pyrrha turns with her natural state of worry for Jaune’s safety, but he is not the weak boy that she once knew at Beacon. He ducks down and narrowly misses the huge claws of the Beowulf that just went for him, cutting through the air itself. Jaune explodes with fury, running towards that very same Beowulf, and plunging the huge extended Claymore Blade of Crocea Mors into its chest, black smoke pours out from its wound. It roars with pain as he pushes it into the floor, ripping the sword from its chest and cutting the arm off another monster. He also has other weapons on him as well, a small carving knife that he pulls from his belt and he slashes it across the throat. Black smoke pours from the laceration, and he stamps down on its leg with his Claymore in the grasp of his free hand. He rolls across the Beowulf’s back and he manages to throw Crocea Mors into the ribs of another Beowulf, ending it instantly with a yelp. Jaune stands on the Beowulf’s back and he rips the knife from its shoulder that he used to swing round onto its back. Jaune jumps up in the air with that knife held in both hands, plunging it straight into the skull of the Beowulf, instantly killing it. It falls to its knees and Jaune rolls off it as it erupts into smoke, sheathing his knife and picking Crocea Mors back up as the Beowulf is reduced to black smoke that floats away from them.

Pyrrha looks utterly astounded by how much he has improved on his skills since she last trained with him, he has become a very impressive warrior indeed. She smiles happily when she sees him do that, until suddenly a clawed hand slashes across her aura and knocks her onto the ground. She slides across the ash covered ground, her green eyes focus onto what just attacked her and they widen.

The huge Leshen with the missing Antler...it is the Lord of the Wood. It just left the forest mere moments ago; perhaps it took Kannix somewhere and has come here to the Charred Forest under the command of Vir Nominis Umbra. The creaking wood groans with every movement the near silent being makes, it swings its claws downwards towards her. Pyrrha strafes out of the way, sliding across the ash, her heels dig through the ash coated soil as she does that. Jaune stands there with her, and he looks around at the place.

There are houses around them...

They do not have the time to waste to risk fighting the Lord of the Wood, and the Grimm must be infinite here. This must be where they come from, if Vir Nominis Umbra is who they think he could be. And if he is, then they are dealing with something completely out of their league.

But Pyrrha does not seem to be aware of this factor, so Jaune stops her, placing his hand on her shoulder to get her attention from the slow moving Leshen that approaches them. “We haven’t got time to fight that thing.” He warns, and she looks at him with confusion. “Remember what Umbra said – we need to find the exit point from this layer...”

Pyrrha’s eyes dart around, seeing the Lord of the Wood getting closer over time, roots digging into the soil the closer it gets, burning coals fitted into the sockets of the Stag’s eyes. “Where do we start?” She asks him nervously, and she trusts him not only because of her feelings, but Jaune has always been the best strategist. His eyes focus onto one of the houses; he knows that the Leshen can teleport through becoming the Crows, so one of them is going to have to keep him busy when the other searches for a way inside.

“We’ll take turns; one of us keeps the Lord busy while the other searches in the house!” Jaune tells her, and they both sprint towards the closest house, having to sprint directly at the Ancient Leshen as well. The massive Tree Spirit growls as he swings his clawed bark hands at them, Pyrrha slides under his claws on her knees whilst Jaune rolls under his arm, just missing it. The Lord of the Wood slowly turns around, watching them as they approach one of the creaking, old abandoned houses.

Black smokes begins to envelop the Lord of the Wood as it watches the couple getting closer, vanishing into Crows and Ravens which all caw at once, flying towards their position. They both get to the building, it appears to be some sort of Butcher’s House, the front door is the store and the upper level is the home accommodation that the builder created for themselves. Jaune looks at Pyrrha, and she looks at him. “Um...who’s going in first?” She asks him.

“You go.” Jaune nervously answers.

“Why me?” Pyrrha asks.

“Ladies first.”

“But the boys always get the doors.”

“Alright – let’s settle it this way.” Jaune says, clenching his hand into a fist to play Rock, Paper Scissors with her. She quickly joins in and they start to play the game, shaking their fists. They both stop and show which they have chosen.

Pyrrha chose rock.

Jaune chose scissors.

“Go.” Pyrrha orders, like they are a married couple, and perfect timing as well. The Lord of the Wood crashes down in front of her, instantly swiping its claws towards her face, she ducks down, only just missing its attack. She rolls under its legs and she kicks it in the spin, beginning to fight it.

Jaune smashes through the closed door, looking around at the counter and he jolts for a second, seeing Vir Nominis Umbra behind the counter dressed up as a Butcher as well. He even wears one of those white hats that Butchers wear. He smiles as he enters, hands on the counter as if he is serving a customer some of his fresh goods, despite them all being rotted and charred. “Oh! Whaddya know? A new customer! What can I get you?” He asks him sarcastically as he enters, looking around and ignoring him. “I have some fantastic delicacies on offer.” He chuckles as he pats the rotted corpse of a pig that hangs off the ceiling, Jaune barges through to search through the house, and Umbra does not even stop him. He just keeps on making comical comments towards him.

Vir Nominis Umbra scoffs as he pushes through the gates of the counter to get through and find wherever this Exit Point is lurking in this Realm. “Oh I bet you’re one of those _vegetarian_ lot aren’t ya, you big flop-aired wuss.” Vir Nominis Umbra comments as he watches him barge by.

“Shut up, I’m not buying!” Jaune retorts as he walks up the steps into the house that is built into it, and stood in the stairwell in the corner as he plays with his fingers is Vir Nominis Umbra yet again.

“You know, you really do inspire me. Such a failure in life and trying to prove he is something more to a girl who has had so much success in her own. It’s really very romantic.” He chuckles, but Jaune continues to block him out as he searches around. He kicks a door in the room open, looking in the bedroom that lays in there and he stares at Umbra who lies in the bed in a rather seductive pose. He then transforms his body into the body of Weiss, his voice changing to hers as well.

Jaune stares at Umbra in the form of a very dear friend of his as he stares right at him, with those mimicked blue eyes of hers. Umbra slowly and sensually slides his fingers across his leg disguised as Weiss and Jaune stares at him in her body, but not following his hand that moves up towards the skirt. “Am I desirable?” He asks him in her voice and Jaune scoffs, turning and kicking the other door open, seeing Umbra stood in the other room as he brushes her long off-centred tail of white hair. He turns and stares at him in her pyjamas that she used to wear. “I bet you’d love to see what’s behind this, wouldn’t you?” He continues to annoy the living hell out of Jaune with this call-back to his own foolishness.

“Enough with the crap, Umbra!” Jaune shouts with frustration, and he tilts her head when disguised as her.

He kicks the next door open and he gasps, eyes wide with shock...because what Umbra did here is cruel beyond belief. Stood before him is Umbra but disguised as someone else, taller than he is with a slender and yet athletic and muscle renewed body of a very attractive young woman. She has long curly blonde hair and blue eyes like his with a smile on her face, wearing similar armour to what he has, but designed for a woman. She holds out her arms, speaking in a tender voice. “How’s this instead?” She asks him curiously...

It is his oldest sister...

The one who was killed and he visited the grave of five years ago.

Skyler Arc, the sister he lost and looked up to, killed by many Grimm when she tried to save her team and the people on Vytal. He stumbles back when Umbra walks out of the room towards him in that form. But that seems to drive him over the edge and he screams with rage, swinging Crocea Mors through Umbra’s body, and black smoke bursts from where he cuts through, the deep laceration is there but the smoke slowly returns back to where he gap was, filling the hole.

Skyler’s beautiful body fades away and returns back to Vir Nominis Umbra’s Soothsayer form, he looks at where he swung and he shakes his head. “Who do really want, Jaune Arc?” He questions.

“I know who it is – you evil monster – stop bringing the past back.” Jaune snarls, almost yelling at him with tears forming in his eyes from that cruel trick he just did to him. Vir Nominis Umbra keeps his hands close together with that pure evil smirk on his face as he stares down at him.

“You claim this...but why do your dreams claim otherwise?” He asks him, still planting some form of idea into his head. Jaune blinks, and Vir Nominis Umbra is gone instantly, and he pushes his sword into the ground to get back up. He searches around and it appears to be that the Soothsayer has left them for the time being, but that does not mean he will not return to torment them some more later.

He looks around, hoping to find some sort of Exit Point... _what does it look like?_

He touches one of the mirrors in the room but nothing happens when his fingers press against the pain other than leaving stains of his fingerprints on them. He sighs, backing up as he looks around. He looks up at the sky when he hears the dark and demonic voice of Vir Nominis Umbra as he speaks around them. His voice sounds much different, deeper and far more sinister than that of the form he has chosen. “Remember...time is running out.” He warns, and he looks out the window, seeing more Grimm charging towards their position.

Pyrrha is good...but not that good...

The Invincible Girl rolls past the Lord of the Wood, slashing Milo across the back of its leg and then sprinting directly towards it. She jumps upwards and runs up the chest of the creature, stabbing it in the head with her spear, holding on with all her might. The Lord of the Wood snarls, grabbing her by the waist and throwing her away from its body. She flips through the air and lands on her feet flawlessly, raising her black and gold shield up, still marked with the colour scheme of the Onyx Phantom. The Lord of the Wood stands tall, and it raises its hand towards her, and suddenly a flock of crows and black smoke gather behind it, a deep screech builds and builds behind it. Pyrrha’s glistening emerald eyes widen and she gasps, standing with strength as she holds the shield upwards to stop the crows from harming her. The Lord of the Wood blasts them all towards her, their crystal beaks scrape across Akuou and her aura, pushing her through the ash covered soil. And eventually they stop, and the Leshen continues to walk towards her.

Jaune bursts out from the Butcher’s swinging Crocea Mors across the Lord of the Wood’s chest, cutting a deep gash across the bark and black smoke leaks from its wound. It staggers back slightly but it continues to walk after them. “Not that building! Come on!” He tells her, grabbing her forearm and running as fast as he can from the Lord of the Wood, and the oncoming army of the Grimm.

The Leshen stands there and it slowly presses its huge clawed hand against the soil, and there is a pulse of deep red and black energy that makes the ground ripple. A pair of Grimm Creeps burst from the soil and land in front of them, roaring aggressively as they charge towards them, slamming their heads into their shields. Jaune is pushes back but he scrapes the shield across its head, twisting Crocea Mors down and driving it cleanly into the soft point in the back of its skull. The blade protrudes out of its throat afterwards; it collapses to the ground and eventually disappears into a cloud of smoke.

Pyrrha sprints towards the Creep that she kicked back after striking it away from her with her shield, and the Lord of the Wood continues to slowly pursue them. She extends her sword into the Spear form, spinning round as she slashes across its body, then throwing it towards the Creep. The spear stabs into its chest, taking it off the floor and pinning it to the wall. They both approach the next building, another house but not a Butcher’s this time. “Swap!” Jaune calls out, turning to stare at the massive Leshen that walks towards him, scraping its claws together to sharpen them. He gulps nervously, he can challenge it but that does not take away the intimidation it creates.

The Lord of the Wood unexpectedly dashes towards him in a cloud of black smoke and Corvus Birds, it swings its claws at him horizontally, but he ducks down and only just misses the attack it delivered, as it marches towards him this time. He sheathes the sword into his shield and draws the Claymore version of Crocea Mors, glaring at the beast. It raises its arm and huge roots form in its arm like a massive whip, it swings the huge weapon back and forth, ripping the ground up in every attack as it approaches. “Oh come on!” Jaune exclaims, rolling out the way as the Lord of the Wood slams the root whip down where he was, and that would have crushed him.

Pyrrha sprints into the building, aiming through the iron sights of her Rifle, slowly walking inside of the house, it would have once looked very pretty but now it is just a burned mess, a charred memory of what once was. She carefully steps through the house, knowing that Umbra must have set something up in here, this is his Realm after all, anything could be hiding in there.

She turns a corner and instinctively fires and screams with fear when she sees her stood right before her. Cinder Fall, but the version of her when she last saw her. When she killed her six years ago. Still with both eyes and wearing her old maroon coloured dress with fiery orange markings covering it. The bullet travels through her waist and the woman vanishes into a puff of smoke. She called it; of course he had some sort of nasty little trick up his sleeve. She carefully walks into the building, checking her corners to find anything that resembles an Exit Point.

_Surely it must stand out..._

She slowly and gently opens one of the doors in the house, peering inside as she searches for this thing. There is nothing inside of it and she then closes it, but yelps when Vir Nominis Umbra is leant against the wall next to her with his arms crossed. She stares at him and he smirks, looking at her. “It’s a good thing I didn’t show him some of your other dreams, I think a _thank you_ is in order?” He chuckles with a smirk; she rolls her green eyes and walks away from him.

She was a teenager who was experiencing sexual attraction for the first time; her mind is going to dream of some rather exciting things. She looks into another room, nothing of interest apart from Umbra being stood in there as well, sat on the windowsill, kicking his legs back and forth. “You really must be craving to experience what it is like aren’t you? To lose your virginity?”

“Shut up.” Pyrrha snarls, closing the door, but it has no affect because now he is beside her, looking at her still.

“To see what he looks like...under the hoodie? Under the clothes in general?” He questions, still using the Sin of Lust against them, smirking as she walks past him. “Would you like to se-”

“No!” Pyrrha shouts as she walks past him.

“Ah...you’d rather experience the real thing yourself...I get it.” He chuckles, walking with her as he ponders alongside her.

“Can you please stop being annoying for at least five seconds?” She asks him, which was a pretty silly question to ask. Because he literally waits five seconds until he starts speaking again, prodding her mind and her sexual attraction to Jaune.

“You know maybe you should just get the jump on him, next time you two have the time when you are alone...just spring it on him. It’s the best way to get his attention.” Vir Nominis Umbra suggests, and she rolls her eyes.

“I dunno what I was expecting.” She sighs, closing her eyes as she walks around the place. Unlike the torment he put Jaune through, he is just pushing Pyrrha’s buttons...perhaps he is waiting to hurt her for something special later on? That actually makes this whole debate they are having much more terrifying in fact.

She opens another door and he peaks in there with her with a smile. “You know, I have actually heard that intercourse improves relationships.” He adds, smiling with every comment he makes, and Pyrrha rolls her eyes, closing the door and turning around, pressing the barrel against his head. He looks at her and pouts his lips. “Did I get my point across?” He asks her curiously.

“Yep.” She answers, pulling the trigger, knowing it won’t kill him but just to make him go away. But she can still hear his voice echoing around her, but not that demonic one that they heard earlier, still the Soothsayer’s voice.

“Well at least I have offered some advice; I have seen lots of lovers you know.” He chuckles.

_Advice from a Demonic Entity...how could this day get any weirder?_

She finds yet another door, so she carefully pushes it open with her hand, and she gasps with relief from what she finds. It appears to be a glass wall that is fragmented, all the shards floating in the same place with a faint whispering howl emerging from it. Light is emitted from the Exit Point and she smiles. “Jaune! I’ve found it!” She calls, and Jaune slices his Claymore across the leg of the Lord of the Wood to bring it down to its knee. He sprints towards the house but the Leshen is not about to give up that easily.

It pushes its hand into the soil, and roots begin to tunnel their way through the soft and weak soil that they were stood upon, working their way closer and closer to where they are. Jaune runs into the house, but falls onto his face as a root wraps around his ankle, slowly pulling him back to the Lord of the Wood that begins to rise back up. “Pyrrha!” Jaune screams, and she gasps, wide eyed and sprints to his aid. Pyrrha grabs onto his hand and holds on tight.

“I’ve got you!” Pyrrha promises, slashing the roots from his heel and the Leshen snarls with annoyance, walking towards them again. She holds him close and points at the Exit Point. “There it is!” She tells him, they both turn and sprint as fast as they can, and they both notice Vir Nominis Umbra stood in the house to their left with a smile on his face. They both look at him then stare forward as they leap into the Exit Point.

The Lord of the Wood transforms into the form of the black smoke and swarm of Crows and Ravens, cawing as they fly towards the collapsing Exit Point that they just escaped through. The Lord of the Wood just makes it inside as it collapses.

 

**Jaune**

They just made it through, landing onto the carpeted floor of a familiar building. Jaune holds Pyrrha in his arms; he has become so protective of her, that he just wants her safe. She lies on his chest and looks into his eyes, smiling affectionately at him. He ever so gently caresses her long red locks of hair, sitting up with her in his arms, the timid young woman has her head gently pressed to his chest, they look around and their eyes look befuddled.

They are...

In Beacon...

It is the Dormitory Hallway; many doors to different rooms stretch out before them as they look around. There is a flash of black and red energy, and Vir Nominis Umbra materialises before them with his hands held close together. “What a cute couple.” He comments with a smirk, they both remain there on the floor in each other’s embrace, she feels safe with him.

“What is this?” Jaune questions as he looks around the area, and Vir Nominis Umbra examines the place with a smirk.

“Welcome to the next Layer – I call it the Hall of Fears...” He tells them with a smile. “Similar to your previous challenge, you must locate the Exit Point in this Realm, however every room, every turning may have a little surprise in store for you. And remember...this hallway is under my command...so don’t expect things to be...normal.” He advises with a grin, vanishing in a red crackle of energy, black smoke trails off from where he was.

They both look into each other’s eyes, holding each other close.

“We can do this...” Jaune whispers as he gently holds her, and she closes her eyes as she holds onto him.

“I trust you...” She whispers with love glowing in her heart.

They must simply find the way out of this Game of Shadows he has created for them first.


	38. The Hall of Fears

**Jaune**

Jaune looks around the halls of the Beacon Dormitories; it looks so familiar but feels so different at the exact same time. He stands up carefully, helping Pyrrha up with him as he keeps her close in his arms. She still has her hands onto his torso as she keeps her body close to his, large emerald green eyes scanning the hall that stretches out before them. They look around, seeing that they are in a cross-section of the hallways.

_I don’t remember the hallway looking like this..._

A cold breeze travels down the halls as they both stand tall inside, Jaune draws Crocea Mors when Pyrrha is able to stand without his help. She too draws Milo and Akuou, ready to fight whatever lurks inside of these doors. Inside of these room – and they need to find out how to get out of this damned place. Jaune walks forward, and he looks back at Pyrrha, she is still quite terrified of being here, trapped in the realms created by the one that tormented her. It is said that Vir Nominis Umbra will honour his end of the bargain if his challenger wins – the issue is...nobody has beaten him, and thus those words just feel completely void and hollow.

Jaune walks over to her, hearing the chinking of the metal in her weapons as she shakes. She stops though, when he stands with her. “We can’t stay too long, Pyrrha. We need to keep moving, stay ahead of the Lord of the Wood while we still can.” Jaune whispers to her, she sighs and nods her head, walking with him down the familiar yet different halls. There are so many doors in this hallway, and they can hear the faint caws of the Lord of the Wood in the distance.

“I don’t like this.” Pyrrha stammers, his eyes turn to her and he looks back ahead as he asks his question.

“Did he – did he put you in here, once?” Jaune inquires, and she looks at him as they walk down the hallway cautiously. Anything could be lurking in this layer of his cruel little game of realms.

“Not this one...this is new.” Pyrrha tells him, and Jaune catches onto her description there.

“ _This_ one?” He asks, and she sighs.

“The last one? That was the Charred Forest, just a different part of it.” She explains with a nervous voice. It appears the Charred Forest is much larger than they actually realise. It is not just a forest, there are hills and fields that are charred as well. _Are there cities reduced to the same state? Is the Charred Forest an Alternate Version of Remnant right now?_

Before he can wonder any more on these thoughts, they both stop and turn to a door. They are not fools, they know that they are bound to come across their fears sooner or later, and they cannot just keep walking in the halls. Clearly the hallways are infinite, just stretching on for miles before them until they start opening up more and more doors. Jaune raises Crocea Mors up in his hand, cautiously reaching towards the doorknob of this door. He looks at her, nervously breathing as he stares at her.

She looks just as nervous.

“Here goes nothing.” He exhales, twisting the doorknob and unlocking the door. He pulls it open ever so slowly, the creaking of the door seems to be extra loud than physically possible. Jaune would be scared of what is inside, but he just rolls his eyes with annoyance and – somewhat – disappointment. Because Vir Nominis Umbra is in the Dormitory, in the form of Weiss once again with a guitar in his hand as he strikes the fingers with the sweeping action of his hand.

“Jauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune!” Umbra playfully sings as he stands there, just as he did to Weiss when he was swooning for her. Jaune sighs, slamming the door shut in his face with an annoyed expression, turning to Pyrrha who cannot help but giggle. Despite how evil Vir Nominis Umbra really is, one cannot deny his sense of humour is on point – in a sick way – but still pretty entertaining.

“Is he always _this_ annoying?” He sighs with the same frustrated expression on his face.

“Yep.” Pyrrha answers, nodding her head. They both look at the door and then at each other. “Think it’ll be different?” Pyrrha inquires curiously.

“Let’s see.” He replies, opening the door again.

Still in the form of Weiss Schnee, he starts dancing in a completely out-of-character fashion, kicking Weiss’ legs back and forth as he plays the guitar to him. “Look at the blind boy!” Before he can even start the song he has started up in Weiss’ beautiful voice, Jaune slams the door shut again with a sigh, walking away from it.

“I hate that guy so much.” He sighs.

“You’re telling me.” Pyrrha scoffs, following him. They both turn a corner and Umbra is leant against the wall. They are not even shocked by his presence anymore, only when he shows himself as their fears or other things does it scare them.

“You didn’t even let me start singing.” He complains, holding the Guitar in his hand still.

“Ain’t gonna let you start now.” Jaune states, walking past them.

“Cor blimey, he’s a grumpy pleb isn’t he?” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles. Pyrrha just walks past the Soothsayer, following Jaune and moving onward. But they know the fact is still at large, all of this playful banter that Umbra is giving them is merely a starting point for them. They know that soon he will start playing the game in a much crueller fashion. He has already brought Jaune to tears when taking the form of Skyler Arc – whose death is still a mystery to him.

“There’s no escaping the fact, is there?” Pyrrha asks him.

“Huh? What fact?” Jaune replies with a question, looking at her as he walks, shield held up.

“We can’t tiptoe around it – he designed this place to have fears behind every door. The halls won’t have an end, Jaune. We need to open the doors.” Pyrrha stammers, fearfully since she does not want to know what lurks within those rooms.

“I-I know...I just don’t want to get to hasty. The Lord of the Wood is still in here with us, you know?” Jaune points out, still hearing the distant caws of the Leshen in the corridors.

Jaune and Pyrrha both cautiously walk through the corridors that are in here, then something changes. They hear the voice of Vir Nominis Umbra once more, emanating from all around them, slightly demonic as he speaks but still carrying the tones of the Soothsayer. And yet they know that this is no voice for a person, because he did not have the same cadence that a person has when they speak. His one...was so much more sinister, like a snake waiting to plunge its fangs into its prey from the shadows. “Oh – awful! This is terrible to watch!” Vir Nominis Umbra complains, like a bored child trying to have fun at something. “You are taking too long...how about I speed things up a little bit?” He asks them, then they hear a heavy rumbling emerge from behind them.

Jaune and Pyrrha both turn around as the rumbling grows louder and louder, feeling the heavy vibrations in their toes from the carpeted floor. It sounds like an earthquake, just a constant distant roar that just grows and grows. Then they see what is coming for them, their eyes widen with shock when they see it.

Gallons and gallons of water, perhaps a lake-full, come avalanching towards them, submerging the hallway behind them. “Run!” Jaune yells, sprinting behind Pyrrha, making sure she is ahead of him. The water crashes through the halls behind them, they can feel the cold temperature from the water behind them. It is like the Atlesian Ocean, so cold that metal freezes practically instantly in there. Pyrrha looks back over her shoulder to make sure that Jaune is still behind her – he is – but so is all the water that pursues them. It pours down the other paths as well that they do not take, but it is not giving up on them just yet.

“This way!” Pyrrha calls out, but as she turns the corner, she feels her weight suddenly drop into her ankles. She screams with shock and terror, seeing the hallway suddenly bend downwards at a razor sharp ninety degree angle. Umbra floats before them with a smirk on his face. Jaune stops behind her when he sees Umbra floating over the sheer drop, and he pulls her back from the edge that she nearly fell into. That fall would most certainly kill them, quite a harsh move by him, honestly.

“Mind the gap – remember, here the laws of physics are under _my_ command.” Vir Nominis Umbra advises with a smirk. Jaune turns back and can see the ocean of water still behind them, getting even closer. He grabs Pyrrha’s hand and points at the nearest door. The room is now their best bet to get out of here now.

“Come on!” Jaune yells, and they both sprint towards the door, since they have no way out anymore. Jaune slams his shoulder into the door to open it, and the door bursts open. They both turn round and they slam the door shut, pushing their hands against it as the water crashes against it. In reality, the wood will shatter from this impact of all that water, but luckily for the, this is not in the universe that they are used to. Here physics are more like a video game’s world physics.

They sigh with relief as they keep their hands pushed up against the wall, then they look at each other. The relief fades after they realise what they have just put themselves into – they are in a room, and it is not the one that they were hoping for. There is no Exit Point, and the Dormitory has a crate sat in the middle of the room. It is like a treasure chest for some reason, one that has the Schnee Dust Company Symbol on it...

Whether or not that is yet another jab at Jaune or just because that was the first crate that came to mind is up for debate. They both try and reopen the door, but it has been locked and they cannot unlock it.

“Shit!” Jaune exclaims with anger, striking the door with his boot to try and break it open, but it does not budge. If anything it pushes him back from it, he staggers and he presses his hands to his knees. “It won’t budge...” Jaune exhales, staring at the door that just let them enter so easily at first. Now it refuses to open for them in any way, he turns and looks at Pyrrha. She is staring at that box, her wrist shaking slightly as she gazes at it. Something is drawing her to that box, and Jaune would be lying if it did not draw him as well.

“It’s not going to open, not until we look in the chest.” Pyrrha tells him.

“No, there has to be a way.” Jaune states, pacing around the room to try and find a way out of this place. He pushes his hands against the walls and they sound hollow. He yells and strikes it with Crocea Mors, but the sword just bounces off the wallpaper, not even tearing it from the wall. Only sparks burst from the impact, like he just swung his sword into corrugated metal or something. He pants as he stands there, still recovering from their sprint from the water that chased them down that corridor, felt like they ran a marathon.

Pyrrha sighs, and she turns to him again, pushing some of her strands of red hair from her right emerald eye. “Jaune...” She tenderly says to him, and he looks at her after hearing her voice. She looks at him and then at the crate. “It is part of his game...we need to play it if we are ever gonna get out of here.” Pyrrha tells him, feeling a shiver of fear up her back. Whatever is in there must be terrifying if it must be locked away.

Against his better judgement, he sighs and agrees, walking over to her and the crate which is still sat in the middle of the Dormitory. Jaune looks around, and it seems like they are in Team R.W.B.Y’s old Dormitory back in Beacon. All the beds are stacked up like they are meant to be bunk beds. Not safely or even remotely structurally stable. One of them is held up with rope and the other is held up with a couple of books to keep it there. She looks at him now, despite knowing they need to open this box, she is still very apprehensive about opening it.

Then again...

Who would happily open it up like this?

But they have no other choice. “Be ready, whatever is hiding in this box might try and kill us. And I doubt it is gonna go down without a fight.” Jaune warns, keeping Crocea Mors held tight in his quivering hand. The plates of metal in his armour, the straps and screws in the plates as well are clinking as well. He catches his wrist to calm himself down, whatever hides in there will attack them. Pyrrha stands there, exhaling through her lips as she prepares to use her semblance to open it.

She does not want to risk something grabbing her from the box when it opens, so she stands a respective distance away from it in order to open it up. “Okay...are you ready?” Pyrrha asks him, and Jaune nods, pointing his sword at the box and Pyrrha has hers ready as well.

“Three...

Two...

One.” Pyrrha finishes, and the black energy surrounds her hand and the box in question. She opens it up, but nothing happens. It is dead silent and nothing rises from it, no voice comes out it. It is completely normal, and she turns and looks at Jaune. He shrugs his shoulders and she cautiously approaches it.

“Pyrrha...” He whispers nervously, not agreeing with this idea to look into the box. It is Vir Nominis Umbra after all, he is cunning and could have trap waiting in there for them. Pyrrha does not listen, and her curiosity draws her nearer and nearer to the silent and open box. Closer and closer, every step seems to echo in the dead silence.

She peers inside of the box, and it is jet black in there for some reason, despite the light shining into it...

There is nothing...

But shadows.

Suddenly a pair of glowing red unnatural eyes open up in the shadows, along with a smirk of jagged glowing red teeth as well. Pyrrha gasps, and suddenly the chest explodes as a huge storm of jet black smoke rises from the box, the shockwave blows the couple off their feet and into the walls. The Bunk Beds are blown from where they stood, shattering into dust and the windows shatter as well, the trees and grass as well turn black and are tormented with flames that stretch across the Academy and Vale for miles.

Pyrrha crawls back with fear from the entity that rises up before her, the smoke forms a face in the mass, and it is the face of Vir Nominis Umbra. But he does not create his body, just the face inside of the swirling tornado of black smoke and shadows. Vir Nominis Umbra creates a deafening roar as he erupts from the chest, slowly approaching Pyrrha on the ground with a glowing red smirk inside the shadows. “You entered my home, and now you are mine.” Vir Nominis Umbra snarls as he approaches Pyrrha, the ground peels up and crumbles into dust around it as it gets closer. Jaune cannot get up, rotten undead hands rise up from the ground and clutch onto him.

He screams with fear, writhing around on the ground as the undead hold him there as the monster approaches the girl he loves. “Your memories...soul...life-force...emotion...it is all mine.” Vir Nominis Umbra whispers as he approaches her, reaching out to her with many hands that have charred skin and screaming voices are plaguing the hideous form. Like a body made from the many souls of the dead, but they are all still alive somehow.

Pyrrha finds herself backed up against the wall from the monster that stares at her, and it smirks sinisterly at her. “I have seen your nightmares, Pyrrha Nikos. And I understand your strife...” He whispers, stroking her cheek with one of the burning hot hands, making her shudder. He then starts to describe one of her fears to her, and it burns a horrible pain into Jaune’s heart. “You feared that the one you loved would never return the same feelings to you...that he would rather accept the love of another that did not deserve him...” He whispers through the many pained dead voices he has collected over the years.

Jaune’s eyes widen from what he realises Vir Nominis Umbra is saying, and Pyrrha stares at the apparition as it changes its form once again. The black smoke emerges multiple colours, whites, blondes and blues. And she watches with disbelief as Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee – appearing as they do now – walking towards her. “Pyrrha!” Jaune desperately screams as the dead hands keep pulling him down into the carpet, it is actually beginning to hurt him now as they force him down, almost compacting him like this.

Pyrrha – however – cannot take her eyes off what Vir Nominis Umbra has created before her. Weiss stares at her with what appears to be disgusted blue eyes, walking with her dress loosely on. “He never needed you...you were just something for Jaune to clutch to...” Weiss says with a snarl as she approaches, and Pyrrha’s eyes widen with horror from what she sees. She is fighting the idea of this being real, but it looks so real at the same time.

“Pyrrha! Kill it!” Jaune yells, then one of them grabs him by the throat, choking him where he cannot move.

The idea of Jaune walks towards Pyrrha with Weiss beside him, a smirk on his face. “Look at yourself...you think you are something special? You’re nothing more than a special little girl with a few tricks...but you are nothing compared to the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company.” The Jaune Apparition states as it approaches her on the ground, bringing a tear to her eye.

“You even told Jaune that he needed help – when he could have learned on his own.” The Weiss Apparition tells her, Jaune cannot scream for her any more as the hands have squeezed so hard on his throat that he cannot even utter words anymore. He just stares at Pyrrha desperately.

“Why would I waste my time with you? You...are absolutely nothing...compared to how beautiful she is...how perfect she is.” The Jaune Apparition states, turning to look at her. Pyrrha clenches her hand into a fist slowly with anger, seeing them rip their clothes from their bodies, their lips touching as Jaune lifts Weiss into his arms, stroking her leg with his hand as he kisses her. Their sighs of pleasure fill the room, and Pyrrha slowly begins to stand up, pulling Milo and Akuou into her hands. Jaune pushes his hand through Weiss’ white hair as he kisses her, kissing down her neck and into her sternum.

Jaune is nearly about to pass out as the undead hands start to suffocate him.

Pyrrha glares at the couple who embrace each other before her...but she is actually glaring _past_ then...and to the red eyes and teeth that watch her with a smirk. “Nice try.” Pyrrha snarls, using her polarity as she launches the javelin into the hallucination formed before them. Milo stabs straight through the images of naked Jaune and Weiss, their bodies burst into smoke and the spearhead punctures Vir Nominis Umbra’s chest.

The impact takes him off the ground and pins him into the wall. The black smoke evaporates, and the arms shatter around Jaune. The bones snap and crumble into dust and the skin peels away around him, Jaune finally gasps for air, sitting upright. And Pyrrha sprints right to his side, helping him back up, whilst Umbra remains pinned to the wall, unfazed by it. Pyrrha glares at him as she holds him in her arms and he chuckles cunningly, slowly vanishing into smoke and leaving them.

The door opens behind them...and the water is gone...

But that was not the door that they were hoping for.

Pyrrha caresses Jaune’s cheeks, seeing there are some bruises here and there from the dead hands that were holding onto him like that. She is so worried, checking for any cuts on him that could be bleeding. “Are you okay?” Pyrrha asks him desperately, and he just wraps his arms around her, hugging her tightly. She gasps with an unexpected yelp from how sudden the embrace was, then she hugs him back, stroking his blonde hair. They eventually break the hug and look into one another’s eyes.

“How did – did you know?” Jaune asks her nervously.

“Know what?” She inquires back.

“That he was lying?” Jaune asks, but she shakes her head.

“It wasn’t a lie...that was a fear of mine...” She admits to him, stepping away from him and looking down at the floor, gently kicking her foot back and forth.

“Me and Weiss?” Jaune questions, then she looks at him again.

“Of losing you...” She admits, and then he realises what she means. That was only a form of losing Jaune to her eyes, but that fear still exists now, just not that form since the feelings he had for Weiss are gone. Maybe not forgotten, since nobody forgets a crush you had, but he does not have them for her anymore. Jaune holds her hands and he smiles, lifting her lowered head with his thumb at the chin.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He promises with a smile. He wraps his arm around her and kisses her on the head affectionately. They both begin to get moving again, leaving the room, then Pyrrha makes a cheeky comment.

“Well, it wasn’t just that that made it easy to figure out he was messing with me.” Pyrrha states.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Weiss would _never_ let you kiss her.”

Jaune chokes from a laugh that sneaks up on him from her statement then, and he follows her.

 

**Blake**

Blake sits by the covered up body of Sienna Khan, blood still stains the steps where she fell from where Vir Nominis Umbra killed her. She has seen the footage with widened and horrified eyes, confused and terrified of what to do next. The whole world just saw footage of her murdering the High Leader of the White Fang. Her black hair blows in the breeze, and the only person she knows that believes her is Winter, since she was with her when this happened.

Neither of them were there...

Winter stands in the huge room, looking at Blake with grief for her. This must be soul-destroying...she ran from her friends when Adam and the White Fang showed up to destroy Beacon. Now what is she going to do when this happened, her hands shake with distress of this moment. Winter sighs, uncrossing her arms and walking towards her. “Blake...” Winter softly speaks, crouching down beside Blake, looking at the young woman.

“I...I don’t...” Blake stammers, unable to find the words to describe how she is feeling. Everything that has happened, Salem and her allies have just managed to turn everybody against the Huntsmen and their academies in the span of half an hour...or Vir Nominis Umbra has. Winter grabs Blake by her shoulders and turns her round so then she faces her.

“Blake! Snap out of it!” Winter demands, going _Military-Mode_ on her. “The situation has gone F.U.B.R real fast, we need to get back to Beacon.” Winter explains to her, but Blake is still shocked from all of this.

_How is that even possible?_

_It was me...but I was not even in the building when that happened...I was just about to walk in when that all went down..._

_What do we do?_

Blake shakes her head, her cat ears are flopped over as she looks at Winter with concerned amber eyes. Winter stands up, and eventually Blake does the same, wiping a tear from her eye and sniffling as she picks up Gambol Shroud. “The others back home...do you think they will even believe us?” Blake mutters fearfully with her soft-spoken voice.

Winter will not lie, that footage was extremely convincing. “Just...let me explain the situation to them. I know that Qrow will listen to me.” Winter tells her, and Blake respects her decision to speak with her in relation to the situation. And that situation is really bad as well. They have only one choice and that is to hope that they will not just shoot Blake on site. However she is one of their closest friends, and Sun’s boyfriend...so they should at least question her before deciding on the judgement.

Blake nods her head, and Winter turns to the table that Sienna Khan had all those documents and maps splayed out. The ones that she showed to Vir Nominis Umbra...it is truly surprising that he did not just destroy them.

Perhaps it would take the _fun_ away from all of this chaos he has started.

Winter walks towards them, and Blake timidly follows Weiss’ older sister. “What are you doing?” Blake inquires, and Winter begins to read over the documents. She pushes some of the maps aside, many that have White Fang Settlements still occupied by the Albain Loyalists...not like it matters anymore. The White Fang is back to the way it used to be...all the work and the sacrifices made by the Belladonnas has been for nothing all thanks to Umbra’s deceiving act.

Winter reads some of them, and she gasps when she sees the information. “Menagerie has stopped reporting in...” Winter speaks out, looking at Blake.

“What? When?” Blake questions.

“Nearly a month ago...a couple of weeks without any transmissions is understandable. Could have been a malfunction or nothing to report...but a month?” Winter questions suspiciously.

“With the amount of repairs made to the Island...there would have been updates either way.” Blake states.

“Precisely...” Winter softly agrees.

They both look at each other with worried eyes, they’ve no idea of what this information could mean. Menagerie could have been attacked by the Albain Loyalists long before this whole event had even happened. Umbra has got them on a leash at the moment, so this could be another step in his plan.

It’s something at least...

“We need to take this and bring it to Beacon...this must be important. We need to go to Menagerie and figure out what is happening down there.” Winter explains, rolling up the documents and throwing them to Blake. She catches them and watches as Winter walks past her.

“How do you propose we leave Mistral?” Blake asks.

“Our ship will most likely have been secured by now, we need to find a Smuggler. Luckily I know where to find some, in the lower reaches of Mistral. Take this cloak.” Winter says, throwing a black cloak from one of the dead White Fang to her, and Blake catches it in her grasp, then looks up at Winter as she walks away from her towards the exit.

“B-But the people...they think I’m a traitor! They’ll attack us!” Blake calls, but Winter smiles as she turns round with her swords in her hands.

“Let them try...”

 

**Pyrrha**

They both start moving quickly down the corridors again, because they are not about to risk making the same mistake they made last time. They both jog down the paths and they move as quickly as they can. Their footfalls echo down the halls that stretch, bend and turn around them, trying to guess which one of these doors will be the right one to open. The caws of the Lord of the Wood pursue them as they are followed.

Pyrrha runs forward, opening one of the doors to a room, but the door slams shut behind her extremely hard, splitting her up from Jaune. “No!” Jaune yells, slamming into the wooden door, bouncing off it from the impact. He slides across the carpet from the recoil from the impact, pressing his hand to his head. Pyrrha’s eyes widen after realising what has happened, and she turns to the door, gasping with terror. She slams her hands against it, despite knowing that she cannot open it, she still tries.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha screams with terror, staring at the metal hinges and she scowls at them, activating her semblance on them to rip them off. But nothing happens, her semblance cannot harm them, and she will only weaken her aura if she does that. She exhales with shock, stepping away from the door.

_Guess I have to do this myself..._

She turns around, staring at where she is...and she is filled with confusion. It is the hallway still, and she walks away from the door, still on her own. The caws of the Crows are not in here though, so that must mean that this room is shown as a hallway. Then she hears the calls of his voice down the corridor not far from where she is walking. “Pyrrha...” Jaune weakly calls from somewhere.

Pyrrha gasps with relief, following the echoes of his voice, following them round the corner to find his location. “Pyrrha...” He repeats weakly, but when she turns the corner...there is nobody there. She looks around more and more, making sure she has not messed up where she is. She closes her eyes, trying to use her connection to Jaune to find him. She searches her memories, despite some of them still remaining forgotten...she attempts to find him through one of them.

“Come on...where are you, Jaune?” Pyrrha whispers softly as she searches her mind for him.

“Pyrrha...” Jaune’s voice speaks before her and she gasps, opening her eyes.

Vir Nominis Umbra stare straight into her eyes with a smirk when they open, and she gasps. Umbra slams his hand into her chest plate which throws her across the corridor, and she crashes across the floor, hitting the wall. She groans, shaking it off and she looks around, heart still beating hard and fast...

But Vir Nominis Umbra has vanished yet again, all she can hear is the faint chuckles of him around her.

She pushes her hand against her knee, standing back up and pulling her weapons back into her grasp with her polarity. She raises her shield, walking carefully across the corridor, turning a corner, and her eyes widen.

Jaune is sat by the wall, head rested against the door that he has found. “Pyrrha...” He calls again, sounding tired of doing it for so long. Her heart flutters and she walks over to him.

“Jaune...” She sighs with relief...but he never looks at her. He cannot hear her for some reason, and she stammers, reaching towards him slowly with her hand. Her fingers approach his shoulder to get his attention, but black smoke erupts from his body, vapour leaves the room as it travels far away from where he was sat. Only whispery howls remain that beckon her name and she steps back, and turns around to see Vir Nominis Umbra stood behind her with his hands held close together.

Pyrrha snarls and she raises her weapons. “Why are you doing this to us? We have done nothing wrong!” Pyrrha screams with anger and distress, the blade of Milo is held right up to his face. If he were a person this would be an astounding threat to make, but he is not afraid of her, or her threats. He looks at the blade and then at her with a smirk on his face.

“No...you’ve not done anything wrong...but I do not hunt those who do bad things.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, he leans forward with a smirk.

“I hunt those who challenge my beliefs.” He states, vanishing in a puff of smoke, leaving Pyrrha with more questions than answers.

“What beliefs?” She calls, walking around, silence fell for quite some time as she walked through the monotonous hallways over and over again.

“Every soul can be controlled...but you and Jaune Arc...something else binds you together. Something more than love, I could not control you without the force of a Demonic Entity to bind itself to you.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, giving her a chill when he says that.

“Why do you want to control me?” Pyrrha hisses, walking cautiously in the corridors.

“You and I made a pact – I put an investment into you, I guess you could say – I granted you incredible gifts and skills in your life, made you unbelievably beautiful and gave you the greatest gift of all. Humbleness in heart despite your strengths.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains. “If an Investor placed a claim on something, they would want to get their money’s worth out of the deal.”

“Sure...so what is it you want from me? To control me?” She questions.

“I enjoy making use out of others, spares me the hassle. I intend to use you as a weapon, or a – hmm, how should I put it – a proxy.” He tells her. “Like the Spectre and Neopolitan for example, even the Knights of Grimm in fact, come to think of it.”

_The Soothsayer’s Proxies..._

Pyrrha looks around to find where the Soothsayer is speaking from, despite him being all around her. “Well you won’t – I am loyal to Jaune to the end...” Pyrrha tells him, and the Soothsayer laughs evilly from around her. His laugh sets her on edge, whenever he laughs that usually means that something cruel is about to happen.

“Loyalty?” He questions with a scoff. “Would you like to see what loyalty brings you? What his loyalty to you will bring him?”

Pyrrha walks around and she gasps from what she sees, seeing Jaune in the corner...something is very wrong with him. His black hoodie is moth eaten and his face and body is covered in grime and cuts. He has grown a thick grey beard and long white hair, wrinkles contort his face. His hands are shaking as if he has Parkinson’s Disease, staring at her with a snapped Crocea Mors at his feet. “Pyrrha?” The Old Man Jaune weakly whispers, staring at her with nearly blinded eyes, shrouded with milky whiteness.

Pyrrha’s eyes widen with horror, tears well up in her lids, slowly approaching him with anxiety, reaching out to him. “Jaune?” She whispers with fear for his safety, crouching down beside him.

“You left me alone here...let Cinder Fall kill you...how could you do that to me?” Jaune whimpers with tears in his eyes, and she immediately realises what this is based around. Her death, the sacrifice she made to try and stop Cinder when Beacon fell six years ago. Pyrrha crouches down beside him, touching his hand, feeling the cold wrinkly skin that has formed where she once remembered the warm soft ones of the man she loves. Her voice trembles fearfully, despite knowing that this is Vir Nominis Umbra’s idea – his ideas usually become true. But some do not at the same time, and that is what terrifies her...she does not know if this is a warning of the future or just him messing with her head.

“What happened?” She asks him with her extremely nervous voice, then Jaune suddenly strikes his head against the wall he is leant against.

“You promised you would always be there for me, Pyrrha! You lied to me again!” He cries, hitting his head against the wall over and over again like some deranged animal she has found in the middle of the woods. Seeing Jaune acting that way breaks her heart, and all she wants to do is hug him and make him happy again.

“I didn’t – I’m sorry...I never wanted it to happen that way.” Pyrrha sniffles with tears in her eyes. Pyrrha yelps, due to Old Man Jaune’s aback action as he lunges towards her, missing but she falls onto her back, crawling back from him fearfully. “Jaune? What are you doing?” Pyrrha nervously questions, crawling away from him slowly, and he pulls his old decrepit body across the carpet to reach her, struggling to breathe, and he stares at her with glassy eyes.

“I’ve been so alone without you...they come for me every day...every night...” Jaune whimpers with agony in his voice, bringing more pain to Pyrrha with every word that he utters. “Sharp claws, voices...burning me every night...” He sobs with true torment in his pained voice. Pyrrha’s love is so strong for Jaune, that despite the fact that he lunged for her, she still approaches him...desperate to help him. She slowly but gently reaches over to his hand to try and comfort him.

“Jaune?” She whispers, but he suddenly screams at her.

“How could you betray me?” Jaune screams with rage and anguish, standing back up, and Pyrrha crawls backwards, and back to her feet, backing away from him as he storms towards her. Jaune slams his hands against his chest as he screams words that burn right into Pyrrha’s heart and memory. “How could you do that to me?” Jaune screams, his voice echoes endlessly before he vanishes into a cloud of black smoke when he gets close to her. Pyrrha looks away, tears still stream from her eyes as she looks away, closing them as she flinches. When her Emerald Eyes open...Old Man Jaune is gone.

But Vir Nominis Umbra is not done with her yet, he still has more cruel games tucked up his sleeve for her. “Your loyalty to him got you killed, you were so desperate to save him by sacrificing your own life...that you did not think of the consequences that would come for your beloved.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, his voice echoing around her as he speaks, almost sounds like he is speaking to her from behind. Like he is over her shoulder, but whenever she turns around to find him, he is not even there. She is on her own in this place, staggering around.

“I was destined to do it! If giving my life saves the people I care about then I will do it!” Pyrrha yells, her selflessness is inspiring, but Vir Nominis Umbra can see through it.

“You make it sound like you were being Selfless, but you weren’t. You let yourself become hooked to the idea I gave you, I did not force it on you. In fact, you were the one that came to _me_ to learn of your future. I told you, and you made sure your life would follow that path...no matter what happened with the people around you.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, but Pyrrha shakes her head, closing her eyes.

“No, you’re wrong.” Pyrrha denies.

“Deny the truth if you must – but that does not make it false.” Umbra says.

“I am not selfish! I would rather them survive instead of me surviving and people _I_ care about die along the way!” Pyrrha argues, her arms tensed up as she searches for the source of that voice.

“You still do not see the irony in the words you say, do you?” He questions, and she looks around more and more. “Ever heard of the phrase – _run and live to fight another day_?” He asks her, and she stops searching for the voice and continues to walk through the halls to find where the exit point could be. It might be here, but she has not found it yet. “There is no dishonour in that.” He states.

“If I ran...” But before she can finish, Umbra finishes it for her.

“Cinder would have won – and you died...for what? She still beat you, destroyed Beacon and Qrow Branwen took the Relic long before you decided to fight her. You died for nothing, the only thing it wrought was the grief of the one you held dearest.” He states.

“Stop it!” Pyrrha screams in anger and distress, then Umbra sighs with frustration...at the fact she is not listening to his words.

“Fine then – how about I give you a taste of how Jaune Arc felt when you abandoned him.” He states, and she turns around when she feels a cold feeling and a terrible stench. She gasps with horror from what is laid on the ground...

A cold decayed corpse of a man, clothes ripped apart and stained blood covers the walls. His skin has rotted away, peeled off in places which shows the crunched bones underneath. His skull fractured in places...and on the hooded is a faded Bunny Face of Pumpkin Pete’s. Crocea Mors snapped in two before his feet, and Pyrrha gasps with horror when she sees the dead body of Jaune before her. “No!” Pyrrha wails with horror, tears pour out from her eyes, and she collapses to her knees in front of his corpse.

She has not even noticed the scrawls on the walls...

_No Destiny_

_No Destiny_

_No Destiny_

Over and over again, the same words whispered into her mind by the Onyx Phantom when it had control over her. She can even hear the words now.

_You are no one..._

_You are a soldier_

_Jaune does not love you_

_They are all enemies_

_Kill your enemies_

_Love nothing_

_Feel nothing_

_Think nothing_

_You have no destiny_

_No destiny_

_No destiny_

It looks like he has scraped these words into the walls with his nails before he died, left alone to suffer for the rest of his life. Pyrrha suppresses the uncontrollable urge to vomit from the horror of what is before her, coughing with tears. “Jaune...” She sobs, snorting and sniffling constantly with distress, staring at what remains of his body.

“This...is what you wrought to him...” Vir Nominis Umbra states.

Pyrrha does not even hear his words, she only cries unbelievably hard at the horrific image before her. Her greatest fear, is losing Jaune, and this is the ultimate form of losing him that she fears. Seeing him dead...because of her own mistakes that she made. But as she mourns him, a soft and warm hand touches her shoulder.

“Pyrrha?” Jaune speaks, and she gasps, turning around to see Jaune stood there, she must have left the room at some point because he is there. She turns and looks back where the corpse and the scrawls were...but they have all vanished as soon as she saw them now. She turns back to Jaune...seeing him alive and she springs back up to her feet, wrapping her arms around him. She sobs into his shoulder with happiness, then she looks into his eyes, bringing her lips to his after closing her eyes. She pushes her fingers through his blonde hair, feeling the warmth of his lips on hers, kissing him longingly.

They break the kiss and look back into each other’s eyes...and she sighs with pure relief. He then presses his head to hers. “It’s Umbra, he’s messing with our heads, come on!” Jaune tells her, and he takes point again, and she follows him. Pyrrha looks back, and feels a chill down her spine when she spots Vir Nominis Umbra stood where he created the hallucination of dead Jaune before her. He smirks and as she blinks he vanishes.

They both turn a corner and their eyes widen with shock and awe of what stands there. The crows are sat on the carpet, cawing every now and then with their crystal beaks snapping shut every time. They all set their glowing red eyes on them, and stood amongst them, is the Lord of the Wood. He just about fits inside of the hallway, his antlers scrape the paint off the ceiling as he turns round slowly, staring straight at them with his glowing red coals in his head.

“We haven’t got the room to fight him...” Jaune tells her.

They both turn, and they see there is a door that opens to their left. Their eyes widen, and there is the Exit Point inside. Cracked shards of matter float around the wall that looks like it has been blown open. They both stare at the Lord of the Wood as it slowly walks towards them, pointing its huge sharp finger at them, and the crows all fly towards them, cawing endlessly. They both sprint into the room to get to the Exit Point.

Jaune gets there, but he looks over his shoulder at Pyrrha and his eyes widen.

The Lord of the Wood grabs her by the hair, and she screams. “Jaune!” She wails.

“No!” Jaune screams back, vanishing into the Exit Point...

Pyrrha watches with horror as the Exit Point collapses before her, vanishing, and then the entire domain around her begins to collapse as well, forming a whole new realm. The Leshen holds her still by the hair, waiting for something. Then it releases her, still stood there like a Sentry waiting for its orders.

Pyrrha lands on her hands and knees, still shocked from what has happened.

Then she sees his boots stepping towards her, stopping right before her face. She slowly looks up and sees Vir Nominis Umbra stood in front of her with a smile. He crouches down, looking into her eyes with that sinister smirk on his face. “What’s wrong, Pyrrha? Now you and I get to have some alone time.” He states with a smile, and she gasps with fear, then he vanishes again. She turns and the Lord of the Wood is gone as well.

She is stuck somewhere that does look kind of familiar.

It is their Dormitory back in Beacon, but there is ice everywhere. It is freezing in there, and time appears to be frozen in place. She does not realise it...but this is the place that Oscar saw, when Time took him and showed him this place. It is not the Charred Forest, more like a paused image from the future of Remnant.

Also known as...

The Shivering Dominion.

Pyrrha squeezes her arms around her knees fearfully, closing her eyes as she rocks back and forth. “Not alone...” Pyrrha whimpers.

“Please...not alone...”

 

**Jaune**

Jaune crashes down onto the snow covered ground with a grunt, ice splashes up against his face as he lands there. He groans, rolling onto his back, and he realises again that Pyrrha is not with him. They have been split up in his game...

Then he hears the crows caw before him, and he looks up. Seeing Vir Nominis Umbra approaching him, Jaune grits his teeth with rage and grips onto Crocea Mors, slashing the blade across his torso. But nothing happens, his body merely flickers like a hologram, he just smirks. “Where is she?” Jaune yells with rage, and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles, walking around the area.

“Do you know where we are?” He asks him, not answering the question Jaune yelled.

“Answer me!” Jaune roars.

“She is far from you now...but you must find her...now answer _my_ question.” He states, staring directly into his blue eyes. Jaune examines his location, and he does begin to recognise it. It looks different, due to the amount of snow and the icicles hanging from the trees. But the sap is still there, just frozen over. The leaves would be red, but are white from the snow and ice.

“Forever Fall...” Jaune realises.

“Indeed.” Vir Nominis Umbra confirms, walking back to him. “Welcome to the next stage. I have constructed many different layers you must get through to find the one that you love. But remember that here, time moves slower in a dream than it does in reality. It could take you years to leave this section...or...you could concede and I will let you leave.” He explains, hands held together.

“You mean leave Pyrrha? Never.” He snarls.

“Maybe...we shall see. Find the Exit Points, some might have threats, others might not. Who knows how many points there are until you find Pyrrha...I guess...” He says, vanishing.

Then he hears him finish his statement.

“This is a Test of Love...”


	39. The Test of Love

**Blake**

Crowds of civilians walk in herds through the streets of Mistral, some with hoods pulled over their heads, others not. Amongst the crowd is Winter Schnee, not wearing a hood and Blake Belladonna beside her, wearing the black cloak and hood pulled over her head to hide her face from the people. Blake keeps her head low so then nobody passing by can recognise her face, and Winter walks next to her, head held high to make sure there are not enemies in their way.

The young Belladonna has her hands hidden in the black cloak that she has been wrapped up in like a baby, one hand close to her back in order to draw Gambol Shroud if things start to go down. Winter has her small blade that disconnects from the main one in her hand, hidden up her sleeve as she walks beside her friend. Blake can overhear the conversations that are happening around her, some of them make her feel sick in her stomach. “Did you see the broadcast?” One of the civilians asks.

“Yeah, there’s a reward for whoever captures or killed Blake Belladonna for what she did to Sienna Khan.” The other civilian confirms, almost with excitement. Blake and Winter both carefully look around, there are signs everywhere that have Blake’s face on them, but none say anything about Winter. The disguise is working, and luckily nobody appears to have any beef with Winter Schnee. There are lots of civilians loading up rifles as well, even some that are beginning to wear more and more Acolytes of Lien clothing.

The Acolytes of Lien have suddenly gained a huge amount of soldiers in the span of a few hours because of that broadcast and the amount of money they have available to pay. Now that they have taken over Atlas, and perhaps even Mantle, they own a massive portion of Remnant’s money. Lots of people are going to join for that reason alone, and it has never been clearer than here in Mistral as so many people are joining up.

Winter’s eyes dart up to the sky upon hearing the sounds of roaring engines flying overhead. As she looks up, she gasps with concern as Acolytes of Lien shuttles and Bullheads fly overhead, all marked with their colour scheme and markings of their insignia on the side. Armed to the teeth with Dust Ammunition filling the weapons ready to fire at will. There are even Acolytes of Lien Sharpshooters walking around the rooftops.

Winter looks ahead and whispers to Blake. “After everything we did to protect Mistral...we’re back at square one.” She remembers, the presence here five years ago was massive of Acolytes of Lien. Then it was silent, just the Mistraalians and the commerce running strong, the Mercenaries had not been seen since the fall of the Volcanic Chain Isles. Now they know why – they must have been planning this as soon as the islands were destroyed. They have managed to invade the infrastructure of the Kingdom with ease, the Mercenaries were probably here all along and nobody noticed, they were just blending in until ordered otherwise.

“If you find this woman, please detain and turn her in immediately.” An Acolytes of Lien Captain requests through a loudspeaker, walking back and forth on a stage that has been raised that people are crowded before, listening to his words. There is a Juggernaut-Class Acolyte stood beside the captain, looking through the crowd to see if he can find her, and a Seeker with his Submachine Gun in his hands.

They will be a threat; they are not on the best terms with the Mercenaries and will spot Winter immediately. Winter looks down and swiftly dishevels her hair, letting the long white locks of hair hang down the side of her head. She also pulls out some makeup from a kit she has on her, and she swiftly puts some of it on, just to disguise her face some more but not too much. Whereas Blake just keeps her head down, staying as close to her friend as she can. “Stay close to me.” Winter whispers, looking so much more different now as she walks, not looking directly at the Captain who speaks to the crowd.

The crowd is like an ocean, waves of them crashing against each other as they try and get to wherever it is they need to go. Some of them scrap over the merchants to get good deals; others appear to be trying to get back home. There is a deafeningly loud screeching sound and they both look up with widened eyes. It is not the Drift of Wandering Star, but another ship that shares the same colour scheme as the Acolytes of Lien slowly drifts over their heads, around the mountain ranges. It is a repurposed Atlesian Ship, with smaller but still large ships with four wings like flippers moving independently as it flies over. Both did not initially have cannons and missions and bombs on them, but these have been extensively modified.

The Dreadnaught hovers above the city, it is extremely nerve-wracking to see this strong a presence of military in this city, especially _after_ the battle that took place five years prior. It is like a bad dream to see it like this again. “How far from the Smuggler?” Blake whispers softly. Winter looks ahead, still acting normal as they both walk through the crowds, expecting one of the people in the crowd to be an Acolyte of Lien and attack them. But none have tried that yet, but then again there have been no signs of them recognising their faces as of yet.

“Across this street, he is at the docks. Same ones that Yang and Kassius went to when they went after Junior.” Winter whispers to her, they can see the Docks from where they are, some landed ships are there. Mostly appear to be Acolytes of Lien, but there are some Shipping Freights there as well, a typical aircraft for Smugglers to utilize with their massive holds that they have.

Winter looks around, and it does not feel right. The Acolytes of Lien are everywhere in this town, searching for Blake, but it is not the Mercenaries that are worrying her. There are lots of people in the crowd moving into buildings wearing large overcoats, hiding stuff inside of them. Strategically choosing ambush placements to gain the upper hand, it appears that there are enemies of the Acolytes in here a well. “We need to get off the streets.” Winter whispers.

“Why?” Blake asks.

“This place is about to become a warzone, lots of people getting ready to fight. The Acolytes don’t even realise it yet.” Winter explains, then Blake notices one of the people getting ready and her amber eyes widen with recognition.

He is wearing a Grimm Mask.

They are White Fang...

Meaning that they have no loyalty to her or Winter in any capacity, but they also appear to hate the Acolytes of Lien as well. One of the soldiers gets inside of a building, readying a huge machine gun and folding the bipod out as he rests it on the windowsill. “It’s the White Fang.” She whispers to Winter, and the Atlesian Special Forces Operative nods, realising what they have just got into the middle of.

A White Fang militant runs up the steps of a house and takes cover against the wall inside, removing a grenade from his pocket. He holds the explosive device in his hand, holding it by the pin as he watches them. There is an Acolytes of Lien tank slowly driving through the street, the Captain is inside of it, checking through the crowds to find their target. They’ve no idea that there is a White Fang militant inside of a building by their left with a grenade. He pulls the pin and throws it towards the tank, with no care towards the civilians walking around it. The grenade lands next to the tread, beeping.

Next there is a huge explosion, one that triggers all the civilians to start panicking and screaming with terror. The explosion was so close to them, that it knocks them both over. She rolls back and Winter helps Blake back up to her feet just as the White Fang begin to draw their weapons. Some Faunus in the crowd pull out guns and fire at the Mercenaries that invade their city, blasting dust fuelled bolts into their chests. One of the Acolytes grunts through his helmet, sparks of energy burst from the impact as it burns through the metal plates of his armour, he crashes onto the ground with force.

The Acolytes of Lien pull out their firearms, taking cover wherever they can to return fire, bullets fly across the streets and some poor civilians are caught in the cross fire, bullets killing them, but not all of them instantly. Some get hit and scream with agony where they lay, pools of blood forming where they lay. Children scream with terror, hands pressed to their heads with distress from all the gunfire that has suddenly started around them.

Blake and Winter keep their heads down, rushing towards some cover by a building, Winter draws her other sword since they are now in the middle of a skirmish. Blake draws Gambol Shroud, holding the Magnum in her hand, keeping the hood over her head as she looks at Winter. “Well it doesn’t look like the White Fang are very happy.” Blake comments, Winter chuckles as her statement.

“No kidding.” She agrees with a smirk.

“The White Fang never did like mercenaries, guess they don’t like the idea of a bunch of them trying to take over their Headquarters.” Blake states, looking round at some of the White Fang that battle against the Acolytes of Lien. A Seeker darts towards three of the White Fang in the street, drawing his Katana and he slashes the long blade across one their chests, a streak of crimson blood is thrown across one of the walls. He ducks down and presses his Submachine gun in his other hand against the gut of the White Fang soldier. He pulls the trigger and holds it there, unloading the rest of his magazine into his stomach, blowing a hole in him as he screams with pain. The Seeker spins round and pushes the Katana through the eyeball of the other White Fang soldier, through the mask as well he wore. The Seeker rips it out and the mask falls from his head, he spins the Katana through his fingers and dashes off.

The White Fang in the buildings continue to fire on the Acolytes of Lien below, some of them are hit by their semi-accurate aiming skills, but most of the rounds miss. The Captain who was speaking on the microphone aims his Revolver at the soldiers in the building and he moves quickly, diving off the stage and rolling the landing off, moving quickly into cover. The Juggernaut jogs towards the battlefield, jumping down from the stage with a quaking crash, the pistons channel the energy from the landing into the tarmac. The pilot of the Juggernaut activates the machine gun, three long barrels fold out from the arm of the Juggernaut, and he opens fire on the building.

The high-impact dust charged rounds shred the render, concrete and brickwork down in sections, launching rubble and shards of debris into the street. Screams of agony burst from the building as the White Fang are ripped to shreds by the ferocity of the machine gun fired at them. The Juggernaut walks slowly, until a missile explodes against his back, chunks of burning metal break off and are thrown everywhere. The Juggernaut staggers and turns, seeing White Fang reinforcements arriving, shooting their firearms at them from cover, one of them loads a fresh missile into the launcher and blasts it into the chest of the Juggernaut. The missile explodes upon contact, shattering the chest of the armour and the titan collapses to the ground with a huge boom.

Blake shields her face with her hands from the dust that was blown towards her face as the huge suit of armour collapsed to the ground. Winter peers round the corner, and there is an opening, but it is risky. The battle is still underway and they have no cover, although they do have their aura. Of course if the soldiers catch onto the fact that they are Huntresses, then it is entirely possible that the Acolytes – or the White Fang – could pursue them. But they have no time to ponder on any other options when the cannon of the tank turns, since it is still operational. “We need to move!” Winter orders, pushing Blake out first and running behind her.

The Acolytes of Lien tank fires, launching an explosive shell into the White Fang reinforcements, killing a fair few of them. It appears that some of them are wearing highly explosive dust packs with detonators in their hands – they have Suicide Bombers on their side. These White Fang clearly belong to the faction that the Albain Brothers have been leading, the highly fanatical and insane bunch that sees the Faunus as the most important race. And that all humans should die and only Faunus should be the surviving race on Remnant – as if Vir Nominis Umbra is going to discriminate who lives and who dies.

They both rush ahead, stumbling and staggering from the explosions and bullets that whoosh past their heads. Winter keeps moving when a White Fang soldier emerges, and double takes when he recognises her face. He yells with anger, swinging his sword at her but she deflects his sword with her own, then thrusts her own into his chest, kicking him off the blade. Winter flicks the blood from her Elven Cutlass, and she keeps running forward. Blake keeps in pace with her, but she stops, eyes widen when she hears the sound of a little girl screaming with horror. “Mamma!” The child wails, tears streaming down her face. She is sat by the corpse of her mother in the street, crying with horror.

Blake cannot just leave the kid there.

She sighs and starts to run towards the child to get her to safety. Winter stops and turns, seeing her running off to the child. “Blake!” She yells, but the young woman keeps charging. She sprints across the road, towards the Acolytes of Lien that completely disregard her existence, firing at their enemies. They turn when they recognise her as she is not hiding, turning to fire on her. Blake draws Gambol Shroud and she pulls her hood and cloak from her boy, dashing away from the bullets as she creates the illusion with her Semblance.

Blake carves the blade of Gambol Shroud across the leg of one of the soldiers, slicing the limb clean of, a fountain of blood sprays from his wound as he collapses to the ground, wailing. She gracefully spins round and fires her pistol towards another soldier, hitting him in the soldier. The impact of the bullet causes the trooper to stagger slightly from the feeling of shock of a bullet burning through the bone of his arm. Blake rolls out of the way of a Tremor Trooper as he slams his Piston Gauntlet into the ground where she was like she is a mole in Whack-A-Mole. She leaps up after she rolls, wrapping her legs around his neck, she then throws her body towards the ground, throwing that soldier into the body of another, knocking them both over.

The Tremor Trooper slams the ground again, the shockwave from the punch shatters the ground, sending seismic waves through the tarmac. Her body vanishes and she leaps at the Tremor Trooper, kicking him in the back, then spinning round as she strikes him across his armour chest with her sharp sheath. The Tremor Trooper stumbles back as golden sparks burst from the impact of the blades, she leaps up in the air and performs a back flip, kicking him up the chin to launch him back.

Another soldier rushes her with an electrified baton, trying to knock her out as he swings at her. Blake ducks down swiftly, kicking him in the chest, she then spins around to build up the momentum, launching the Katana into his ribcage. She then takes her Sheath and deflects the blade from the soldier that tried to attack her from behind. She scrapes the sheath across his sword and then pulls the sword from his finger tips, immediately slamming the scabbard across his helmetless head.

Blake sprints towards the dead soldier that she launched her sword into the chest of and as she runs she pulls it out from his ribs. The Tremor Trooper stands back up and he roars through his helmet, swinging his gauntlet towards her, but she drops down, sliding under his fist, scraping Gambol Shroud across his leg, bringing him down to one knee. Blood oozes from the deep wound, since his legs are the weak point in his armour. Blake leaps in the air, throwing her grappling hook towards him, wrapping it around his neck. She grunts with force, pulling him into the air, he screams as he flies up in the air. Blake plunges the Sword of Gambol Shroud through a chink between the heavy plates of metal on his chest rig, and the sword cuts directly through and erupts our his back. Blake and the Tremor Trooper slam into the ground, she stands on his body and her hair blows in the wind as she stands there on him.

The last two soldiers aim their rifles at her, but she vanishes when their bullets hit her shadow form. She slides across the ground as she avoids their attack, and they both turn to stare at her, one of them still has blood leaking down his arm where the bullet hole remains. Blake charges towards them, deflecting the bullets with her scabbard and sword, jumping over them and she scrapes the sword across one of their chests, knocking him back. She also cuts the barrel off the other’s gun, his eyes wide and she fires her gun into his head, killing him. She finally wraps her grappling hook around his neck, swinging round and throwing him across the street, he crashes into the ground so hard it must have killed him or at least knocked him unconscious.

Blake exhales, finally dealt with those Acolytes of Lien, she turns and runs over to the sobbing little girl by her mother. It is unclear if the White Fang or the Acolytes of Lien were responsible for her death, but either way she cannot stay out there. The mother has bullet holes all over her body, the little girl was lucky she did not get hit. It looks like the mother was protecting her from stray bullets in the battle, and she was unlucky and got strafed in the skirmish.

Blake sheathes both her weapons on the magnetic piece on her coat, crouching down beside the little girl who sobs. She is a Faunus with tiny bunny ears, crying over her mother’s body still. She gently touches her shoulder, the girl shudders then looks at her. Either with fear or recognition – it is hard to tell what the expression on her face is. She must have seen the transmission on the television earlier, but Blake does not care. All she wants is to get this poor little girl to safety, just out of the battlefield while she can. “Hey...come with me, I can get you out of here.” She whispers. The little girl looks at Blake and then at the body of her mother at her feet.

“M-My mommy...” The little girl sobs.

“I know – I’ve lost my mommy too – do you want to know what she wanted me to do?” Blake asks her, remembering Kali before Fury killed her and Ghira five years ago in Menagerie. The little girl looks at her with glassy eyes. “To keep going – to survive.” Blake whispers, offering her hand to the girl.

“I know you...you were on the news...” She sniffles.

“That wasn’t me – I promise you.” Blake assures with her large soft feline amber eyes.

“My mommy said you can never break a promise.” The little girl says tearfully, but Blake’s smile calms her down.

“So did mine.” She says to her. “Come on.” She says, her arms held out, and the little girl runs to her and wraps her tiny arms around her, Blake holds her with one arm as she uses Gambol Shroud in the other, catching up with Winter who is still waiting for her.

“We’re running out of time!” Winter calls to her, sprinting ahead with her swords in hand. The skirmish is luckily enough staying in the centre of that district. A good thing too, because now the Acolytes of Lien Dreadnaught has just dropped in three Paladins that has been modified to carry the same colour scheme and markings of the Acolytes of Lien. The huge Battle Suits land on the road, their weight shatters the ground, they stand tall and open fire on the White Fang Rebels that were fighting them.

The resistance against the Mercenaries is swiftly quelled from the sheer power that the Acolytes of Lien have gained, whereas the White Fang are merely people. If they want to beat the Acolytes, they are going to need more weapons, vehicles and better technology to beat them. For the Mercenaries have taken the Atlesian Kingdom and now have all their technology, making them the most powerful force on Remnant to face.

Blake and Winter run towards one of the landed Freight Ships, and Blake sets the little girl down on the ground, caressing her cheek. “Where we’re going...I can’t risk bringing you with me.” Blake then turns her head and looks at another ship that are taking people to different places. She gives her a few Lien cards. “If you get on that ship, it will take you somewhere safe. I promise.” She says to her. The girl holds the cards then looks at Blake, hugging her again as a thank you.

They break the hug and Blake smiles gently. “Run along now...and survive.” Blake requests, and the teary eyed girl nods her head and approaches that ship. Blake stands up and walks with Winter towards the Freighter. Winter is the one that speaks to the pilot of the ship – the same one that took Weiss here five years ago, getting her out of Atlas. Pretty ironic that the same man is the one who could get another Schnee and another member of Team R.W.B.Y somewhere else safely.

“You headed to Vale?” Winter inquires, and the pilot lifts his head to look at her.

“Yeah – why?” He asks her.

“You interested in a little smuggling?” Winter inquires, he remains quiet for a moment but then he spots Blake, peering over Winter’s shoulder to look at her.

“Wait a second...you’re Blake Belladonna. You murdered Sienna Khan.” The Pilot states.

“She was framed – we need safe passage to Beacon Academy.” Winter states.

“They are offering one hell of a reward to whoever brings that chick in, you know?” The Pilot states, but then Winter pulls out multiple Lien Cards, highly valuable ones as well. He gazes at them with awe.

“This is only a fraction of what I’ll pay you if you get the two of us to Vale safely.” Winter assures, giving him the ones in her hand. He accepts them and he points to the cargo hold.

“Hide in there, I’ll get the two of you there.” He assures.

They both walk in and the Pilot watches Blake enter the ship, and she looks at him – he looked as if he was wondering if he should just call it in. But considering the fact that he didn’t, then that means that he is going to hold his end of the bargain. They both sit down in the Cargo Hold of the Freighter, the same one that Weiss was in to come here five years ago. Winter sits parallel to Blake with her leg held up slightly, arm rested on her knee. “How did you know that would work?” Blake inquires, and Winter scoffs.

“Rule Number One: Money solves everything.” Winter states.

Blake turns and looks through the window...

The world will never forget this...

And at the moment...

She is seen as a monster.

 

**Jaune**

The bitter cold bites away at his skin...

He steps forth through the Shivering Dominion, the mysterious Frozen Landscape where time appears to be in the same condition. Snowflakes hang in the air in a frozen position, never moving, never melting and never freezing any further. They just hang there as if Jaune is walking through a photograph. His trainer leaves a print in the snow but the print vanishes as the paused moment in time returns to the way it was. Every Snowflake he walks through that gets pushed moves with him, but then gets yanked back to its previous position it was in. At first he could not recognise where he is, his mind is completely focused on finding Pyrrha.

But then he starts to clock on as he walks across the snow covered courtyard, seeing it before him. In the centre the courtyard is a frozen fountain with a very large statue featuring two figures, one a male and the other a younger-looking female, standing on a rock outcropping. They are both dressed in a robe with hoods over their heads. The male has a sword in his right hand, raised in a seemingly triumphant gesture. The younger female has a double-edged battle-axe in her left hand and looks off to the side into the distance. Below the two figures is a Beowulf looking in the same direction as the male figure.

The water being sprayed up from the fountain has become frozen in place by the icy cold wintry air that surrounds him, and the paused time as also stopped any movement even if it were thawed. Jaune begins to look around slowly, beginning recognise it more and more despite it all being covered in snow and ice.

Jaune look around when he realises that he is on the long, wide avenue leading up to what appears to be the main academy buildings and their large, impressive main doorway, which opens up to a large amphitheatre surrounded by a double ring of colonnades bisected by the main avenue with the outer ring rising high over the main entrance to the academy itself. The avenue is marked with trees and flag-draped light-poles, as well as a number of impressive aqueduct-like features and archways. The flags are covered with frost and icicles hang from the frozen fabrics that make them up, the symbol covered with snow from the blizzard that consumes the Academy.

The most prominent part of the academy buildings is the large tower. The tower is surmounted by a number of green spheres or lights, as well as an intricate clockwork mechanism consisting of many interlocking cogs and gears. The lights glow green like a beacon created by a lighthouse for distant ships lost at sea to find their way home in a storm. Forming the base of the Tower is the Cross Continental Transmit System, the C.C.T allows for seamless communication between locations within the other kingdoms outside of Vale. It is very tall, with an elevator in place to take visitors to a level of their choosing.

There is no more second-guessing the fact in his mind.

He is in Beacon Academy, but he has never seen it like this before. He has seen it covered in snow before in the previous five winters of training there and making the place their home...but he has never seen it quite like this. Hell he has never seen weather as cold as this, weather that freezes water sprayed up from a fountain into icicles. This is truly quite terrifying to see, and more the fact that it is like a paused moment in time...it is like this is not a creation by Umbra. The previous iterations of his worlds have a certain feeling to them, like an unnatural chill of being in some sort of Alien World.

But this...

He feels like this is the real world...just in a paused frame of time.

“What...what is this?” Jaune questions, then he sees a crow land before him, cawing as it stares at him, snapping its Crystal Beak together. More of them congregate, and in the black smoke and feathers, Vir Nominis Umbra emerges, walking towards him with his hands held together. Then he holds his hands outwards, showing him the area of his beloved home that he has made with his friends he calls family now.

“ _This_...is your future. Behold the Shivering Dominion, Jaune Arc. A frozen point in time of your future.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains with a smirk on his face, and Jaune looks completely confused.

“Wait...so you mean that time is gonna end at some point?” Jaune asks him with confusion.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous – of course not. This is merely an image of your future...but this blizzard...this Ice Age...it will come for you one day. And when it comes...the end of this journey you and your friends have embarked on will come to a close.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, holding his hands together once more, staring at him. Jaune does not bother drawing his sword on Vir Nominis Umbra since he knows it will have no affect on him, so he just stares the entity down where he stands.

“What should I expect here? Huh? All your other games have had some sort of threat...what will I have to face?” He asks him.

“Multiple realms of your own. Find the Exit Points, endure what lies within if you can – but remember – you can always give up. Just beg me to send you back home and I shall...but Pyrrha will be mine.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains.

“I’ll never leave her.” Jaune snarls, Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles ominously as he walks past him.

“Hmm...we’ll see.” He says, vanishing into crows behind him, and Jaune does not even turn around to see if he has vanished. He is starting to understand the Entity more and more the more often he does these things.

Then before him, he sees the statue shatter into chunks before his eyes. The chunks float apart and light forms within the chunks that orbit the orb. Jaune walks towards it, because it is the Exit Point. The fact it has started off so easily is very intimidating to Jaune. He walks through it, and it closes behind him when he finds himself somewhere else.

Not the Shivering Dominion...

Somewhere else entirely.

It is the Charred Forest once again, but a different location. It looks like a cave, what he does not realise is that this is the same entrance to the cave that Nora and Ren stumbled on...the one where the Nuckelavee made its home. Jaune realises when he turns around, seeing the red skies, black clouds, shattered moon and charred burning trees that stretch out for miles. Then the burning town of Kuroyuri in the distance, faint screeches of tortured souls everywhere he goes and howls of Grimm. He can even hear the ghostly roar of the Nuckelavee in the distance.

But he knows that the cave is the direction he must go.

Jaune exhales fearfully...and then he enters the cave, drawing Crocea Mors against whatever it is that lurks inside of this cave. The darkness shrouds around him as he enters, his blue eyes check around the area to find whatever it is he can. The wind whispers around him as he walks into the cave, seeing the flag of Shion Village, the place that Raven and the Nuckelavee destroyed five years ago. He walks past it, but when he turns the corner, he collapses with shock from what he sees. Shock evolves into dread and dread turns to grief.

He sees Ren and Nora’s deceased cadavers lay on the ground, deep gashes inflicted into their bodies as they lay before him. Blood everywhere and heavy concussive marks on their bodies and on the walls. He knows what did this, the Nuckelavee that destroyed Kuroyuri...this must have been the idea of what would have happened if it was still in its cave when they walked inside. But it is still horrifying to see their bodies so brutally beaten and slashed by that monster’s claws.

The sight makes him sick to his stomach, seeing the bodies of his best friends before him like that. Neither of them deserves to die like that, despite him knowing that they are alive...the image looks so real in his eyes. But when he stares at their bodies, he tries to stand back up but a force slams him back to his knees, he presses his hands against his head with distress. Directly against his temples, gritting his ice white teeth together, closing his eyes with pain as the voice speaks. The voice is monstrously demonic, deep with many pained souls speaking beneath his own. Jaune is not a fool...he knows who this voice belongs to. “Do not be afraid...I am peace...the bringer of unification...through death.” Vir Nominis Umbra speaks through his mind, it sounds like it is coming from behind him. The rumbling sensation that his voice created fades...and Jaune is truly intimidated now.

The past visualisation of Umbra never sounded quite like that. Vir Nominis Umbra had quite an appealing voice when in the form of the Soothsayer...but that voice...was unlike anything he has ever heard. Jaune presses the blade of Crocea Mors against the ground to stand back up, coughing with shock from that, shaking the feeling off. He looks ahead...and there is an Exit Point. These ones appear to be much easier to find...

The question is...

How many of them are ahead?

Jaune does not care, he walks ahead, the bodies of Ren and Nora are both gone and he enters the next Exit Point, entering something else now. It is not the cave, it is something else. His eyes search around the area and he realises he is back in Beacon. Like the other, it is the Charred Forest version of it, Beacon Tower smashed apart and aflame, the Colonnades reduced to shattered remains. He walks through the courtyard, seeing the land shattering before him, shards of landscape rise up around him as it transforms around him, and he sees them all form before him once again, but he did not move. The shattered chunks all form the top of Beacon Tower when Pyrrha fought Pyrrha.

He watches with horror, seeing Cinder releasing the bowstring and launching the arrow into her sternum...hearing her pained gasps for air and forgiveness. But before Cinder approaches to burn her away from his eyes, Jaune falls to one knee again, supporting himself with his sword when Umbra speaks once more. Every time he speaks brings him immense pain, as if someone is grabbing his brain and squeezing. Jaune screams with agony as the rumbling forms in his head, then he voice returns. “I am the bringer of justice – speak to me your sins – and accept retribution.” Vir Nominis Umbra speaks, and Jaune nearly collapses from that one, only seeing the golden ashes floating away.

It took him a second to understand what Vir Nominis Umbra meant by that...but then he sees a bright white flash which seems to form the Exit Point around him, taking him to the next layer. “What!” He hears the voice of Cinder scream. The words he said...they were not directed towards Jaune...they were to Cinder Fall after she killed Pyrrha. After she callously murdered her, she was punished by Ruby, losing her eye and the ability to speak for months as punishment. Then she was humiliated by Fury and Salem, then nearly killed her brother, and now is helping them.

Vir Nominis Umbra caused her punishment after judging her on her sins.

It appears that Vir Nominis Umbra does not discriminate, if you make bad choices, then he will punish you all the same. _At least he has a creed..._

Jaune slams down on the ground, coughing as he feels the icy cold floor beneath him that his face is pressed against. He reaches out to Crocea Mors, using it to stand back up. His head still throbs from Vir Nominis Umbra’s demonic voice, and now he understands what he means by endurance. But he does not care, he will die over and over again if he must until he finds the girl he loves so much.

He will rip the Charred Forest apart if that is what it takes.

 

**Pyrrha**

The cold is almost unbearable...

Even with the blanket over her small body, it does not seem to do anything. Pyrrha lies in her bed in the Dormitory that Vir Nominis Umbra has trapped her in, she has tried the doors and tried smashing the windows. But nothing works, she is completely trapped inside of her frozen Dormitory. Her breath escapes her mouth as she shudders in the bed, looking at Jaune’s tearfully, frost flakes have formed on her cheeks and in her hair as she lays in the bed. She clutches the  bed sheet close as she lies in the cold bed, wanting Jaune to come back soon.

As she lies there, she turns her eyes to see Vir Nominis Umbra sat on the end of her bed, looking down at a photograph he has picked up of their team. Jaune is in the middle with his arm around Pyrrha, a smile on his face. Pyrrha looks so happy in the picture, her eyes closed as she giggled when they took the picture. Ren is stood there with a smile on his face, and Nora has her thumb stuck up, one eye closed as she sticks out her tongue with a smile on her happy face. She does not really react to seeing the Soothsayer sat on the edge of her bed, and his voice is the one that they have become used to hearing, not the monstrous one that torments Jaune.

Vir Nominis Umbra exhales, a cloud of cold mist leaves his jaws. “Poor Pyrrha.” Vir Nominis Umbra sighs, stroking his thumb across the page. He looks at her, then shows the familiar photograph to her. “He always leaves you, doesn’t he? Alone in the dark...never apologises.” Vir Nominis Umbra states with a shrug and a mockingly sympathetic face. Pyrrha rolls her eyes, throwing the bed sheets off her armoured up body. She stares at him as she walks past him.

“He doesn’t need to.” Pyrrha snarls, walking past him. Vir Nominis Umbra smiles at her as she passes him.

“That’s good that you think that – because at the end of the day, that fact will never change.” Vir Nominis Umbra states as she walks over to the window, gazing out at the frozen grounds of Beacon Academy. Oceans of wintry white snow for miles, snowflakes frozen in place due to the paused frame in time. Pyrrha turns and looks at the Merchant who sits at the edge of her bed, setting the picture down on the bed. “He will never apologise for his sins, Pyrrha.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, which leads to her very fast response to defend him.

“He hasn’t ever committed any sins!” Pyrrha sharply retorts, clenching her fist in anger.

“Hasn’t he?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her, raising his right brow with that smile on his face. Pyrrha stares at him with confusion. “Ah...He’s not deemed it fit to trust with it.” He says with a chuckle, standing up from the bed and walking over to the book case.

“Trust me with what?” Pyrrha questions.

“When you were dead – when he and the rest of your friends were trying to save Mistral from falling...did you know that your beloved Jaune Arc...your Sinless Jaune Arc...slit a civilian’s throat?” He asks her, hands held together with a smile on his face. Pyrrha was never there for that accident, when the people started to attack her mother and he stopped them, one got too close to the blade of Crocea Mors and cut open his throat.

“I...” Pyrrha stammers with confusion. “You’re lying.” She denies.

“Pyrrha Nikos – I thought I made it clear that I never lie?” He asks her and she stammers more and more.

“I don’t believe you.” She argues.

“He did – defending your mother. During the fall, you see, Fury affected the civilians to start riots and cause chaos. It worked very well, and they burned your home to ashes and tried to murder your mother. Jaune sought to stop them, and one ran into the blade and slashed his throat open.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains...truthfully as well. It is true what they say about him – he never lies, he always tells the truth. He just creates ideas, and they are not lies.

“That was an accident, then!” Pyrrha states.

“Perhaps...but has Jaune spoken to you about that?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her, which leaves her speechless. “And now he is gone, playing around with my toys and things...leaving you here with me.” Vir Nominis Umbra states.

He smiles, his hands held out as he looks at Pyrrha. “Spooky old – not to be trusted – me.” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles, he vanishes in a puff of black smoke then reappears on Jaune’s bed. He lays there, transformed into the body of Jaune with his shirt off, showing some of the scars that he has collected over the years. He lays there, tempting Pyrrha with his body and looks, smiling away at her and even speaking in his voice. “ _Anything_ could happen here...nobody will hear.” He whispers with a smile.

Pyrrha glares at Vir Nominis Umbra in Jaune’s skin and she looks through the blue eyes he is disguised in. Pyrrha scoffs, shaking her head when she stares at the Entity. “You act all high and mighty – like you think that you are so mysterious and nobody knows you...but I do.” Pyrrha states, and Vir Nominis Umbra raises one of Jaune’s blonde eyebrows curiously. Pyrrha walks slowly towards Umbra as she speaks confidently. “You manipulate people and feed off their emotions...I think suffering is the tastiest thing though. I have done my research, Umbra. And I know what Demons are...they can disguise themselves as people and slowly break people until they are soft enough to consume the souls of.” She explains, and Umbra remains quiet, letting her speak. “But I’ve never heard of Demonic Entities creating entire realms like this...so you’re something else...but still a demon.” Pyrrha explains, and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles at her idea.

“Is that really what you think I am? A Demon?” He asks her.

“Actually – yes.” Pyrrha answers quite sassily. Jaune stands up, still in Jaune’s body and speaking in his voice, looking her in the eyes as he stands before her.

“So you mean to tell me that you are the first person _in history_ that has figured out who I am?” Vir Nominis Umbra questions, chuckling as he says it, staring into her emerald eyes. Pyrrha stares right through Jaune’s blue ones and into the faint red ones hidden beneath.

“Yes.” She whispers, only for her confidence to be broken from his following question.

“Then define my name.” He challenges, vanishing before her very eyes. The question shocks her, she even jolts from it. She looks around and he stands behind her again. He stands behind her, one hand is the form of Pyrrha’s and the other is the form of Jaune’s. Quite disturbing to see somebody have two completely different hands.

“So tell me, Pyrrha Nikos. I have been curious of this ever since you left my tent when you were small.” Vir Nominis Umbra begins. “Between Destiny and the Love-Of-Your-Life...what would you truly choose?”

He holds out the hand of Pyrrha’s, which appears to be the hand that represents the choice of destiny. “I can offer you the Destiny you have always dreamed of, you could save the world and be the hero that all children read in the History Books. Would you really give that up for a bumbling failure of a Huntsman that really thinks the only thing interesting about him is the fact he cheated his way into Beacon Academy?” He curiously asks her, and Pyrrha shakes her head with disturbance.

“Stop.” Pyrrha demands.

“Or maybe that’s better! Way more romantic! Giving up your Destiny for Love!” Vir Nominis Umbra laughs, standing tall before her, walking close and closer. “Pick one and I promise that I will send you both to the end of this nightmare and then it will all be over.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains.

He then steps away from her, his hands returning to form beneath his wrists. “Love of your Life – Or Destiny? The Choice is yours.” He says, vanishing before her into a flock of crows that caw as they vanish into smoke before her eyes, their caws echo away around her. Pyrrha stammers, finding herself alone again, she looks around, then she slowly approaches Jaune’s bed...snuggling up inside it and she closes her eyes as she lays there.

Destiny...

Or Jaune?

Which will she choose?

 

**Jaune**

Jaune is thrown from the next Exit Point, he has lost count now of how many of them he has been through.

_Ten?_

_Fifty?_

_One Hundred?_

_A Thousand?_

_I don’t even know anymore!_

He crashes against the ground, panting with heavy ragged breathes, wheezing and groaning with agony from what the last one has just put him through. Some of them have been psychological torture, like whispers that never end of being trapped in a room with crows that never cease cawing for a full week. Time in here is no matter, he could be trapped in a Realm for a full year or even his whole lifespan but as soon as he is sent to another realm, he will return to the same age and condition.

In fact...he did experience that. He was trapped in a realm for seventy years after trying so hard to find his way out. The test was the Endurance of Time itself, how long would he have to go to give in, and he never did. In that realm it was just like reality, with people everywhere. He lived it there, until he was in his nineties, and only then did Vir Nominis Umbra grant him escape.

And back into his young form, it took Jaune some time to actually get used to his youthful body again.

The last one he was just in was horrifying, he was experiencing what it was like to die without ever dying. Grimm Beowulves cornered him and they started to eat him alive but he would never die but would witness what it was like to see his body being ripped apart. That was the closest he has come to begging for it to stop...but it was Pyrrha that stopped that from even happening. Even though he watches his guts being pulled out, his throat being ripped open, skin being peeled back, watching it regenerate to only have the same thing happen again and again. It was Pyrrha that pushed him through it, and he lays there on the next layer of his realms, starting to lose his mind and perhaps even his touch with reality.

Through his pained breaths, Jaune feels the urge to vomit from what he just experienced, and he coughs up blood and bile from his stomach, seeing it all hit the floor. Must have been remaining bits of blood from his torture he experienced. Only now does he truly understand what Pyrrha had to endure after she died...and what a horrible fate she met. She did not deserve this, only filling him with more and more anger. He turns, seeing Crocea Mors and his shield at his side. He picks them up to stand back up, still feeling residual sharp burning pails, feeling like the teeth and claws are being pushed into him. Jaws of Beowulves clamping against his head and pulling his scalp off. Only for it to regenerate again to be devoured over and over again.

That lasted six hours.

His body would not even pass out...he was forced to experience that amount of pain.

But he is finally out of the realm of suffering, mentally scarred by what he had to endure, but he made it out. He looks around, finding his new location is what appears to be another random woodland in the Charred Forest. Howling winds surround him as he walks, he is unaware that these are the exact same woods that Ruby has seen in her nightmares. The same trees, the same fields, the same screams that never cease. The pain surrounds him, and he now understands that pain after what he has endured.

Jaune continues to walk, but then he is forced to grab his head with agony as the thunderous voice of Vir Nominis Umbra returns inside his head, pressing against his temples. “Child of my enemy, why do you persist? I offer an escape to those who ask of it.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, sounding poetic in the words his says. Including the words _Child of my Enemy_...what does he mean by that?

Jaune keeps walking, shaking the dizziness off, starting to get used to that pain. Although after experiencing what it is like to be devoured and ripped apart over and over again...one would probably become used to pain of such a degree. “I won’t leave her behind.” Jaune states, walking towards the Exit Point that opens before his very eyes, light shining from the shattered remains. He enters, but he is still in the same woodland. Like an endless loop.

Jaune begins to pick up the pace, hearing the cries of Pyrrha around him. Her cries are almost hysterical, from pain such as his, echoing from the sky itself. He looks up at the sky with widened eyes. “Pyrrha...” He mutters, and then the voice speaks to him once more, almost growling as he speaks.

“Of course – you came for _her_. She exists in my domain now, another proxy for my needs.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, and Jaune looks ahead, seeing skeletal entities bursting up from the soil with burning eyes, snarling at him aggressively. They hold swords in their hands, sprinting towards him as they roar. Jaune scowls with rage, drawing Crocea Mors and spinning the sword through his fingers. One of the Skeletons swings its sword straight at his head with a roar, but Jaune ducks down, then deflects the blow of another with the sword. He raises the shield behind him so then the Skeletons do not strike him from behind. Jaune parries, slashing across the Skeleton’s ribcage, blowing the reanimated corpse from its feet. Pieces of bones thrown across the ash covered soil, then he slams his shield into the other Skeleton to knock it back. Jaune roars smashing the shield into the skull of the Skeleton so hard into a tree that the head shatters like glass. The third Skeleton grunts, thrashing a hatchet towards his head, so he ducks down and the hatchet gets lodged into a tree, getting stuck. Jaune roars, pushing the sword upwards through its ribs and out through its head. He presses his boot against its chest to kick it off the sword, shattering the bones in the process.

Jaune sighs, looking around for the Exit Point, and he can see it, walking towards it. But the closer he gets, the more the trees begin to stretch across the land, making it further and further away from him. “A collection of lies...that’s all I am! Just a toy for the world to play with!” The tearful voice of Pyrrha whimpers from the sky, and Jaune feels his eyes weaken as the edges darken and his head throbs more and more.

“And yet...perhaps a part of her can still be controlled.” Vir Nominis Umbra says with awe.

Follows is a truly creepy laugh from the voice of Pyrrha Nikos from where she is trapped.

Jaune is close now!

He knows it, he has never been able to hear her voice so clearly before. He keeps walking and walking, then suddenly the Exit Point is thrown right towards him, so fast that he is launched into the next Layer of his Maze of Realms.

Jaune crashes into the ground, scraping across the rough gravel covered ground. He rolls and rolls across the ground, some of the gravel scrapes across his face but his aura repaired the damage instantly. He groans, pressing his hands against the rough floor, pushing himself back up to his feet. He presses his hand to his knee, looking up as he stands there, then he looks around at where he is.

Not in the Charred Forest...

Or the Shivering Dominion for that matter.

He is at some sort of Estate, a large mansion stands alone amongst trees, when Vir Nominis Umbra appears in front of him, hands held together as he approaches. Jaune glares at him and the Soothsayer chuckles. “My, my...you are tenacious aren’t you? Nothing breaks you...just as nothing breaks her.” Vir Nominis Umbra states with a smirk on his face, amazed at their defiance against his efforts.

Jaune stands back up, picking his sword and shield up as he stares at his foe. “What is it that binds you?” He questions with confusion.

“What are you talking about?” Jaune snarls.

“The two of you...I cannot break your spirit...souls are not hard to break. I have converted countless into my Bannermen, but the two of you refuse to give in. Why?” He questions, and Jaune shrugs his shoulders as he gives him an answer.

“Because we love each other?” He asks him.

“I have broken married couples before, boyfriends and girlfriends, and not one of them has given me the troubles you two have.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains. “I try and I try with Pyrrha Nikos...and yet...she eludes me. Although, I will learn your secret eventually.” He states, hands still held close together. Jaune looks around, feeling the wind brushing up against his body as he stands there.

“What should I expect here, then? Boredom? That last one was bad enough.” Jaune states, and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles.

“I must say I was surprised you managed to get through seventy years...well...it wasn’t actually obviously. But you get my point.” He states, and Jaune scoffs, learning to remember that none of this is real. It is all in his head, he just needs to get himself and Pyrrha back to their real bodies as fast as possible. It is entirely possible that only a minute has passed since that fell asleep back in the real world.

Jaune stares at him, and the smirk is one of the scariest that Vir Nominis Umbra has given him. “You never did see what happened to Skyler Arc...did you?” He asks him with a smirk, vanishing into Crows and Jaune’s eyes widen with horror, he looks around when he sees Skyler being thrown from the roof by something. Her screams echo across the Estate. Her weapon snapped as it fell off the building and hit the ground. She smashed against one of the cars so hard that her leg broke.

Jaune literally cannot look away, and the world seems to pull him closer...forcing him to watch what happened to her. “Guys!” Skyler screamed desperately, crawling back with a broken leg. Her bone has burst out from her leg, blood pouring across the gravel driveway. She crawls and crawls, and suddenly a pack of monsters come charging towards her, round the Corner.

A Creep, two Beowulves and a Beringel. The Beringel grabs her and it smashes her into the ground with force, she wails with agony, spitting out blood with pain as it breaks her ribs in the process. One of the Beowulves tackles her and bites its razor sharp bony teeth into her shoulder, ripping the skin open, she wails with agony as it rips chunks of flesh from her beautiful body. Her large blue eyes stream with tears and she wails with agony as she feels the Creep gnawing away at her leg.

But then...

The real revelation hits Jaune.

The revelation of how much he has been behind so many events in their lives. “Wait.” The voice of Vir Nominis Umbra demands, and the Grimm stop in their tracks. She gasps with horror, seeing the Grimm backing off her except for the Creep that keeps biting away at her heel, nearly ripping her foot off in the process. She is bleeding everywhere...and there is no sign of her friends anywhere. Jaune looks around to find them, but they are gone.

Skyler...she didn’t order them to run.

They ran.

They abandoned her to be fed to the Grimm so they could escape.

They betrayed her.

Skyler coughs with pain as Vir Nominis Umbra approaches her, crouching down and looking into her eyes with a smile. The Creep clamps its jaws down again, and it pulls back, blood sprays from her foot and it rips her foot off in one attack. She wails with agony, blood streaming from her shredded trousers and shin. Vir Nominis Umbra looks at the Creep and raises his brow. “Didn’t you hear me?” He asks it, when his eyes suddenly erupt with blood red energy. His arm suddenly turns black and long claws extend from his fingers as he grabs the Creep by its head. “I told you – to _wait_.” Vir Nominis Umbra repeats with his demonically terrifying voice. The other Grimm look absolutely terrified of the Soothsayer who just butchered the Creep that did not listen to him.

He looks at his Grimm arm as it returns to its human-like form, then he lowers his hand to look at Skyler again. “Sorry about that – they are ever so rude those Creeps.” He chuckles, but Skyler is in too much pain to even formulate a response. Blood leaks from her mouth and nose from the pain she is in. He caresses her cheek and she shudders with agony and terror, seeing the Beowulves that are drooling from the taste of her fear. “You’re a pretty thing aren’t you? I guess your other sisters and your brother should share you looks, correct?” He presumes, but she still cannot answer.

Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he stands back up. “I guess I’ll find out when I meet you bro.” Vir Nominis Umbra says as he walks away from her. “I’m sure your death could prove useful later on.” He says to her, walking away from her slowly with glee.

Skyler turns and she begins to crawl, trying to get to safety from the Grimm that watch her. She crawls and crawls, desperation beginning to set in. “Guys! Where are you?” She cries out, then Vir Nominis Umbra stops, and he smirks.

“Oh yeah – eat your fill.” He tells the Grimm, snapping his fingers. The Beowulves and the Beringel roar, charging towards her as Vir Nominis Umbra watches her, and the Beringel grabs her by the leg.

“No! Please!” She screams, and the monster throws her towards the wall, she crashes against it hard, and it breaks her back from the impact. The three Grimm run at her and they grab her, the Beowulves sink their teeth into her body as she begs them to stop. “Please! Stop! Please, argh!” She yells out with pure desperation in her voice. The Beowulves dig their teeth and claws into her, ripping the skin out and devouring her alive. The Beringel grabs her arm, biting down on her elbow as it rips out chunks from her. Blood sprays out everywhere, against the walls and the floor and even on the Grimm themselves.

Jaune tries to close his eyes with horror, trying to ignore...but he physically cannot. Like someone is forcing him to watch his sister getting eaten alive with utter agony in her last thoughts. He always believed she died a hero...not in suffering as she screamed for her team to save her. Begging the monsters to stop ripping her apart like this.

Vir Nominis Umbra watches and listens to her screams.

And he smirks.

He says nothing as he smiles, then he walks away, whistling his tune away as he walks off. Skyler is still alive, screaming with agony as she feels her stomach being ripped open by the Beowulves, ripping her arms off and even ripping her in half. Her guts being spilled everywhere, the pain must have been indescribable, she cannot even form words anymore. The last thing that Jaune sees of his sister, is one of the Beowulves biting onto her scalp and pulling her head from her shoulders, then they swarm over her corpse as her screams cease. The monsters continue to devour what remained of Skyler, blood pooling out across the grass.

Jaune’s eyes agape, filled with tears, horror and grief.

He collapses to his knees with horror from what he sees, and only now can he physically close his eyes and cover his ears from the sound of monsters eating what is left of her body. Vir Nominis Umbra was responsible for her death as well.

He never did see her body...

Her team abandoned her.

He cannot even move from the horror that fills his mind...then he breaks down, into tears as he sobs there on the spot. Tears fill his hands, he cannot get the sight out of his mind. The fact her team just ditched her as bait so then they could get away...how could they do that?

He opens his eyes, and the scene is gone, and he is back in the Charred Forest. He looks around, then something in him changes.

_That was the worst thing you could have shown me..._

Jaune stands up, scowling with anger, clenching his hand into a fist as he storms towards the Exit Point to the next layer. He walks right through, not even falling over this time, not even looking around because none of it matters anymore.

Only one thing matters.

Pyrrha.

But as he walks, he feels his head throb as Vir Nominis Umbra speaks, but this time...his voice is showing an emotion they have never heard before.

Rage.

“Time has taught me patience! What is it that binds the two of you? I will know all that I possess!” Vir Nominis Umbra bellows with pure rage, his voice echoing through his mind. The rage in his voice was utterly terrifying, when he has always been the calmest of individuals and suddenly he just heard him angry. His voice was like that of a thousand demons bellowing at once, nearly bursting his brain from how much pressure formed from that. Jaune actually stumbled from that, but that did not stop him.

He kept on walking.

More skeletons rise up to try and deter him, some of them swing their swords at him, but Jaune just smashes them out the way without looking with his sword and shield.

He has become filled with anger towards Vir Nominis Umbra.

Seeing his sister die like that...

It has sent him over the edge.

_I will not let that happen to Pyrrha._

_I will not._

The bones clatter across the ground, and Jaune just enters the next Exit Point, walking onwards and onwards to find Pyrrha. But as he walks, he can hear the voice of Pyrrha crying out, louder this time. “I can’t take it anymore! The pain! The bad memories! I can’t!” Pyrrha sobs with pain, and Jaune grits his teeth with rage.

A Beringel forms in front of him, and it swings at him, and he just swings once, killing it instantly. The huge Gorilla erupts into smoke, fading away from his eyes. When angry, Jaune appears to be a force to be reckoned with. He holds Crocea Mors so tight that he might be crushing the hilt. He enters the next Exit Point, he just keeps on moving. “Submit!” Vir Nominis Umbra suddenly bellows to Jaune, shocking him but not stopping him. “End her torment and my own!” He continues to bellow with pure rage, desperate to learn why he cannot control her.

Jaune does not even look at the Nuckelavee that charges towards him, he just ignores it as he enters the next Exit Point.

“Jaune! Please!” Pyrrha begs, leading to Vir Nominis Umbra’s anger once again.

“Relinquish your secret! Or I will force you into eternal suffering and feast off your pain!” Vir Nominis Umbra bellows once again with anger, and Jaune is not deterred.

And he enters the next one.

No matter how many Exit Points he must enter.

He will find Pyrrha.

 

**Pyrrha**

Pyrrha rocks back and forth in the Dormitory with fear as she lies there, waiting for Jaune to come back. But then...

Something changes in the room.

A stench fills the room, a horrible stench that disgusts her. She smells the odour of rotting corpses around her, she slowly opens her eyes to see the horror before her eyes. The floor is covered with blood, the walls too, and there are just body parts scattered everywhere. And to her horror, the heads are of people she cares for.

Nora.

Ren.

Jaune.

Ruby.

Weiss.

Blake.

Yang.

Sun.

So many people all dead before her eyes and ripped to shreds, into pieces that scatter the ground. She nearly vomits with horror from all of it, having to look away. Until the sound of bones crunching and flesh squelching forms, making her turn with horror. A hand rises up from the floor, Jaune’s by the looks of it. It waves creepily at her and a terrifying laugh forms from the bodies.

Pyrrha gasps with fear, watching as the body parts begin to move around. Somehow a pair of legs with feet walk towards her, Yang’s leg and Ren’s leg walking close, chunks of body parts then rise up along with the arms and hands floating up to the mass of cadavers that form a body. The flash and bone fuses together with unnatural crunching sounds, the hands rotate round and the shoulders break into position before her very eyes, then the skin and clothing starts to change as well. They both start wearing the fingerless gloves and the body wears the coat and the jeans of the Soothsayer.

Then he picks up the head of Ruby Rose and plants it on his shoulders, the hair falls from her head and her eyes turn brown before Pyrrha’s very eyes. Her head then transforms into the head of Vir Nominis Umbra. He cracks his neck and he exhales with a smirk, staring down at Pyrrha with that smirk atop the chopped up bodies of those she holds dear. He leans forward with a smirk on his face. “Time’s up.” He whispers with a smile, walking towards her charismatically as he acts very theatrical with his approach. Pyrrha crawls back from him as he gets closer and closer to her.

He steps off the body of Sun and then stands right in front of her.

The light suddenly goes out.

When it returns he is right up in front of her face.

Pyrrha screams with terror when he does that, and he feeds of her suffering through fear. He smirks maniacally as he grabs her by the throat, lifting her off the floor and right in front of his face. “If I can’t control you...then I guess I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.” He states with a menacing voice. Pyrrha shudders fearfully when he says that.

All of a sudden, his eyes suddenly start glowing fully flushed red, the shadows around his eyes darken to pitch black, and razor sharp teeth suddenly protrude from his grimacing mouth. He growls sinisterly as he does that and he moves closer, opening his mouth so wide that the flesh in his cheeks rips and forms more and more glowing red jagged sharp serrated teeth. His jaws open extremely wide and he has a very serpentine tongue with the distant wails of countless souls echo inside. “No! Please!” Pyrrha begs.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha wails as his jaws get closer and closer. He is so close that she can feel the heat of the death in his mouth. He is slowly beginning to show the true side to what he really is, instead of the form of the soothsayer.

He is a monster.

He is about to devour her alive.

When suddenly.

“Umbra!” Jaune bellows with rage.

Vir Nominis Umbra stops on his tracks, and his jaws close and heal back into the mouth of the Soothsayer. His eyes stop glowing red and he turns slightly when he hears Jaune’s voice. Pyrrha looks past the monster that has her in his grasp, seeing the Exit Point behind him that closes. And Jaune stands there, teeth gritted hard with rage, holding Crocea Mors in its claymore form. Vir Nominis Umbra smirks menacingly, slowly turning round to face him, still holding Pyrrha by the throat, choking her still as he holds her there.

Jaune stares directly into the eyes of Vir Nominis Umbra, having enough of his sick games. “You made it to the party...” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he stares into his eyes. “It’s a shame Skyler couldn’t make it.” He adds, sending Jaune into even further rage.

Vir Nominis Umbra laughs maniacally after he says that.

Then suddenly the Soothsayer leaps towards him, roaring abnormally and demonically, eyes glowing red and jaws filled with glowing red and black teeth as he lunges for Jaune. Pyrrha gasps, and she sees Milo on the ground. With her Polarity, she pulls the sword and launches it towards Vir Nominis Umbra. The blade punctures across and through his face, lifting him off the floor and pinning up against the ceiling.

Jaune gasps when he sees that, then rushes to Pyrrha’s side. “Pyrrha! Are you okay?” He asks her with worried eyes, checking her for any wounds. He could not have gotten there at a better time, he was literally about to eat her alive.

But before they can even reunite properly, they hear a loud bang from behind them, then they see Umbra has dropped down from the ceiling, stood there and not facing them. He then turns around and his face terrifies them. The wound where Milo cut through has become his jaws, jagged teeth everywhere across his face and his eyes glow blood red, and he chuckles monstrously.

Pyrrha and Jaune both turn when they spot the Exit Point forming for them to leave. “Come on! We have to get out of here!” Jaune yells when he sees him open his hand, the fingerless glove rips off as the human skin peels away and a massive black hand forms underneath with long bony claws and red energy flowing underneath. He slowly walks towards him to create a sense of fear, roaring at them devilishly as he gets closer.

They both stand up and Pyrrha pulls Milo and Akuou into her hands, and they both run into the Exit Point just as Vir Nominis Umbra lunges for them.

But they just get away.

And the Exit Point collapses just in time.

They both lie on the floor, panting with shock of how they managed to escape that, Jaune still has his arms wrapped around her. He found her...despite how many of those layers he had to go through...he found her. “You found me...” Pyrrha whispers with a shaky voice, then she turns and looks into his eyes. “You...never gave up on me?” She asks him with disbelief and he smiles, the exhaustion in his eyes is very clear. The things he had to go through...and his love for her kept him going.

“I could never leave you behind...” Jaune whispers to her, caressing her cheek as he holds her close.

“How many, Jaune?” She asks him, now for concern of his own safety.

“How many what?” He asks her.

“Layers? How many layers did he force you through?” Pyrrha asks him with glassy eyes, but he shakes his head.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It does to _me_.”

He sighs, looking down at the floor.

He knows the answer...

He looks her in the eyes.

“Ten thousand.”

She gasps with horror, tears begin to stream down her face when she hears that from him. Then she holds him by the face with both hands, looking into his eyes.

“Why? Why would you do that to yourself?” She asks him and he smiles.

“I love you.” He finally confesses and she holds him close as he tells her that.

She has been waiting on him to finally say those words for years.

“I love you more than I can bare, Pyrrha Nikos.”

“And I will _never_ let you go again.” He promises.

His words melt her heart.

And finally.

They share the most affectionate breathtaking kiss they have ever experienced together. She wraps her arm around him and he holds her with both arms, pushing his fingers through her long red hair as he sits her on his lap. They both take a second to breathe before kissing each other once more. They press their heads together as they look into each other’s eyes.

“This time...”

“This time we stay together.” Jaune tells her, gently rubbing her cheek with his thumb.

She smiles sweetly as she holds his hand with her other one, then they press their heads together.

Their aura’s glow faintly.

There is a reason that Vir Nominis Umbra cannot break them.

It is because their love is stronger than words.

They are bonded through aura.

Aura combined with love is a bond that cannot be broken.

Not even by him.

She smiles.

“Together.”


	40. Shattered Memory

**Jaune**

They both slowly rise up from where they were on the ground, standing tall as they remain in each other’s embrace. Devoted to each other through everlasting love, they continue to make their trek through the realm itself. They hold their weapons tight in their hand after they release one another, and Jaune thinks to himself on everything that they had just witnessed.

_What the hell happened to Umbra?_

_His face, the jagged red teeth and his eyes...I have been so used to seeing him look so humanoid, not what that monster was._

_Is that his real form?_

_Or was that just another hallucination he fed into our heads?_

_Well...I guess that doesn’t matter anymore, let’s just get the hell out of this sick game of his._

The two of them move carefully through the landscape, aware that anything could happen here. The eighty metre tall charred trees surround them, ash trailing from the cracked and wilted leaves that hang from the weakened branches. The sky rumbles as the fire in the once never-ending blue roars hot, they can even feel it here in this hellish land that the evil Soothsayer created.

If he is a Soothsayer at all...

But when they walk, the most intense of the pains in their heads forms, growing louder and louder, the pressure as if a pair of boulders has just been throat against both sides of their heads at once. It brings them both to their knees, hearing the collection of demonic screams of the damned colliding together into a single roar of rage. The land shakes around them, the soil buckles and deep fissures form around them which create chasms. “Argh! At last I see! Your secret has been revealed!” He bellows with rage, his voice echoes for miles, they push their hands against the ash plagued soil, slowly attempting to stand back up.

They both look at each other with confusion, because they both know that it could not have possibly been just their love for each other that has been his eternal struggle to control them. What could he possibly be talking about that is so powerful for him to not understand? Or does he understand now?

What could it possibly be?

Vir Nominis Umbra does not speak any further, and the pain begins to fade away from their minds. The rumbling fades away and they stand back up, seeing the trees shattering before their very eyes. The charred bark floats before their very eyes, golden light emanating from it as it stands there.

They both scramble to their feet and they sprint towards the Exit Point, and Jaune holds her hand, unwilling to lose her again this time. They both throw their bodies through the Exit Point, and they look around when they see the place around them. It is Beacon Academy once again, the skies are burning hot with black clouds floating overhead and the lunar moon shattered. This is the Charred Forest version of Beacon Academy...

Mountains broken apart and rising into the sky in the distance and the oceans completely and utterly evaporated due to the amount of fire that surrounds them. Beacon tower blown to pieces with ribs of rebar sticking out from the shredded rendering of metal around it. The Colonnades completely collapsed with scorch marks tattooed on them all over where the cracks have crumbled the concrete off.

They both stand up, looking around – there is no sign of an exit point anywhere. The clouds continue to pass slowly overhead; the distant earthquakes can still be heard...they can even be felt. It is so alien, so unknown...so terrifying to see their home in such a state of destruction. Distant screaming souls surround them, but then they turn when they hear the sound of something cracking and eroding away behind them.

The Fountain which has the statues of the two Hunters and the Beowulf crumbles, deep cracks spread across the stonework where the event occurs. Suddenly, as if there were explosive charges buried inside the statue, the chunks of stone are blasted across the courtyard, and Jaune raises his shield at the perfect time, blocking a boulder that came hurtling towards him and Pyrrha. The chunk of rock shatters like glass, fragments slide off the white and golden armoured shield, whereas other pieces fly around the two of them. Pyrrha looks round Jaune and her eyes narrow, Jaune follows her eyes to see him emerging from where the statue once stood.

Vir Nominis Umbra approaches them once more, visiting them both here in this realm that he has created for their suffering and his own pleasure. He has clearly calmed down from that terrifying freak-out that he had earlier. “Like what I did with the place?” He asks them, and they both stare at the state that Beacon Academy is in right now.

“Yeah – totally inviting.” Jaune scoffs, keeping his shield raised in case if the entity tries anything. Not like his shield could stop him from killing either of them, but they should not worry about him doing something like that. Because it would be too easy, and through intense struggle comes enjoyment for him.

“Indeed, I guess I could do with a refurbishing. But alas, poor Yorik!” Vir Nominis Umbra triumphantly exclaims, raising his finger up as he paces back and forth in front of the two subjects of his. “As you can see, I have held my end of the bargain. I promised that if you could reunite with each other before your time runs out...I would allow you both to skip right ahead to the end.” He explains, and they are waiting for the catch.

There always is.

“But.”

There it is.

“It will not be easy.” He warns, turning with the twist of his heels and then holding his hands gently together as he looks at them both.

“Oh yeah? When has it been easy?” Jaune inquires.

“The first one.” Vir Nominis Umbra answers, and Jaune can’t help but agree with his logic.

“Alright, fair enough.” He agrees.

Pyrrha sheathes Milo and Akuou onto her back as she approaches the entity, standing just in front of Jaune, her emerald eyes glaring directly at his brown ones. It is almost disturbing to see his face here after what they saw his face become when Jaune rescued her from his grasp. But she has a firm grasp on her bravery once more, holding Milo tight. “What should we expect?” She asks him, and he smirks.

“Well – remember what I said, my dear? When you play a video game, you have made it past every level, figured out the rules...what lies at the end?” He asks them, walking back and forth as he speaks. Jaune and Pyrrha think back to when this cruel game began, and then it returns to their memory.

And it is not something to be happy about remembering.

“A Boss Fight...” Jaune remember with fearful eyes, and he chuckles, staring to Jaune.

“Tell me, Jaune Arc. What do you think is Pyrrha’s worst foe?” He asks, which throws Jaune through a loop of thought.

_Her worst foe?_

_Cinder maybe? I mean she did kill her back when Beacon was destroyed..._

_Or is it Vir Nominis Umbra? He tormented her for nearly a whole year after she died..._

_No it can’t be that simple..._

_What is her worst enemy?_

Jaune cannot find a perfect answer, so he just picks one of the two he has on his mind, and he stares the Soothsayer in the eyes. “You.” He sternly snarls, and Vir Nominis Umbra laughs devilishly, slapping his thigh as he chuckles. Jaune feels his skin push the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck up. Pyrrha glares at him, and her eyes dance around as she attempts to find the answer as well. But she cannot, every single thing in her mind cannot possibly point to an answer.

Vir Nominis Umbra eventually ceases to laugh, smiling endlessly at the couple that stand before him. “I must say, I am flattered that you think so.” Vir Nominis Umbra giggles, before continuing with what he was saying. “But no...I am sure I am up there though with everything I have done to her.” He explains.

“Then what? What is her worst enemy?” Jaune questions, and Pyrrha looks at him with concern.

_If not him..._

_Then who?_

He leans forward, looking at Pyrrha with a smirk.

“Isn’t it obvious, invincible girl?” He asks her and she gasps when hearing that name. By the time she realises what he is getting at, he already names the foe. “Pyrrha Nikos’ worst enemy – is herself.” He states, when there is a very sudden and explosive boom that erupts behind them.

They both jolt with shock, spinning round. Pyrrha uses her polarity to pull Milo and Akuou into her grasp, whereas Jaune pulls his arm that carries Crocea Mors back and aims the sword directly at what emerges from the red lightning bolt that fell from the sky. Smoke billows from the crackling flames that have ignited from the impact of the lightning. Pyrrha’s eyes widen with fear when she sees the two burning orange eyes opening inside of the smoke, and it slowly emerges.

It stands at the same height as her, with the same black and gold armour plating that she wears at the moment. She is slim and athletic with an appealing face on her shoulders, a heart shaped jaw and long uncared for black hair that blows in the wind. She extends her arms out to the shattered pieces of rubble, and they rise up and fly towards her, melting and forming metal. Constructing Milo and Akuou that she catches in her arms. Her body is cracked and eroded in places as she approaches, golden embers trail from her body as she gets closer and closer. Her right arm is nearly completely fractured, practically on fire actually, the side of her face looks like it is crumbling away at all times. She walks with more confidence than Pyrrha ever did with an evil smirk as well.

Pyrrha and Jaune cannot believe what they see before her eyes.

It is Pyrrha, but as if it is an evil version of her body. And the eyes...are so familiar. “May I present to you – Per Defectum Vitae, also known as the Onyx Phantom!” Vir Nominis Umbra cheers, suddenly holding a microphone as if he has just sparked a wrestling match, even cheering it like one of those presenters. The Onyx Phantom smirks menacingly as she walks closer and closer, raising her cracked and scorched version of Pyrrha’s shield upwards, the embers floating aside from her ghostly body.

Vir Nominis Umbra pats Pyrrha on the shoulder with a smirk. “I’ll leave the two of you to get acquainted.” He says, vanishing into a flock of black crows which caw as they all fly away towards the broken colonnades to watch the battle begin.

_Of course this was going to happen!_

_He wants me to fight my worst demon to win._

“Ah...so we finally get to speak to each other in person, Pyrrha Nikos.” The Onyx Phantom sinisterly states with Pyrrha’s voice, but it sounds slightly distorted compared to the regal tones of her real voice. In fact, the voice is actually quite crackly, like when somebody is attempting to speak through a damaged radio.

Pyrrha’s eyes are constantly wide and mouth agape with fear...she has never expected that she would have to fight herself. The phrase to face your own demons is becoming a little too real for her now. The Onyx Phantom smirks as she stares at her, and Jaune cannot help but find it increasingly disturbing to see this form of Pyrrha stood there, all cracked and eroded like that. “You...you took her over, didn’t you?” Jaune snarls with anger, his blue eyes narrow as he stares into the crackling eyes of the Demonic Entity.

“I did – and I must say it will be most enjoyable to have complete control on the reins this time.” The Onyx Phantom snarls with excitement as it aims its weapons towards them both, and Jaune looks at Pyrrha. She is frozen with fear, this must be the first time she has ever seen the parasite that lived within her all that time. He bumps her shoulder and she gasps, looking at Jaune.

“Snap out of it.” He softly tells her, and the Onyx Phantom chuckles softly. Pyrrha shakes her head slightly, but keeps her weapons held up. They are both waiting for the Onyx Phantom to strike at any moment, but it does not.

It lowers its weapons and it just stands there, staring right at them. “What is it that you see around you, Pyrrha Nikos?” The Onyx Phantom asks her, and Pyrrha raises her brow with confusion. She humours the entity by slowly looking around the Charred Forest that has formed around them right now. The heat of the flames that burn so hot and the pain that never ceases.

“Hell...” She answers, and she smirks.

“This – is what mankind on Remnant shall wrought when given free will.” The Onyx Phantom states, but Jaune scoffs.

“Oh yeah, sure. We can turn an entire world into a burning mess. Oh yeah, sure we can.” He scoffs with disbelief.

“You mock – but you have read the stories, have you not? The tales of the Great War that occurred many years ago?” The Onyx Phantom retorts, staring Jaune in the eyes with her burning hot orange ones.

“Of course we have.” Pyrrha answers.

“Then you know of the destruction that occurred, don’t you? How many lives were lost and the scars done to the beautiful world you call a home.” She explains, pacing back and forth before them, every step that the Demonic Entity takes sends volcanic cracks through the ground before them, smoke trails from her shoulder which has taken the most damage from this cracking effect on her body.

“If you have a point – then get to it!” Jaune demands, pointing Crocea Mors at the entity that possessed Pyrrha not very long ago and during the Battle of the Roses. Per Defectum Vitae obliges, slowly bowing her head to Jaune Arc.

“As you wish.” The Onyx Phantom says, stopping as she stares at the two of them. “Humanity and Faunus are both the same as each other, both are capable of unspeakable amounts of destruction. Both of you know this, you have seen it yourself. The only way to save your world from this fate – is to bring them both destruction – equalizing both races through extinction.” Per Defectum Vitae explains, causing their hearts to pound heavily with fear and anticipation for it to attack them at any moment.

Jaune scoffs, shaking his head with disgust at the idea. “And then create the same level of damage to the world as well – don’t try and play cute with us.” Jaune states.

“This is not a thing a human can comprehend – but there are ways of destroying races without ever having to set off a spark. Our Father has practiced them in many, many ways.” Per Defectum Vitae states.

“Father?” Pyrrha questions.

“He has many names – Vir Nominis Umbra, the Soothsayer, the Chaos Bringer – but our kind know him as the Father of Demons.” Per Defectum Vitae reveals, which makes their eyes widen with horror when she says that. Their blood runs cold when hearing those titles, and even then they now have just learned that there are another form of people out there...just not the ones that they were hoping for.

“What do you mean by – your kind?” Jaune questions.

“The Fraxinus Sanctus – or more commonly known as – The Race of Demons, dear boy. We exist in a place where your kind cannot comprehend, where different Universes are merely doorways to us...” She explains, and this information sends their bodies chills throughout their whole body. They are dealing with enemies far more dangerous than anything the Grimm could throw at them. They are dealing with Demonic Entities, who knows how many of them are out there.

Pyrrha refuses to lower her guard, she keeps her eyes on the entity that paces back and forth slowly as it speaks softly in Pyrrha’s crackled tones.

“What do you want from me?” Pyrrha questions, they have already learned some information about their true enemy, the Demons and the Father of Demons. But she does not know what it is that binds this one to her. She has not made any pacts with anything other than the accidental one with Vir Nominis Umbra when she was a child, but that did not entail the Onyx Phantom. Demons feed off certain things, some off fear and others through death, but this one is feeding off something very unique with Pyrrha. And she must understand why...

But as always, Demons are clever.

“We do not have to be enemies, Pyrrha.” Per Defectum Vitae states as she stands there, staring at Pyrrha as she stands beside Jaune. Jaune’s blue eyes dart between the two versions of Pyrrha, luckily the difference is very clear and he knows how his Pyrrha acts. There is a grand difference between the two of them, Per Defectum Vitae acts in a far more confident manner than Pyrrha ever has. She seems to use her looks as an advantage, opposed to how warm-hearted and humble Pyrrha is and she would never act in that way.

Not like how Cinder used to before she switched sides.

Per Defectum Vitae continues to speak to Pyrrha on her ideas and such. “At the end of the day – I believe I am the only one who truly knows and understands you.” She states, but Pyrrha scoffs.

“I highly doubt that.” She says, looking at Jaune.

“Really? I know that you suffer with poor circulation in your body ever since you were eight years old. I know that your fear of heights is responsible for an incident that occurred when you were thirteen, on that cliff face back in Sanctum, remember? You nearly fell from the rotten fence that held you there, if it were not for the teacher who saved you...well...you’d be dead.” Per Defectum Vitae explains, then her eyes slowly move towards Jaune Arc, and a sinister smirk forms on her face.

“And...I know that due to the feelings you have for Jaune – you heavily resented Weiss Schnee because of the feelings Jaune had for her.” The Onyx Phantom speaks, and Jaune is about to push the idea of this from his mind...until he sees the look in Pyrrha’s eyes. The look of guilt and pain, for whatever she felt towards one of their closest friends. “If my memory serves me well – I believe you once had a dream of bashing her head against the wall by her bun tail.” She explains with a menacing smirk on her face, and Pyrrha shuts her eyes with anguish for remembering those thoughts.

“Pyrrha?” Jaune asks.

“It – It’s true...” She sadly confesses, which leads to an audible gasp from Pyrrha. “I-I was in a bad spot...and hearing you talk about Weiss like that...” Pyrrha stammers with upset, but Jaune shakes it off and he grits his teeth ad n points the blade of Crocea Mors closer to the Onyx Phantom that stands before them.

“If you think you can break us apart with the past – you’re wrong!” Jaune yells with rage, but that does not even change the look on the face of the Fraxinus Sanctus Entity.

“You see, Pyrrha? I am the only one who truly knows you – and knows what mankind is even if the rest of you do not. Our Father gave us the gift of seeing the truth of what lesser species are...and they are all monsters. Bringers of destruction, and are all capable of some of the worst possible horrors.” Per Defectum Vitae explains, staring her in the eyes.

She walks slowly towards them, scraping Milo through the stonework beneath her feet, sparks bouncing out from the erosion caused of the spearhead scraping across the stone. “Our kind...have always been overshadowed by the Gods that wanted nothing more than to feed destruction to your people. So when we refused the gifts they offered us, they banished us all to a dark place. One where we became...this...” Per Defectum Vitae explains, stretching out Pyrrha’s deformed arm as the embers trail from the fractured arm. The burning orange eyes dart back to Pyrrha’s as she does that.

“Until he came...and freed us...and together...we destroyed them.”

This revelation makes their eyes widen with horror...the stories of other gods in the universe...it is all true. But what did Qrow mean about Light and Darkness? What happened to them? Is Vir Nominis Umbra the Brother of Darkness? Did he find them in that dark place and freed them? Or is he something else entirely?

Before they can even get the answers, Per Defectum Vitae raises Milo and Akuou, aiming them both at the two warriors. “We will not let mankind make the same mistake – through death, you become infinite and unbound by the constraints of the Gods...join us...and we can rebuild this fallen realm into a paradise we have always dreamed of.” Per Defectum Vitae offers. “Or refuse – and meet the same fate as all the others.”

Pyrrha’s hand is shaking fearfully, but then her eyes meet Jaune’s.

A smile grows on her face, and she slowly turns to stare the Demon in the eyes. “I...will never be a pawn in his game.” Pyrrha snarls, staring at Per Defectum Vitae with stern eyes. The Onyx Phantom narrows her eyes.

“So be it.” She snarls, suddenly lunging forward and slamming her cracked and eroded Milo into Pyrrha’s shield. Pyrrha lifts her circular Spartan shield at the perfect time to block the attack, but the impact still throws her across the courtyard, sliding across the cobblestone. Pyrrha groans with pain as she slows to a halt, Jaune’s eyes widen with fear.

“Pyrrha!” Jaune yells, then gritting his teeth before yelling with anger, slashing at the Onyx Phantom with Crocea Mors. Per Defectum Vitae slams Milo into his sword and holds him there with a gritted smirk on her mad face. She scrapes the blade across his, sending sparks everywhere before she performs a powerful kick into his chest that throws him into one of the Colonnades.

Pyrrha slowly gets back up, staring at the smoking and crackling entity walking towards her in her attack pose.

The Onyx Phantom smirks. “Let us see how _invincible_ you really are.” She snarls, and Pyrrha yells with anger, leaping towards her Demon, attacking her as well.

 

**Ruby**

She sprints as fast as she can with Oscar beside her. “Jaune!”

“Pyrrha!”

They both call out for the two missing members of Team J.N.P.R in the seemingly endless woods of the Emerald Forest. Oscar sprints quickly, sliding underneath a felled tree, but then they both slow down with widened eyes as the collection of Crows come swarming down before them. Groaning branches form before their very eyes, burning coals in the sockets of the skull of a Stag stare directly at them. The Lord of the Wood stands tall, growling quietly as its massive bark hands clench into fists.

Ruby pushes her feet into the grass to slow down as the Lord of the Wood glares at them, then they look past the massive ancient Leshen. They are both laid against a tree, unconscious as they are still trapped in Vir Nominis Umbra’s maze of games. Ruby looks away from them, then glares at the Lord of the Wood.

She never forgot when she kicked its arse back on the Volcanic Chain Isles.

“You...it’s been a while...”

The Lord of the Wood raises its arm and the caws grow behind it, and the flock of black crystal beaked crows suddenly explode towards them, cawing at once. Clouds of jet black smoke swell up within the flock as they make their attack, Ruby’s silver eye widens before she darts out of the way by using her Semblance. Red petals erupt from her body as she zooms off from the view.

Oscar glares at the crows, and a smirk forms on his face, he clenches his hand into a fist as he squeezes the clock built into his gauntlet. Suddenly time stops with a deafening time halting crack, and just like that, the clocks all stop at the second their hands land on. Oscar raises Traveller’s Atrocity and holds it in both hands, raising the blade up to eye level, charging towards the Lord of the Wood in the frozen moment in time. He sprints past the crows as they caw, and as soon as he makes his strike, the frozen moment shatters and time resumes.

Oscar lands a deadly blow into the wooden shoulder of the Lord of the Wood, having to hang on by the branches that stick out from its body. The Lord of the Wood staggers slightly from the speed and impact of a young man leaping atop the Leshen’s body. It snarls with anger, reaching towards him and going to grab him, until he dashes away from the Lord. Time fragments fluctuate around him after he does that, then he splits his weapon in two, holding both daggers. The blades open up and reveal the kinetic energy barrels inside that channel electrical dust through the rails carved inside. Inspiration clearly taken from Neptune’s Trishula Rifle, and he fires them at the beast as it walks around.

The Lord of the Wood growls, its huge bark arm extends like that of the Nuckelavee, forging a powerful lashing whip made from tree roots that he swings towards him. Oscar sprints and drops down to his knees, sliding across the soil and only just avoiding its attack. The Lord of the Wood turns when it senses Ruby Rose rushing him from behind in a cyclone of red rose petals, she holds Crescent Rose all the way back as she yells with rage, swinging it directly at the Leshen.

The Ancient Tree Spirit raises its arms and crosses them over, catching her scythe’s hooked blade in between its arms, making Ruby gasp with shock. The Lord of the Wood snarls, grabbing Ruby by her long hair, throwing her across the forest battlefield that they have just forged. Ruby slams against one of the trees, then slumps down to her knees, groaning from the impact. She pushes Crescent Rose down against the soil, lifting her head to stare the Lord of the Wood in its burning coals it has for eyes. Smoke and embers pour from its bony sockets, and it slowly walks towards her, roots digging into the soil as it gets closer and closer.

Oscar roars, dashing through time towards it and slashing both dagger-like blades across the back of its leg, but it has practically no affect to it. Only some black smoke leaks from the wound but it does not even feel the damage, and the Lord of the Wood swings round, smashing its hand down towards Oscar. The huge bark clawed hand crashes down into the soil with force, the shockwave throws him back and he rolls across the floor. Shards of broken time form around his right arm and he yells, throwing a ball of frozen time towards the Leshen.

The ball erupts around the Lord of the Wood, better than his attempt he had five years ago when in the custody of Salem. This time the whole time bubble actually surrounds the whole Leshen opposed to its leg. Oscar raises both daggers and he fires them over and over again, charging up semi-lethal bullets from the dust battery he has loaded into both of them. The bolts all get caught in the frozen bubble of time, and Ruby aims down the scope of Crescent Rose, firing high calibre rounds into the bubble too. Both forms of ammunition start to compact together inside of the bubble, cracks forming inside it as it starts to become more and more unstable.

The bubble bursts and all the bullets collide into the Lord of the Wood at once; the impact leads to an extraordinarily loud boom from the wood shattering in its chest. The Leshen grunts, thrown back and smashing against one of the trees, pushing its hand into the soil to prevent its body from collapsing any further. Smoke leaks from the crater in its chest cavity, and it slowly looks up at them with a growl.

The Lord of the Wood rises tall once again, and Ruby charges towards it as it approaches her, but as soon as she makes her strike, the creature vanishes in a puff of black smoke and a flock of crows. The cawing birds all fly around them, and they both stand back to back. “He’s testing us...” Ruby whispers to him, Oscar nods, connecting both daggers back together to form his sword. The blade opens up through the middle slightly for him to blast more powerful but slower firing kinetic rounds to his foes. He holds the sword up to eye level again, aiming down the crossguard of the weapon as he walks with Ruby.

“Be ready for anything.” Oscar tells her softly, and she knows that she needs to. They’ve lost sight of the crows, meaning the Lord of the Wood could have already reappeared somewhere...but the woods are so thick it is hard to spot him.

Then...

Silence.

It is so sudden it actually makes Ruby’s blood run cold through her body. Suddenly one of the trees explodes, shards of wood thrown everywhere as the Lord of the Wood erupts from the tree to their left, swinging its huge clawed hand at them both. Ruby rolls out of the way, whilst Oscar uses his Time Semblance to dash out of the path of that thing’s claws. It instantly goes to slash Ruby, but she catches the claws on Crescent Rose, staring straight back at the monster. The Lord pulls her with force, taking her off the ground, swinging round and smashing her down into the ground. Roots tunnel through the soil from the legs of the Leshen, worming their way closer and closer to her leg as she crawls back.

The Lord of the Wood turns slowly, staring into Oscar’s hazel eyes as he aims his sword at the entity. One of the black crows lands on the sharp branches of wood that form the larger shoulder pauldron it has built into its chassis. Oscar snarls, gritting his teeth together, blasting towards the monster as he slows time down, every step makes the ground pulsate as if he is running through water. He leaps towards the Leshen and pushes his sword into its shoulder, breaking the field of slowed time down once again; the blade punctures through the wood and erupts out the back of its arm. The Leshen staggers back, smoke bleeds out from the hole inflicted in the arm. The roots wrap around Ruby’s leg and it begins to pull her into the soil, she drags her nails into the dirt to stay above ground as it tries to smother her to death.

“Oscar!” She wails in distress.

Oscar snaps out of his moment of rage, seeing Ruby struggling against the woods not far from where he is. His moment of shock is perfect for the Lord of the Wood, and it grabs him by the back of his head, swinging round and slamming his head straight into the ground with all its might. Oscar grunts from the impact, nearly knocked unconscious by the Leshen. He rolls over onto his back, and he grunts as the Lord of the Wood slams its huge oak leg down onto his torso, roots tunnel around him and into the soil. The roots pull Traveller’s Atrocity from his grasp and he strains with pain as the roots squeeze harder and harder.

Oscar stares with fear as the Lord of the Wood slowly raises one of its hand above its head, the long sharp claws extend from the palm as the eyes burn fiercely in the skull. Ruby grits her teeth and she yells with anger, suddenly there is a massive bright flash of white light that burns the roots around her to ash. She rises up to her feet and the Lord of the Wood turns its head upon hearing her scream with rage. White flames burn from her irises, white energy leaking out across her face, even cracking the skin slightly. Her teeth are gritted together with force, her fists are shaking and she has not even picked up Crescent Rose yet.

The Lord of the Wood still pushes Oscar into the ground with its leg, then Ruby shrieks with rage, creating a sound that Oscar has never heard. Like the sound of multiple Ruby Roses screaming at once. She throws her arms back and suddenly a thick beam of white light erupts from her gaze, colliding into the side of the Lord of the Wood. The huge Leshen raises up one of its massive arms to block the attack, but the impact pushes the beast across the field of grass they battle in. The roots are torn from Oscar and he gasps, able to breathe again finally. White flames char into the wooden flesh of the creature as it tries to fight back, then Ruby reaches out top Crescent Rose without even looking. White energy surrounds her Scythe and the weapon unexpectedly comes flying into her hand, she then leaps towards the Lord of the Wood with her signature weapon in hand.

“Leave him alone!” She screams with rage, eyes still leaking with Silver Light. The Leshen glares directly at her as she approaches, scorched scars cover the creature’s body and smoke trails from its wounds. Ruby lets out a truly intimidating war cry as she extends her Crescent Rose into the War Scythe form, still yelling as she zooms right past the Lord of the Wood. With all her might, she swings the scythe cross-ways through the lower abdomen of the creature, even firing the Sniper Rifle at the same time to increase the attack power.

And in one impressive swing...

The Leshen is sliced clean in half, and the power shatters the wooden body into dust, the skull is thrown from the body and the Leshen fades away. The being will be back though; the curse still binds its very existence to Nora Valkyrie. Ruby slides across the grass, eventually coming to a halt, panting with anger as the white energy continues to trail from her eyes. Eventually however, she starts to calm down and the energy fades from her eyes.

Until her eyes roll into the back of her head, and she collapses onto the ground, falling unconscious. Oscar gasps, standing up swiftly; the roots crumble off his body as he sprints over to her. “Ruby!” He screams, sliding beside her, lifting her up onto his lap. She is still breathing, but the action of using her Silver Eyes appears to have knocked her unconscious. He gently caresses the black and red hair from her closed eye...it was bizarre...

Even though she has lost one of her eyes...

Oscar actually saw her other eye when she did that.

He turns his head and looks at Jaune and Pyrrha’s unconscious bodies, whose souls are still trapped in the domain.

Battling the Onyx Phantom.

“Come on guys, wake up!”

 

**Pyrrha**

The Onyx Phantom raises up Akuou, deflecting Pyrrha’s instant strike with Milo, bursting sparks from the impact of her blade hitting the shield. She ducks down immediately to miss her Demon’s attack as she slashes horizontally at her. The Invincible Girl rolls backwards to avoid the attack, but the Onyx Phantom throws her Akuou towards her, which hits Pyrrha in the face, making her stagger. Per Defectum Vitae laughs maniacally as she rushes her, slamming her shoulder into Pyrrha to make her stumble again, spinning round and slashing Milo in its spear form. Pyrrha yelps, and the Onyx Phantom kicks her in the chest.

“Get your hands off her!” Jaune roars, wrapping her arm around the Onyx Phantom’s throat, and with all his might he drops down and sends the skilled entity flying over his head. The Onyx Phantom stabs Milo into the stone to slow herself down, smirking maniacally at him as she does that. Jaune stares right back at the monster and it really does send chills down his spine when he sees Pyrrha’s face smirking like that at him. He keeps his shield raised, it is best course of action against this sort of foe, he cannot risk using the Claymore and giving it too many opportunities to land a hit.

But even still...

This is still Pyrrha, and the Onyx Phantom has learned her skills, but does not hold back like Pyrrha does. This thing does not care about keeping her enemies alive, it only intends to kill people for its own entertainment. The Onyx Phantom rises back up to her full height, spinning Milo through her fingers. “You really think you have a chance against me?” She questions with a scoff but Jaune just defiantly stands his ground. “You’re nothing more than a failure with a death wish.”

“Maybe I am – but I’d take being that over what you’ve become.” He states, and the Onyx Phantom scoffs.

“As you wish, Jaune Arc.” The Demon responds, blasting towards him, but Jaune stands his ground as she slams her spear into the shield. The impact pushes the Knight across the ground slightly, but he then pushes her back, turning and delivering a powerful strike across the crackling body of the Onyx Phantom. Embers burst from the impact, smoke trails with it band Per Defectum Vitae snarls with anger, transforming Milo into the form of the Rifle, firing a bullet that hits his shield just as he lifts it.

Pyrrha sprints, Jaune crouches down and lifts his shield above his head so she has a platform to land onto. She lands onto it so then Jaune can thrust her further in the air, which he does, she flips through the air and yells, slashing Milo across the side of the Demon’s face. The face shatters like glass, but the embers float back together and she winks. “Boo!” She yells, kicking Pyrrha in the chest which throws her back.

Pyrrha growls with anger, then she stretches her hand out to a chunk of metal that sticks up from the ground due to the Battle of Beacon. Her polarity wraps around it like a lasso, then she swings it round and throws it towards the Onyx Phantom. But her Inner Demon jumps over it, and unexpectedly starts to float above her head. She smile menacingly at her from where she hovers. “Oh my dear, you have so much to learn.” The Onyx Phantom states, as she stretches out her hands and the same black energy forms around her hands. However it is not the same, it is the same sort of power as Polarity, but no longer limited to metal. The ground beneath Pyrrha cracks and bursts from underneath her feet, and she feels the mass of land beneath her begin to rise up.

Pyrrha jumps into the air and she uses her Polarity to hold her own body up there by her armour. Jaune’s eyes widen from the spectacle that happens before his very eyes, seeing two of the people he loves fighting each other. Except one of them, obviously, is a psychotic Demonic Entity that is using her body as a disguise. Feeding off something very particular in her body that is not shown to them.

He stands back up, the wind blows against his face from what he watches. Per Defectum Vitae suddenly lunges forward, slamming into Pyrrha and the pair of them crash through the floating chunk of land that her Demon lifted. The mass of stone shatters into little pieces, whereas the Onyx Phantom rolls across the ground, tumbling back onto her feet. Pyrrha slides across the ground, pressing her palm to the side of her head in pain. She presses her hands to the cold stone, slowly standing back up, turning to stare at her enemy.

The Onyx Phantom sprints towards her and jumps high above her head, going to impale her with Milo in its spear form, until Jaune gets in the way, using his shield to protect both him and the woman he loves. The Spear scrapes off and the Onyx Phantom snarls with anger, but Jaune kicks the kneecap of the Demon, bringing her down to one knee. He slashes the crumbling version of Pyrrha Nikos across the face, then he slams his shield across the body of the entity to push her back.

Yet again, the entity just rebuilds itself from every strike that they make. “Our attacks do nothing!” Jaune deduces as he watches the embers that he struck apart are no floating back together to form the face of Pyrrha Nikos. The black hair with fiery embers trailing from them flows around as if she is trapped underwater. Pyrrha stands up next to Jaune, staring directly at their enemy that glares right back with those chillingly nightmarish burning orange eyes.

“It must have a weakness...Umbra wouldn’t have pinned us against her if that were the case.” Pyrrha explains, Jaune looks at her with a quizzical expression.

“You think?” Jaune questions with disbelief.

“Think – Jaune. He wants to have a good fight happen, he wants entertainment. Where would be the fun in watching a fight where you know who will win?” Pyrrha explains, showing how well she knows the monster that tormented them both. Their eyes both turn back to the feral Onyx Phantom that paces back and forth with gritted teeth.

“So...what are you thinking?” Jaune asks her, trusting her instincts because they have always been on point before.

“This thing is supposed to be the opposite of me – my own Demon – it must feed of my greatest weakness.” Pyrrha explains.

“And that is?” Jaune asks, she closes her eyes and looks at him after she opens them.

“My name – Pyrrha Nikos – when I was trapped here, Umbra told me that it is an ancient tongue for the words _Victory in Death_.” Pyrrha explains.

She looks him in the eyes. “What is the opposite of that?”

“Failure in Life.”

“I think that is what her name means, Per Defectum Vitae...” Pyrrha explains as she thinks on it.

“She feeds off Failure – so I guess we need to keep winning against her...” Jaune states.

“You run support, I’ll handle the bigger hits.” Pyrrha advises, and he does not argue on that idea. Nobody knows her tactics better than herself, she pulls Milo and Akuou back into her grasp with her Polarity, then charging towards her foe. Pyrrha yells with rage, jumping in the air and building up the power behind her arm as she slams Akuou towards the Onyx Phantom. The impact smashes the embers that form her head downwards, but that float back into place. She skates across the stone and she twirls round, slicing the Demon across the side of its face with one lethal attack.

The Onyx Phantom goes to strike her with Milo, but Pyrrha leaps in the air and she performs an incredible corkscrew spin to avoid it. She punches the Onyx Phantom extremely hard in the face, landing on two feet. Per Defectum Vitae growls with annoyance, staring directly at Pyrrha, then turning to one of the Colonnades behind her. Her black energy surrounds one of the pillars and she roars, throwing the pillar of cracked stone towards Pyrrha. The Invincible Girl’s eyes widen with fear as she sees it fly towards her.

She rolls out of the way at the perfect time, and then she raises Milo, avoiding the bullet from Milo that is fired out of Per Defectum Vitae’s rifle. Suddenly Jaune kicks the entity in the side of the head, making it stagger backwards, until he sheathes his sword into the scabbard, lifting it up so then it transforms into the Claymore. He bellows as he swings it round with both hands and slams it into the chest of the Demonic Entity, the blow creates a shockwave which throws it across the courtyard.

Per Defectum Vitae crashes through one of the fractured Colonnades before landing on the ground, dragging her ghostly nails into the cobblestone to slow herself down. She slowly lifts her head, long black hair covering over one of her eyes as she smirks at him. Jaune and Pyrrha’s eyes widen with horror, because she is starting to do something that Pyrrha cannot do. Red lightning begins to crackle through her arms and into her palms. She floats up into the air and Jaune’s eyes widen fearfully.

The Onyx Phantom roars with furor as she fires two powerful bolts of burning hot lightning towards Pyrrha. Jaune grabs Pyrrha and he pulls her out of the way as the bolts create a deafening explosion.

All Pyrrha can hear is the sound of her ringing eardrums from how loud that explosion was. Embers rise into the sky with the smoke of how powerful that was, and the Onyx Phantom slowly descends back into the ground, walking towards them both. Jaune shakes her, Pyrrha is dazed from how shocking that explosion was. He looks into her eyes as he gently holds her by her cheeks. “Hey! Pyrrha! Can you hear me? Come on, snap out of it!” Jaune desperately begs to her.

She looks up at him, practically gazing at him longingly for a kiss. But too weak to actually deliver one to him. But then, she eventually shakes the terrible dizziness off from her head. “Ow...that’s new...” She groans.

“Yeah, guess that thing wants to play around with her own toys.” Jaune states with a chuckle, pulling her back up to her feet. They both stare at the black smoke from where she did that, when suddenly the screech of the entity erupts as she leaps through the pillar of smoke. She slashes towards them both, the attack throws Jaune back and the blade cuts across his chest plate. The Onyx Phantom catches him by his heel and she throws him into the ground with all her might.

Pyrrha’s eyes widen with horror from the flash of energy that crackles across his body from that.

The Onyx Phantom has just broken his aura.

“Jaune!” She screams, leaping towards the Onyx Phantom and tackling the Demon into the ground with every ounce of strength in her body. She slams the Demon’s head into the stone covered ground with force, over and over again out of anger for what she just did to the man she adores. The embers burst over and over from her head, but constantly rebuild the structure of her face with a couple of seconds that pass by. The Onyx Phantom strikes Pyrrha in the chest with her fist, sending her flying in the air. Pyrrha crashes down onto the ground with a bang, looking up and gasps as she dashes towards her with Milo being swung at her face.

Like she is fighting against a mirror, she battles against her enemy who fights in the exact same style. Every swing and counter she does the Onyx Phantom does at the exact same time. It is almost like a dance how they are fighting each other, mirroring one another perfectly. Pyrrha spins round and rests Milo in its Spear Form over her shoulders, aiming the spear at her. The spearhead opens and fires a bullet into the eye of the Demon, making it stagger back. The back of the Onyx Phantom’s head gets blown open, chunks of embers floating away, before they get pulled back immediately.

Pyrrha’s eyes are wide with disbelief.

_How the hell do we kill this thing?_

_Every strike does nothing!_

_How am I meant to get a Victory from fighting her?_

Before she can ponder any further, the Onyx Phantom suddenly lunges forward and grasps her by the jugular with her burning hot hand made from crackling embers. Per Defectum Vitae lifts her up in the air, staring at her menacingly. “I must say, Pyrrha. I expected better.” She sighs, shaking her head.

The Onyx Phantom roars, turning on the spot to throw Pyrrha into the remaining Colonnades that have not collapsed. She then uses her advanced polarity to force the Colonnades to collapse onto her, pinning her down. Pyrrha gasps for air as the huge chunks of concrete crush her down, and the Onyx Phantom slowly walks towards her with a smirk still on her face as she approaches. Pyrrha still struggles though, trying to pull her body out from the concrete she is laid on, crushing her stomach slowly as she lays on her back there.

Per Defectum Vitae smiles as she approaches her host. “Tsk, tsk, tsk – Pyrrha Nikos. It is futile to truly believe you can beat me. I am you but better in every way, without all the emotional baggage that holds you back. Admit it – give up Pyrrha, and let me take control once more so then Destiny can be yours to reclaim.” The Onyx Phantom explains, crouching down to stare at her green eyes. Pyrrha glares into the Demon’s burning orange eyes with disgust.

“I – I will never give into you...” She weakly strains, feeling the concrete compacting around her body, squeezing her slender body slowly. She grasps onto the concrete, trying to pull it apart but the Onyx Phantom shakes her head.

“That’s what they all proclaim.” She says, before Jaune suddenly slams his knee into the nose of the Onyx Phantom, Pyrrha’s eyes widen with fear.

“Jaune!” She screams with fear, his aura is too low and he is no match for the Onyx Phantom. But he continues to fight, swinging Crocea Mors towards the Onyx Phantom over and over again, yelling with anger as he does it. He lands a few good strikes on her, but the Onyx Phantom is fast, she slashes across Crocea Mors and knocks it from his hand. His eyes widen and she stabs him in his leg, making him grunt with pain. Jaune collapses to his knees with pain.

Pyrrha’s eyes are wide with horror, then the Onyx Phantom looks at her with a smirk. “You may have the name of Victory – but you were always born to fail – you only win...through death.” She concludes.

Then the unthinkable happens.

The Onyx Phantom’s black and gold Milo suddenly extends into spear form, and plunges straight through Jaune’s chest, through the armour and protrudes out his back. Jaune’s eyes widen and an audible gasp leaves his mouth, blood drips from the spearhead of her weapon.

Pyrrha’s eyes burst from their sockets with anguish and terror. “No!” She wails with horror, tears stream from her eyes from what she has just witnessed, she reaches out for the man she loves as the Onyx Phantom yanks the spear from his chest, pushing him onto the floor with her foot. Jaune falls to the ground, blood leaking from his chest where the blade punctured into him, barely able to breathe where he has fallen.

His eyes never leave Pyrrha’s.

Pyrrha’s screams echo throughout the Charred Forest, tears leaking down her cheeks and into the stone.

Without warning, the concrete that was constricting her suddenly shatters like glass. She used her aura to create a powerful pulse of energy that freed her, only showing itself through great distress. Pyrrha still wails with horror, crying as she stands there, but then her eyes focus on her Inner Demon.

Pyrrha grits her teeth and sprints at the Onyx Phantom, striking her over and over again with Milo and Akuou. Slashing Milo across her throat, smashing Akuou through her body, kneeing her, just ripping her apart over and over again. Tears constantly burst from her eyes as she grieves whilst fighting.

They’ve no idea...

That Vir Nominis Umbra is watching the whole spectacle from what remains of Beacon Tower. Clouds of black smoke float past him as he watches with his hands held close together, smirking away as he watches. His eyes glow a sinister red as he smirks.

Pyrrha slams Milo into the chest of the Onyx Phantom with force, throwing her back, then Pyrrha just laments over what just happened, and with Jaune slowly dying from his wound...she is losing her faith in living anymore.

Which is exactly what he wants...

He is starting to break her...

For real this time.

The laughing voice of the Onyx Phantom returns. “Yes, Pyrrha! Let all the rage out of your system!” She laughs maniacally, and Pyrrha slowly stares at her as she slowly stands back up. Her body reconstructing itself with embers that float back together around her. “Look around you, Pyrrha Nikos – all this destruction was created by Humanity and the Faunus, not the Fraxinus Sanctus!” She defends, her hands held out as she slowly walks towards her. “Life is nothing more than an ugly existence, that brings death and destruction everywhere in the world! And all they ever achieve is failure.” The Onyx Phantom continues.

Her eyes descend to Jaune’s body on the floor which is still bleeding out from his wound. “Just like your beloved Jaune Arc – gone and left you nothing more than memories of his own failures. Pathetic!” She laughs with a smirk, and Pyrrha clenches her hand into a fist with anger, tears still pour down her cheeks from her large emerald eyes. “He deserved to die!”

Pyrrha suddenly tackles the Onyx Phantom onto the ground, shrieking with heartbreak as she smashes her fist into her face over and over again, crushing the embers constantly. But the Onyx Phantom kicks her in the chest, sending her flying back and crashing into the ground. She rolls over the ashes that have landed and the Onyx Phantom rises back up to her feet. Pyrrha’s eyes are caught when she sees embers forming a second female body that rolls towards her.

The woman has ashen-black hair and bright amber eyes, while her fingernails are painted dark red. She also appears to be wearing red lipstick and violet eye shadow. She wears a dark-red, off-the-shoulder, v-neck mini dress with yellow designs. There is a blue feather-like accessory on her right hip, at the top of an open portion of her dress. The dress ends in an upside-down triangular tail in the back, ending just above the knees.

There is a baseball diamond-shaped keyhole on the dress' upper back at the same height as her chest. The sleeves end in a triangle shape, which are wrapped or tied around her middle finger, with the gold designs of the sleeve taking over at the wrists. She wears black shorts underneath her dress, as well as a black choker on her neck. She wears a gold loop earring with a black gem dangling from it on her right ear. She has dark, glass, high-heeled shoes and a jewelled anklet on her right leg.

On her upper back, in the keyhole of her dress, she has a black tattoo of what appears to be a pair of high heel shoes placed sole to sole, forming a heart shape inside. Whenever she uses the Dust that is sewn into her dress, the designs on the arms, back, and chest glow bright orange.

She slowly looks up as her long black hair blows out of the way of her eyes, revealing the form of Cinder Fall which murdered Pyrrha on the title. The Onyx Phantom must have formed this hallucination to mess with her mind. “She is the perfect example of what humanity has to offer – and not worth your forgiveness in any form.” The Onyx Phantom states with a smirk on her face as she stands there. Pyrrha grits her teeth with anger, appearing to fall for the powers and she draws Milo in its rifle form, aiming at her face.

Cinder shows a terrified expression as she lays on the ground, desperate for forgiveness for her crimes. “Kill her, Pyrrha. Remember what she did to you that night? She should be punished...” The Onyx Phantom whispers, and Pyrrha’s finger rests on the trigger, and she could kill her right now.

“Do it!” The Onyx Phantom demands...

But then...

Pyrrha hears the soft and weak voice of Jaune dying. “Pyrrha...” He weakly says, and her eyes widen and tears well up in the ducts. “It’s okay...” He gently says as he looks into her eyes. Then she closes her eyes, seeing so many memories returning.

And at that moment...

Her Shattered Memory...

Is rebuilt.

The memories come flooding back to her mind, seeing the night she danced with Jaune in clear detail, the first ever time they met in the Emerald Forest. When she killed Penny, when she felt Jaune’s lips touch hers, feeling his hand touch her as they embraced.

When she first met Ren and Nora.

The terrible juice that Ren had her drink that day.

The arrow lodged in her sternum.

Training with Jaune on the rooftops...

Everything comes back to her at that very moment, she remembers everything that ever happened before she died. And her eyes tear up but not with sadness, but with happiness. She smiles and laughs sweetly with happiness as she feels the memories, both good and bad...but she has them all back

The Onyx Phantom’s smirk is washed away and becomes concern of why she is happy. She then lowers the rifle and stares her Inner Demon in the eyes.

Because she now knows how to kill her.

It is not with weapons.

Not by winning by traditional methods.

You win by accepting that you are not half of a whole...you are not bound to this monster.

The monster is a parasite, a leech bound to her.

And now she has the flame to burn it off.

“You’re wrong, Per Defectum Vitae.” Pyrrha states, turning away from Cinder and just as she does her body erupts into flames and embers, being wiped away in the wind of memory. The Onyx Phantom’s eyes widen with fear and confusion as she just starts to walk towards her. Light begins to glow around her, and even Vir Nominis Umbra looks bewildered by what is happening right now.

She looks around, eyes wide with shock and disbelief and the ground begins to glow as well as she approaches. “You are right about some things, we are capable of great horrors, but we are also capable of beautiful things as well.” She states with a kind smile. The Onyx Phantom growls with agony, staring at her hand as she sees cracks eroding into her skin, feeling pain. She roars with rage, pointing Milo and Akuou at her.

“Liar!” She roars with rage, leaping towards Pyrrha, but Pyrrha shows no fear as her Inner Demon dashes towards her with those burning hot eyes. Pyrrha stares her in the eyes, then she strikes her with all her might with Akuou, so hard that the impact rings across the Charred Forest, and the Onyx Phantom crashes across the ground.

More cracks form across her body, from her eyes as well. Milo and Akuou slide from her hands and she tries to pull them back with her Polarity.

But the Semblance is gone...taken from her as Pyrrha breaks the bond she had with the entity. Per Defectum Vitae snarls with anger, channelling red lighting through her body. “Without me, you will never reach your destiny!” She yells with anger, but Pyrrha shakes her head with a smile as the Onyx Phantom fires a blast of lightning at her.

“I do not believe in destiny anymore.” She says, deflecting the bolt of lightning with Akuou, the red electrical energy explodes off the shield, doing nothing to her as she gets closer and closer. “I only believe in what I choose...” She says, looking at Jaune, feeling so much warmth in her heart. “And I choose him.”

“No!” Per Defectum Vitae wails with horror, feeling her arms starting to crumble away, burning hot pain in her body.

Pyrrha stands there, staring into her eyes as she looks at her. She holds Milo in her hand, staring at the blade, then at the Onyx Phantom.

Her Emerald Eyes lock onto the mirrored orange ones.

And she says only one thing.

“It’s over, Onyx Phantom – Now Fall.” She demands, suddenly leaping towards the Onyx Phantom who shows real fear in her eyes as she staggers back. Pyrrha pulls back Milo, then she swings diagonally as she passes by her.

The impact is so powerful...

And as soon as Milo cuts through her body, light fills the sky...

And silence fills the world.

Pyrrha slides to a stop, not looking back as the body Per Defectum Vitae...the Onyx Phantom...Pyrrha’s Inner Demon...

Her body is sliced in two, and then as her halves float away from each other, they start to crumble away in the air. Cracks and crumbles apart into embers that come apart from one another, slowly disintegrating away into nothing. Even her voice fades away.

When Pyrrha opens her eyes.

The Onyx Phantom is gone.

The whispers are gone.

In one moment.

She is gone.

Just like a Phantom.

It’s over, the Onyx Phantom is finally removed from Pyrrha’s mind forever. She stands there, and she turns to Jaune, seeing that the landscape has transformed into a completely white domain. Jaune lies there, still injured and she runs over to him, holding his hand. She holds him by his cheek, but there is not movement. “Jaune...please...wake up..” She sniffles.

“You did it.” The voice of Vir Nominis Umbra congratulates with a slow clap, she slowly lifts her head to look at him. The Soothsayer approaches her, and on the last clap he keeps his hands in that position. “I must say I am impressed.” He admits with a smile, which appears to be somewhat kind.

Pyrrha rubs the tear from her eye. “What now? Gonna take us anyway?” She asks him, but she shakes his head.

“Have you learned nothing from all this?” He asks her.

Pyrrha raises her brow.

“I am evil, I know that and I embrace that. But a liar? No...I am a man of my word.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells her with a shrug.

“So...you’ll let us go?” She asks him.

“You are free to go back to your limited existence...but remember...once you return...you are back to the world that I will destroy.” He assures, turning and walking away from them both.

Pyrrha holds Jaune as she feels the place fade away from around her.

 

**Ruby**

Her eyes slowly return to the world as she recovers from what she did to that form of the Lord of the Wood. She groans with pain, her head is almost pulsating with pain as she sits up. “Ow...” She groans, but Oscar is there for her.

“Hey...are you okay?” He asks her.

“Yeah...I...I don’t remember what happened...where’s the Lord of the Wood?” She asks him.

“You kicked his ass.” He tells her, and she looks bewildered by this information.

“I...did what?” She asks him.

“You destroyed him, I mean I’m sure we’ll meet him again...but you know, it’s something.” He shrugs.

Suddenly they hear the sound of Pyrrha gasp as she sits up wide eyed and Ruby stares at her with disbelief. She stands up, looking at Pyrrha and Pyrrha looks right at her with amazement. “Ruby?” She softly whispers and she softly giggles. “You’ve grown...”

Ruby instantly wraps her arms around Pyrrha.

At the end of the day...

This is the first time she has seen Pyrrha as herself since she was killed on Beacon Tower. “I missed you, P-Money.” She says with a giggle. Pyrrha smiles as she hugs her friend, but before they can fully embrace.

She turns and stares at Jaune fearfully, he has not woken up. “Jaune?” She fearfully stammers.

Then...

His eyes open up with a heavy gasp.

She gasps with happiness, wrapping her arms around him in a tight squeeze.

She releases him, before delivering a devoting kiss on his lips.

Pyrrha is finally free from the Onyx Phantom...

Its chaos is finally over.

 

 


	41. Counter-Attack

**Thirty Years ago...**

 

The peaceful tweets of birds chirp across the grassland, a small bird flutters across the fields towards a small house that sits amongst the field. The little robin approaches and lands on the birdhouse, eating some of the feed open for it. A young girl with long black hair looks up at the Robin with a gentle smile on her face. She fiddles with her white dress where she sits, cleaning some tools for the farm. She gasps when she hears the voice of somebody behind her, an older woman. “Hey, sweetheart.” The mother speaks as she approaches her and crouches down beside her. “How are you?” She asks her with a similar smile that she has. The young girl seems shy as she touches her cheek with her hand and looks at the floor.

“Um...okay...I guess.” She says quietly.

“Come on, I know when something is on your mind, honey.” The mother tells her with a raised eyebrow as she smiles to her. The girl sighs and then she looks at her mother with glassy eyes.

“My pet Caterpillar turned into a Butterfly...it flew away.” She sniffles. The mother smiles, seeing her daughter’s adorable innocence to the cruel world that they all live in. She takes her daughter in her arms and she sits down, letting the daughter sit on her lap. She rests her head against her mother’s collarbone as she wipes a tear from her eye, and the mother looks up at the sky as the sun sets.

“It’s okay, honey...your Caterpillar did not leave you because it did not like you, it left because it wanted to begin its own journey.” The mother explains and the little girl looks up at her mum. “Everything goes eventually, nothing lasts forever. So we must make the most of what little time we have in this world.” She says to her and the girl keeps on looking at her mother. The mother wipes the tear from her cheek with her thumb with a smile. “Okay?” She asks her.

The little girl silently nods her head.

The mother looks so devoted to her child and then she pats her black haired head.

“Alright, come on. Dinner’s on the table. Your father has been working very hard to get us some food today, we should get ready.” She says to her with a smile.

“What about my brother?” She asks, bringing her brother up into the mix and the mother looks at her.

“Your brother is at his friend’s house, remember?” She says to her, and the girl nods her head after remembering why he is not here. She stands up and walks inside of the house with her mother and she sees her father setting the table with a cloth. She then turns and seems excited when she sees something, almost like she nearly forgot to tell her mother. A little collection of necklaces that have little intricate parts woven onto the string that she made for her mother.

“Look at this, momma! I finally finished it!” She squeaks with happiness as she gives it to her mother. Her mother looks so proud with the smile she gives her daughter, and she cups the gift in her hands as she gazes at it.

“This is beautiful, my sweet girl.” She gasps as she holds the necklace, looking at the many different parts of it that clink against each other. She then looks at her daughter again who looks so happy as she sits down.

“Aw thank you.” The girl says with a bright smile.

“We’ve kept this style of necklace-making a family secret for generations. One day when you have children, you can pass the secret onto them as well.” The mother says to her, but the young girl’s eyes widen and she gasps with confusion.

“Um...I don’t understand...how can I have children?” The girl asks, and the mother becomes very awkward with the blushing that appears on her face. The conversation she had feared ever since she had her daughter.

The _Talk_.

“Uh...” The mother awkwardly says, her large eyes flitting over to the husband that sets their plates down in their places. “Honey? Why don’t you explain?” She asks, and the father looks at her and then sees the mother glancing over at their daughter over and over again as a sign for him to catch on. He realises and then he gets just as awkward as she has become over this talk.

“Well...when a girl and a boy love each other very much...” He begins and the daughter looks at him, so innocent and confused. But before he can continue with his explanation of how making a baby works, there is a knock on the door.

_Knock_

_Knock_

_Knock_

The father almost seems relieved that he can actually take a break from that story, even though he only just began. “Ah! That must be Dr Azula, he came here for your injections, remember? Maybe he can tell you?” The father says, and the mother giggles lovingly at her husband’s statement. He walks towards the door and he reaches out to grab the handle. “It’s funny; we were just talking about you.” He says when he opens the door.

Suddenly a cold steel blade sinks into his heart and he gasps with shock and pain, feeling his blood oozing from the wound. His eyes are wide and he looks down as the blade emerges from his stomach, blood pouring out from his stab wound. He groans with pain as the man with cold grey eyes pushes him backwards, and he falls onto his back with force.

Blood spilling out onto the wooden floor.

The man holds the dagger out with the blood still coating the steel silver blade and he steps inside, two other men with him as they block out the setting sun behind them. One of them wears a black beanie hat on his head, the other has messy blonde hair and the other has brown spiked hair. The murderer has a short beard and cracked teeth, wrinkles that cover his face. The youngest, blonde man has a twitching eye as he holds a hatchet in his hand. The other man stands behind them, seeming to not get that involved in the matter.

The mother and daughter gasp when they see the men stood there, the blood drips from the blade that is pointed at them. The mother’s eyes become glassy with horror as she sees her betrothed on the ground, dead. “Sorry, I hope we’re not interrupting.” The murderer states with an insidious smile on his face. His voice is gritty and horrific as he stands there. The mother eyes her knife on the table that he was going to use to carve the turkey that he caught, slowly moving towards it as the men stand there. The blonde man lifts his hatchet above his head, as a threat to the two.

“Let’s not lose our heads over something rash, now shall we? Would be a shame to ruin your pretty faces.” The blonde man states with a mad smile on his face. The mother grabs the knife and screeches as she rushes towards the axe-wielder, holding the axe arm where it is and she thrusts at his throat with the knife. The man grabs her wrist, much stronger than she is but still struggling to hold her back. “Damn it! She’s crazy!” The man yells, trying to keep her back from stabbing his throat with that serrated blade.

“Run! Run as fast as you can!” The mother screams to her daughter as she fights the stronger man, but the girl is too frightened to move, her bones shaking erratically as she watches the horrific event.

“Momma...you’re scaring me...” The daughter whimpers with fear, looking at her mother as she fights. The mother looks back at her daughter with strained eyes as she tries to kill the man as they struggle.

“You have to be scared! Run! Get out of here! Run as far as you can!” The mother screams, begging her daughter to leave, but it is like she has been frozen in this trance of shock when she looks at the corpse of her father on the ground.

“Daddy?” The daughter whimpers with horror when she sees how much blood leaks from her father’s body on the floor.

The Blonde Man growls with anger as he holds the axe. “Urgh! Screw it! The daughter’ll be enough!” The man yells, ripping his hand from her grip and slamming the head of the axe into her throat so hard that blood sprays from the wound. The mother’s eyes widen with shock and pain from the feeling, and he pulls the axe out and kicks her away. She collapses to her knees, looking at her daughter who has become shell-shocked from watching her parents die in front of her. Blood sprays from her wound, and she reaches out for her daughter, one last plea for her to run. The mother falls forward and her body becomes cold, her eyes dilate where she lies as her blood stains the floor. The murderer with the beanie hat pushes the blonde man with anger. “You stupid son of a bitch! Why did you kill her?” He yells.

“She came at me! The girl looks just like her, the buyer will be happy with her!” The blonde guy says, the beanie hat wearer stares at him with gritted teeth as he approaches the little girl.

He grabs her by her long black hair and lifts her off the floor. “Hey there, Sweetpea, you’re gonna come with us. And don’t try anything cute.” He snarls, striking her across the face so hard that it knocks her unconscious.

 

Hours have passed before she came to...

She groans with pain, her eyes weakly begin to open up when she hears the argument between the two men. “You murderous son of a bitch! This was not what I signed up for!” The beanie hat wearing trafficker yells at the blonde man who stands in the corner with his arms crossed. The axe lies on the floor beside him where he stands. The blonde man does not seem overly bothered by the murder he just committed, he just shrugs his shoulders.

“The guy who asked us to take them did say that he wanted the girl most of all. The mother was just a bonus.” He explains.

“I best be paid for this crap.” The beanie hat man snarls with anger.

“Don’t you worry, he pays well. Not my first kidnapping, you know.” The man shrugs as he stands there, and the other man looks at the girl. Almost like he feels bad for her, clearly he is not really a trafficker, perhaps just a mercenary or thug that was hired.

“She hasn’t got much meat on her bones...why live out in the country if it makes you that hungry?” The guy says as he looks at her, she is still dazed where she lays.

“So what, saves us having to starve her to make her thin for the boss.” The blonde guy says and the beanie hat man stares at him with anger. He is about to start another argument with him, until the door creaks open a little bit. They turn and they gasp when they see a young boy with black hair looking at them. His fringe hides his eyes but he is clearly surprised, he did not mean to bump in on them.

“Oh...I’m sorry.” The boy apologises, he has a soft and quiet voice, almost nervous. The blonde guy stomps towards him and pulls the door wide open as he stands there, glaring at the boy with enraged eyes.

“What the hell are you doing here, punk? How did you find this place?” The man shouts angrily at the young boy, and he whimpers, backing up and then he looks at the man.

“I’m sorry! I just...I got lost in the woods...and I saw the shack and I thought nobody was here.” The boy explains, and the blonde guy quickly figures out that the kid has no idea of who they are or what they did. He looks back at the guy with the beanie hat and he just gestures to him to be nice to the kid. The blonde guy sighs and then he looks at the boy again.

“Sorry, for shouting at you. What are you doing out here at night? Don’t you know that the Grimm get more active in the dark?” The man asks the boy, and the more he speaks to him, the less he realises that the boy is actually holding the same blood stained knife that they killed the girl’s father with. The boy is playing an act on him, and he has fallen for it tremendously. “We have some food here, why don’t you come on in and we’ll look after you –”

The boy pushes the knife straight into the man’s throat and he gasps with pain and shock at the feeling as the blade pushes straight through his jugular. Blood pours out and stains his clothes as the boy stares emotionlessly into his eyes as he stares at him. “I appreciate that, sir...but I know what you did.” The boy snarls with anger as he stares at the man. “And I am gonna be the last thing you ever see.” The boy adds, pulling the blade sharply to the left, ripping it through his throat and slicing it open. Blood sprays out and against the side of his face, hissing like a pressure hose as his body slumps down to his left, revealing him stood there with his blood covering his clothes.

The Beanie Hat wearing man’s eyes widen with horror, springing up from where he was sat so fast that the chair falls backwards. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He yells, watching as the boy slowly closes the door behind him as he stands there. He picks up the axe the blonde man used and he rushes for the boy. “Where are you, you little shit?” The man snarls as he searches for him, looking around.

Suddenly the boy emerges from the coats, yelling as he jumps onto him and he stabs him in the chest, over and over again. The man trips and falls, and the boy sits on him as he stabs him in the torso repeatedly with the same knife he killed her father. “Die! Die you son of a bitch! You’re an animal!” The boy shrieks, the girl’s eyes widen and she gasps when she sees the boy stabbing the man in the chest over and over again. “You’re a disease! Die! Die!” He howls, and the moonlight shines upon his face.

Revealing his eyes.

The same colour as hers.

Red.

The Boy is Qrow Branwen, and the Girl is Raven Branwen.

Qrow slams the blade down into the throat of the man, blood covering his furious face and the man is dead where he lays, blood coating the wooden planks beneath them. There is silence for a while, apart from the panting of Qrow as he sits on his corpse. Qrow turns his head and he looks at Raven where she lays with her limbs bound with rope. “It’s okay, Raven...the hard part’s over.” He promises her. Qrow gets off the dead man and he takes the bloodied knife and cuts the rope off her wrists and ankles.

Raven sits there, she is still frozen with shock from everything that has happened today. “Anyway...I came home from Ruffle’s house, and I saw what happened...so I tracked them back here to find you.” He explains to her and she thinks back to the murder and something clicks in her mind.

There were only two in here.

“What happened to the third one?” Raven asks him with a fragile voice. Qrow gasps when he hears the footsteps behind him and they both turn with shock. The third, tallest of the three, stands there with clenched fists. Qrow jumps for the knife but the man kicks him in the side and sends him tumbling across the wooden floor. He slowly walks towards the defenceless boy.

“You did this, didn’t you?” The man snarls as he grabs Qrow by the throat with both hands, forcing them together around his neck to suffocate him. Raven watches with horror as the man starts to choke Qrow in the air. “Answer me, you little bastard! You did this!” He shouts with rage. The man grits his teeth as he chokes the young Qrow Branwen where he is held, who is trying to free himself from the man’s grasp, but he is too strong for Qrow to do anything. The man then starts to laugh at Qrow. “I’m gonna kill you, you hear that? You’re gonna die!” He hysterically laughs at the boy as he holds him there. Qrow’s red eyes look at Raven where she is.

“Ta-Take him out!” He strains, his voice becoming scratchy and damaged as his larynx is being crushed by the man’s hands. Raven gasps with shock, her eyes widen when she hears him begging for her to save him by killing this man. The knife is right next to her, and then she looks at him again. “Fight!” He yells. “Kill or be killed! Fight for your life! The strong live! The weak die! Which are we?” Qrow strains as the man keeps on choking him, laughing like a maniac as he does it.

“Who the hell do you think you are, you little shit?” The Trafficker barks with anger and insanity.

“The only way to live...is to fight!” Qrow shouts weakly, his voice getting more and more grainy. Raven stutters with fear as her eye jitters as she watches, she then grabs the knife and holds it timidly with both hands as she stands behind the unaware man.

“I ca-I can’t.” She stammers with terror as she looks at the man, her hands shaking erratically as she holds the bloody knife. The sound of Qrow suffering at the hands of the man begins to echo in her mind, but something changes when she focuses.

“That was when it happened for us.” Adult Raven narrates as she tells her tale to Yang and Weiss. “When we first unlocked our semblances, Qrow’s bad luck on the men gave him the element of surprise...and me? I managed to bring good luck to Qrow.” She explains; able to see her younger self again where she stands. “Because at that moment did I realise how cruel the world really is, I have seen it everywhere at every point of my life. I just always looked away from it.” Raven explains, remembering the butterfly that flew away, the turkey that her father killed.

The weak die...

The strong live...

It is the Natural Order of things after all.

“From that moment on, I believed in one principle. The Weak Die...the Strong Live.” Raven tells them.

Young Raven holds the knife hilt by its wooden handle as she stares at the man. “Fight...” She quietly starts as she stares at the man, feeling her aura activating her ever-present semblance. Balancing both of their semblances out so then they can survive together. “Fight...” She says again, louder this time as her eye widens with anger. “Fight!” She yells, she tightens her grip on the knife so hard that the wooden hilt shatters under her palm, and she pushes her foot into the floorboard so hard that it snaps under her foot. She takes off running, full pelt, towards the Trafficker that holds her twin brother. She shrieks with anger and she thrusts the knife closer.

He turns his head with a terrified expression as the sweat trickles down his head when he sees his end.

Her memory cuts to darkness just as the knife touches him, her screech echoes away, and older Raven looks at the two girls that sit before her with widened eyes. “Then the Tribe found us...and they took us in.” Raven concludes.

 

**Raven**

 

Yang and Weiss look utterly shocked where they lay in their beds in the huge Amphitheatre, with the sun setting, they must have asked her about why she was the way she was. And why she changed – the reason still exists now, it is merely because she is no longer at the top of the food chain. Something else is, something more powerful than anything they have ever known. “You...you were only a child when you killed someone for the first time?” Weiss asks her weakly, hooked up to the drugs that appear to keep the plague from ravaging her at all times. But it is not saving her life in any form.

“Yes, both Qrow and I...” Raven answers, holding her Odachi on her lap as she sits beside her daughter. Sun and Neptune were also listening to her tale, whilst the rest of the Huntsmen and Huntresses protecting them here at Beacon look for supplies and think of a plan. The only other people in the Amphitheatre right now are Qrow and Taiyang, and they both know this story very well. Yang’s eyes move over to Qrow who is stood against the wall with his arms crossed, looking down at the ground, still remembering the anger in his bones. Feeling the knife plunging into that Trafficker’s chest over and over again. The amount of blood that jettisoned from his body and into his teeth. He could taste it, an unforgettable horror for two children to witness.

Yang groans, starting to sit upright as she looks at her mother sat in the middle of the four beds they have in here, then at her Uncle. “Then...why were you two so...distant?” Yang asks them, a factor that Sun appears to agree with.

“Yeah, you always seemed like you were at each other’s throats.” Sun points out as he lays there in his bed. Raven closes her eyes and she sighs, turning to look at her brother stood in the corner with his arms still crossed. His sword resting against the wall beside him as he looks at the incapacitated Hunters he sees as family now.

“It was Beacon – he and I went there because our Tribe Leader wanted us to learn how to fight like Huntsmen.” Raven explains, and their eyes widen and the four of them gasp with shock.

“Learn so then we could kill any Huntsmen that challenged us on the road ahead.” Qrow adds, shrugging his shoulders and Neptune coughs as he speaks.

“You – you mean you didn’t go there like we did? For glory or to help people?” Neptune questions.

“Not at first, but when we formed our team for the first time. And we met...Summer and Tai.” He explains as he looks at Taiyang – the two of them are still a little edgy on that topic, sure they have solved most of the issues but the memories are still there.

“Yeah, then Ozpin took an interest in us.” She sighs, rubbing her brow. Clearly this is where the team started to fall apart.

But Yang and Weiss are confused. “Ozpin? What did he do?” Yang asks her curiously.

“What didn’t he do?” She snarls, clenching her hand into a fist with anger. “He tore our team apart – I don’t know if he meant to or not – but he made us all start doing our own secret missions.” Raven explains, which sounds extremely confusing.

“Missions?” Weiss questions.

“Taiyang was tasked to investigate Mountain Glenn, long before it was destroyed. There were strange things happening there with Merlot Industries, Qrow was tasked to keep an eye on the Grimm and whatever it was that Salem was planning. I was tasked with investigating similar things as Qrow but in Mistral – Kuroyuri, Oniyuri...a bunch of different places.” Raven explains, shocking them because this is not what Ozpin did with their team. Sure he took an interest to Team R.W.B.Y but he never tasked them with their own separate campaigns.

But there is one person missing from this equation.

“Wait...what about Summer?” Yang inquires, and she sighs, pressing her hand to her head.

“We didn’t realise till recently – but I think he sent her to Kragen to learn her powers. I bet he would have done the same to your team as well, since Ruby has Silver Eyes just as her mother did before her.” Raven explains to them.

“Wait, you don’t know for sure?” Sun questions.

“No, he never told us Summer’s mission.” Taiyang agrees, chiming into this conversation as well as he walks back and forth in the Amphitheatre, trying to come up with a reasonable plan of action against what has happened.

“But, I’m getting the sneaking suspicion that Kragen might have helped her unlock her powers. She did use them a couple times in front of us – but she never used them _before_ meeting Kragen. Which is curious.” Qrow states as he stands there.

“How?” Weiss asks.

“Because Ruby has, remember? When Pyrrha was killed by Cinder on Beacon Tower when everything went wrong, she managed to freeze the Grimm Dragon and messed Cinder up. Not on purpose mind you, but still – Summer never did that kind of stuff till _after_ we saw her again.” Qrow clarifies, and brings up a very good point, Ruby is different to her mother in many ways.

“Are you sure it wasn’t down to Ruby losing Pyrrha? I mean did Summer ever have anything like that happen to her?” Yang asks him.

“No, we did lose some good friends along the way, she was distraught but that never happened. And even then, her Silver Eyed Powers were nothing like what Ruby did on that tower.” Qrow states.

“Yeah, Kragen even told us that even he could not have done what she managed to do, freezing that Dragon was no small feat.” Taiyang adds, which really does put things in perspective for them. Raven looks at Yang and she scratches the back of her black haired head as she looks at her daughter.

“Well, after all that happened, I started to get sick and tired of what Ozpin was having us do. So I spoke to Qrow, Summer and Tai about running and joining back with the Tribe. Because I heard our leader died from a disease.” Raven explains, then Yang looks at her Uncle.

“We didn’t take to that idea very well, did we?” Qrow asks him, and Taiyang chuckles nervously as he scratches the back of his neck.

“That’s an understatement.” Taiyang chuckles.

“Yeah, the discussion made a crack in the family we made, I wanted to stay with Tai and you...but...I couldn’t. I couldn’t trust Ozpin – I still don’t.” She states, staring at the elevator that leads to the office, where he is still in a comatose state.

“Then why are you still here if you don’t trust him?” Yang questions, Raven looks into her eyes. Then she looks at her hand, clenching it into a fist.

“We’re not the lion anymore, we’re the gazelle. We’re prey, and we can’t stop our common enemy divided.” Raven states as she sits there.

Vir Nominis Umbra really has put things in perspective.

 

**Salem**

Salem emerges from the darkness of the desert, Vacuo is dead cold at night but she does not feel a thing. She walks slowly as she enters the deathly silent city of Vacuo, the silent Shade Academy where bodies lay scattered. They are all still unconscious from the spread of Horridus Morbus as she walks, she does not look as unhealthy as she did not very long ago. She now wears her very long black robe with red designs resembling eyes. She also wears a ring resembling an insect on her right index finger. She has white hair formed into a bun with six offshoots from which ornaments are suspended.

The Seer floats alongside her, a creature which has a small, spherical body that is covered with bone-like plates, along with red tentacles ending in white, bony barbs and a single eye. It creates eerily creepy clicking and hissing sounds as it floats alongside its Queen as she walks past the many bodies. She looks at them all and feels nothing, only creates a smirk as her red irises glow faintly brighter. She walks towards the Academy with the creature at her side.

The huge black wings of the Grimm Dragon soar overhead, it has not been seen in many years. The Dragon is an enormous winged creature, with large red bat-like wings, a pair of legs and a tail. The red membrane of the wing is translucent. It has rough black skin, with white bone-like spines along its body, including an external skull, rib cage and rows of dorsal spikes.

It also has three bony spikes on its tail and large claws on its hind legs. Its skull has a pair of large prominent horns and six yellow-red eyes. Its jaw has teeth extending down along the creature's neck, beyond its skull, such that its entire neck also opens when it roars.

It roars as it flies overhead, and she approaches the Grand Hall created by Headmaster Theodore, and she walks in with her hands held together before her waist. There is a faint smoky black aura about Vacuo from where the plague is still present, despite being triggered hours ago, even passing right by the unconscious bodies of Team B.R.N.Z, who are in dire need of medical attention.

Salem pushes the doors open, seeing the thrown before her and the stains of blood from where Cardin crushed his head in with his Mace. Alongside his Pyromancer who was murdered by him as well, before the deaths of the rest of Team C.R.D.L bar Cardin himself. Wherever he is, he could be infected as well, unless he managed to get out of the range of the plague. But in the grand scheme of things, he has become the last of their worries after the revelation of this plague. She walks up the concrete steps slowly with the Seer floating up them gently, the bony barbs attached to its red limbs scrape against the steps.

Stood before her are the four Knights of Grimm; Death, Fear, Loss and Fury.

All four of them stand there with their eyes watching her as she approaches, and she looks at them. “Why have you summoned me here?” Salem questions, in which Death responds by walking around slowly.

“Things have been going according to plan – the world is descending into chaos and we have control over all Kingdoms apart from Vale and Beacon Academy.” Death explains as he holds Ferrum Arctus in his hand, scraping the blade across the Adobe Floor. Salem watches his every move as he walks around.

“But our enemies are not going to bow down, we all know this.” Salem states, clearly speaking of Ruby and the rest of the heroes who help her. The ones that had a hand in destroying her plans five years ago.

“We know – and we are certain that Blake Belladonna has certain information on her that could prove useful to their cause.” Death explains.

“Menagerie.” Loss states.

“Yes, I know. We have control of Menagerie now after the White Fang returned to our side of the fold.” Salem agrees, nodding her head up and down.

“Correct, but our leader has informed us that an ally of ours has data that is even more valuable.” He adds.

“So what? We storm into Beacon and slaughter them? We tried that once and only managed to kill a few.” Salem explains.

“You misunderstand...he wants them to go there.” Fear states, which makes her raise a brow.

“Wait, what?” She questions.

“He wants them to find what is down there – surely you know how he sees all of this, right? He wants a fair challenge, he has played his wildcard, now he wants to see how they will counter this attack.” Death explains to her.

“And then _we_ make our next move when they are busy in Menagerie.” Fury adds.

“And what next move is that? I have not been informed.” Salem states.

“Destroying the Academies is useful, yes – but we believe your tactic does not work anymore. Humanity and the Faunus have shown that they are capable of rebuilding what was once destroyed – but corrupting the purpose, destroying the foundations – that is something they will not be able to recover from.” Death illustrates, and Salem looks curious.

“He intends to use the Academies...to create our own Huntsmen and Huntresses to serve our cause?” Salem presumes, and Loss nods her head.

“You said it yourself – _never underestimate the usefulness of others_.” Loss says, repeating what she once suggested to Vir Nominis Umbra.

“What about Beacon Academy, or Shade? Vacuo is in no condition to teach anybody.” Salem explains.

“No, but this will be a strong location for the Grimm to transform into a nest.” Death states, then they look up as they hear the sound of the Grimm Dragon landing on the rooftop of the huge building. Dust falls from the ceiling and before the five powerful entities stood inside of it.

“And Beacon?” Salem inquires.

“Let them relish this _victory_ of their while they still have it. Their time on Remnant is short anyways, let them believe they have a chance before killing them.” Fear says with a shrug and she stands there, outside she is acting very professional as she speaks to them. As if they are her superiors...but inside...she only wants to be in charge again. To have the power that she once had over them all, but now they have the power. But she fights the thoughts back for now, and she looks at Death, the one she has had the most rivalry with.

“Then what does he want me to do?” Salem inquires.

“Return to the Sanctum to command the forces. Neopolitan and Kannix Volantis have been sent there to report to you.” Death explains, pressing the blade of Ferrum Arctus downwards against the ground with both hands resting on the head of the hilt. Salem backs up and she respectfully bows her head to the four Knights before her. Before opening a portal behind her that sends her back home. Even the Dragon flies into a portal of its own, going with her as the Seer follows Salem.

Salem emerges from the portal to find her old home, the Sanctum of which the huge table made from purple dust stands before her. Her eyes widen slightly, she has not seen this place in five years. The purple dust towers still stood there as ever, red skies and a crumbling moon above her head. She walks in with the Seer beside her and the Dragon flying around outside of the building made from the bones of her enemies.

The dusts of time scatter across her table as she walks past it, staring at the many empty chairs, except for two that only have Neo and Kannix sat in them now. The Lord of the Wood stands there as well, dormant and waiting for its next command by its master. She stares at the four chairs that once held the seats for her four most trusted allies.

Cinder Fall, who betrayed her.

Hazel Rainart, who also betrayed her.

Doctor Arthur Watts, who is now dead, killed by Neptune as he tricked him, reduced to ash from Fury exploding.

And Tyrian Callows, killed by Ruby Rose and the rest of her team from his own lust for blood to kill Ruby, falling to his death and fulfilling Ruby’s promise to kill him.

Salem stands there, then she stops at her own chair, then sits down at it, with the Seer floating beside her. She looks at her two companions who wait for information, and only one of them can speak, and that one looks extremely pissed off, his cybernetic hands clenched into fists. She figures out pretty swiftly that something is on Kannix’s mind. “Speak, Kannix – I can tell that something is on your mind.” Salem requests with her hands resting on her table. Kannix’s hand is shaking erratically with distress as he sits there, gritting his teeth together.

“I could have killed him...right then and there...” Kannix snarls with anger – unable to stop thinking about Kragen, how he could have finished the pain that he suffered for so long. But he never got the chance because the Lord of the Wood grabbed him and teleported him away to Salem’s Sanctum.

“You’re talking about Kragen, aren’t you?” Salem presumes.

“Of course I am, who else would I be talking about?” He barks, snapping slightly at Salem. She cannot help but be impressed by his bravery, none of the original members of her Inner Circle were ever brave enough to do that. The Lord of the Wood lifts its head, eyes ignite as it stares at him, and he stares right back. “Yeah? What are you gonna do, tree bark?” He challenges with a growl, springing up from his chair, but then Salem holds her hand out.

“That’s enough.” She calmly states, having flashbacks of Cinder’s rage and Watts’ teasing about Ruby Rose. And now that exact same girl is now helping the same girl she was so desperate to get payback on. The irony is so strong that it actually fills the room. Kannix looks at her, then he slowly sits back down, and he still wears the armour that once belonged to Kassius. “I understand that you want revenge for what he did to you, Kannix. And you will have your revenge, just not yet.” Salem assures.

“Understand? He left me for dead! What could you possibly claim to understand?” He challenges, but Salem stares him dead in the eyes and her eyes glow red, and the stone in her head glows faint purple as well.

“Oh – I can imagine quite a bit, Kannix.” Salem promises, which makes the Spectre back down, leaning against the bone chair that he sits in. Salem turns her eyes to Neo, and she is sat there with her arms crossed. The tiny woman barely even fits in the chair, legs kicking back and forth where she sits with her brown and pink hair tied into a ponytail. She looks shy yet upset as well, she was also so close to killing Ruby until Oscar took that opportunity from her. “I know why you are upset, Neopolitan – and I understand as well.” Salem assures, getting Neo’s attention.

Her head raises and she turns to Salem, her big pink and brown eyes looking directly at her leader. Neo raises her brow and Salem sits back in her own chair, clearly being isolated in the Desert for so long has changed something in Salem. Perhaps just having company with her has changed her, because she only had the Seer and the Lord of the Wood with her to speak with. And both do not say a word to her, only have their duty. “I have lost things...I was not always this...” She says as she looks at her hand and the rings on each finger. The pale skin and the cracks which the red energy glows from.

“You were human, once?” Kannix presumes, and Salem gently smiles.

“I was beautiful once...I loved someone once as well...but they abandoned me...” Salem slowly speaks. “I wanted to be more, and I nearly was...until someone else I grew to trust and care for...” She slowly explains, touching the black shard in her head where the cracks start. “Changed me.” She explains.

“Vir Nominis Umbra?” Kannix guesses.

Salem stares him in the eyes. “No – someone else – someone I will make pay.”

 

**Qrow**

Qrow sits down beside the sleeping body of Professor Ozpin with Raven sat with him. The two Branwens stare at his slumbering body, hearing the steady beeps of his heart monitor beside them. At least he is alive, all they want to know is what happened down there in the Vault – with Cinder and how he ended up where he was. Why did he put himself in that Stasis Chamber outside of Beacon?

So many questions...

So few answers...

Raven glares at him and then at her brother. “Do you trust him, brother?” Raven inquires as she keeps her Odachi resting on her lap. Qrow looks at his sister, pondering on the question that she asked him, then looking at the man beside him.

“Trust him? No not as far as I can throw him – but I believe in him.” Qrow answers, confusing Raven.

“What’s the difference?” She grills.

“The difference is that I believe he is doing everything he does for a better tomorrow. Do I trust him to save my life? No, but I also know that he would not sacrifice the lives of his allies unless it was necessary enough to help push our campaign forward.” Qrow explains.

“Even after what happened with Summer – you really believe that?” Raven questions.

“Summer died because of my arrogance, thinking that we could get away with a few weeks together, maybe some stuff happens, maybe she ended up pregnant again...I don’t know...I never expected Death to show up. I doubt even Ozpin did, Oscar told us that even he did not know of their existence.” Qrow explains, remembering the discussion they had back at Mistral years ago.

“What makes you think he wasn’t lying to cover his own back?” Raven suggests, and Qrow looks at her.

“Cover his own back? Why would he do that?” Qrow asks her.

“Vir Nominis Umbra has been listening to us for gods know how many years now – what if he knew, could even hear him? Maybe he was hiding something he knows so then Umbra didn’t figure it out?” Raven asks him, and Qrow can’t help but see where she is coming from, then looking at the Professor again.

“Maybe – and even then, I can respect his reasons.” Qrow states, and Raven smiles, trusting him and his judgement.

However, before they can continue this discussion any further, they hear the sound of their scrolls screaming to be picked up. They both pick them up, hearing the channel that connects all their scrolls together through an emergency line. “Qrow! Raven!” Cinder calls, and they both look at each other.

“What is it, Cinder?” Qrow asks her.

“It’s Blake! She’s here!”

Their eyes widen and they turn and walk towards the elevator, picking their swords up. They have no idea if they can trust her right now, and they are afraid that she could be a traitor on her way to take them out as well. They both stand in the elevator, ready to fight her if they must, and when they reach the ground floor, they both sprint through the Amphitheatre to get to them.

The push the doors open to see Cinder drawing her Bow at Blake whilst Winter has both swords pointed at her if she must strike to defend her. The only person defending her, whilst Blake has her hands above her head, dropped Gambol Shroud on the floor as well. She is so scared, and does not want to hurt anybody here.

Qrow storms towards her, right past Cinder and he grabs her by her collar and slams her against the wall with force, pressing his arm against her neck, staring into her eyes with stern red irises.

Winter gasps. “Qrow! Stop!” Winter shouts.

“I saw the feed.” Qrow growls.

“I know, but it wasn’t her, I promise.” Winter stammers.

“Yeah? Sure looked like her. Sure sounded like her.” Qrow snarls.

“P-Please...It wasn’t me...” She whimpers fearfully.

He then points the blade at her cheek, looking extremely enraged as he holds the blade at her. “You best give me some good evidence that you didn’t betray us – otherwise I’ll cut you down right here, right now.” Qrow growls with anger, gritting his teeth together, and putting her on the spot.

“Qrow! Put the sword down!” Winter shouts.

“How do we know we can trust her?” Raven yells as well.

“Because I was with her the whole time!” Winter shouts back.

“What if she knocked you out? Drugged you? Or just was out of view for a couple seconds, she can make shadow clones remember?” Taiyang states, their experience is very clear here when it comes to betrayal.

Blake cannot find words to convince them, she is too scared.

But then...

A voice stops them.

Suddenly black energy surrounds Qrow’s sword and pulls it from his hand, throwing it on the floor, he spins round and his eyes widen. “Enough!” Pyrrha bellows, stood with Jaune. Kassius stands there with what remains of his jacket that Hyde tore and some scars slowly healing on his face from where the heat burned through. Nora, Ren, Oobleck and Port are still quite wounded and need patching up as well. Penny stands with them as well, also needing some patching up too. Ruby and Oscar stand with them too, trying to defuse the situation.

But then...

Cinder stares straight at Pyrrha.

And she stares back.

“Well...

This is awkward.”


	42. An Explaining To Do...

**Pyrrha**

Her emerald eyes meet her fiery amber one...

Fire meets the grass, and Pyrrha can feel the memory of that glass arrow puncturing through her skin and into her heart. Cinder stares right back, wide eyed at seeing her again – she knew that Pyrrha was alive but seeing her face again still sent shock through her body. It has for everyone that stares at her, for Blake and Qrow as well. Glynda stands there as well with shocked eyes, remembering how it felt to force such an impossible choice on such an innocent girl’s shoulders.

Kragen watches their moves, mostly Pyrrha’s because Cinder seeks redemption for her sins she has committed. Pyrrha is fighting the urge to draw Milo and Akuou, she has been informed before that Cinder is now fighting for them and regrets what she did. But that does not cure her of her terrible and painful memories of what happened. Jaune stares at Cinder, still not forgiven her for what she did. Even he is trying not to encourage his girlfriend to strike the Fall Maiden down...but doing so could merely breed catastrophe for them all.

So Pyrrha only lets out a few words. “Fall Maiden...” She greets with a nervously trembling voice as she glares at her killer in her past life. Cinder slowly lowers her bow from when she had it pointed at Blake when they pinned her to the wall. Qrow slowly steps away from her and looks at Pyrrha. Cinder responds as well, her voice just as timid sounding as her victim that she killed a few years ago.

“Invincible Girl.” She replies, and Jaune grits his teeth, just hearing her speak just brings back terrible memories. He reaches towards Crocea Mors to draw it, pulling the blade from the shield and holding it towards Cinder with a stern scowl. Hearing her voice is what sends her over the edge, her polarity activates and the black energy forms around Milo and Akuou, pulling the sword and shield into her hands, she aims then both at her and keeps her shield close to her chest.

In an act of defence, Cinder nocks and draws her bow and arrow forged from volcanic glass, aiming it at her but not wanting a fight. Pyrrha can see the dread and regret in her eye, but it is not enough to make what happened on that tower right. Pyrrha’s breathing is erratically shaky, but Kassius clenches his hand into a fist and he walks in between them. He holds both cybernetic and human hands out to the pair of them that stand there. Jaune stands beside Pyrrha, ready to fight her if he must.

“Enough! Let’s just talk this out...” Kassius requests as he stands between them, and Cinder stares past Kassius at her, speaking timidly and with the fragility of glass.

“I-I am sorry...” Cinder stammers fearfully of the girl she killed, but Pyrrha scoffs as she stares at her, the personality switch in Pyrrha from sweet girl to one that is being quite offensive towards somebody is quite chilling for the rest of her team. And her friends, Blake’s feline eyes are wide with shock of seeing her face, alive and well, after hearing what happened to her on the tower that is directly behind them.

“Sorry? You killed me! Shot an arrow through my chest and burned me to ash!” Pyrrha shouts with anger, hearing Pyrrha raise her voice is quite uncommon as well, even Jaune looks surprised by it. But not by her reasons of being mad towards her killer in her last life. “How the hell should I trust you after that?” Pyrrha snarls, gritting her teeth together and narrowing her emerald green eyes.

Cinder stares at her, she closes her eyes and exhales, and then with shock Pyrrha watches as Cinder does something she never expected her to do. The Fall Maiden releases her bow and it crumbles away into golden embers, embers that are chillingly familiar to Pyrrha, seeing them float past her head. Seeing the image of the arrow shattering and floating around Akuou before it landed in her heel. Feeling the pain as a distant memory in her ankle, the sharp arrowhead lodged inside her foot before the final – killing blow.

Cinder holds out her arms to Pyrrha, stepping forward completely disarmed and helpless if Pyrrha chose to attack her right now. “I killed you...I was a different person back then.” Cinder explains to her, and Pyrrha still seems to be unconvinced.

“Yeah? How so?” She questions, watching her every move. Even disarmed Cinder could still kill her in seconds thanks to the Fall Maiden’s Powers that she stole that night. Cinder looks at Kassius who stands there, still in need of a new shirt and coat; luckily he has some here at Beacon anyway. Cinder’s amber eye returns to the green of hers, her heart pulsating a beat a second now with fear of her victim getting payback.

_I wouldn’t blame her for doing it either..._

She then gently touches the edge of her dress, pulling it back slightly to reveal the scarred handprint on her chest where Fury tormented her five years ago. Pyrrha and Jaune both look at the scar and their eyes widen, that was never there before, they could see that part of her body in her old dress, now the new Fall Maiden black scaly dress covers that shoulder and part of her chest up. “I was reminded of what I am – a failure.” Cinder states as she stands before Pyrrha who keeps Milo’s blade pointed at her head.

Kassius looks away from his sister, clenching his cybernetic hand into a fist when thinking of Fury and what he did to her as punishment for failing to kill Ozpin that night. “I know what I am – and I want to change that.” She states, releasing her dress so then it returns to where it was. Jaune still has his sword pointed at her, and despite everything she had just said, he still wants to strike her down right here, right now.

But...

Kragen’s hand stops him from doing so. He flinches, turning to stare at the old Silver Eyed Warrior who just firmly shakes his head.

“The key to healing past wounds is to move on.” Kragen advises, and Jaune stares at her again, seeing her staring right back at the two of them.

“What the hell are you two doing back here? I thought you were searching for the Summer Maiden?” Jaune presumes, still speaking with a very stern tone as he glares at Hazel and Cinder.

“Yeah, you two went dark out there for ages.” Ruby agrees, stepping forward and past Kragen as she looks at Cinder. Cinder turns to look at Hazel, and since there is less hostility between Ruby and Cinder now, she is more comfortable with speaking with her. Hazel sighs, scratching the back of his neck as he stands there.

“Well – we were on her trail, but it looks like the Summer Maiden found the Spring Maiden. Because our trail led us to find Qrow, Raven and Taiyang.” Hazel explains, which makes Kragen’s eyes widen. It is easy to forget sometimes that the Spring Maiden is still the woman that he loves with all his heart, and they are both immortal thanks to the gifts from the Relics. His silver eyes faintly glow as they widen, thinking of Yenna’s face and her raven black hair.

“Did you find them” Kragen inquires with a nervous tone of voice.

“No...Their trail vanished, and we think that they may have used a portal to get out of there. The trail is completely cold.” Cinder unfortunately states, which makes Kragen close his eyes with distress, clenching his hands into fists. He has always come so close to finding her, but then she disappears again, and then the cycle continues.

It’s like some sort of cruel cycle that never ends...

Pyrrha does not even look at Cinder; she cannot even bear doing so...too many bad memories come flooding back into her mind. Cinder stands there; her eye turning to look at the scared young woman and all she feels is guilt and a sense of responsibility for what she did. Pyrrha sharply turns and storms off, unable to stand in the presence of her killer anymore. If the circumstances were different she would have attacked her right then and there – but she knows that Cinder is now on their side. Jaune sees her walking away and he follows her, just as unable to look Cinder in the eye.

Kassius watches as they both walk away from his twin sister and he sighs, still in dire need of a shirt, which is something that Cinder appears to pick up on. She stares at her brother and raises her brow with confusion. “Um...” She softly mutters, getting his attention. She points at his bare torso with her finger. “What happened to your clothes?” Cinder inquires; he looks at his scarred chest and sighs.

“Hyde happened...” He answers, but then he starts to catch on when he looks at Blake and the shock still in her eyes of seeing Pyrrha alive and well. Cinder nods her head, understanding Hyde so well that it makes sense now why his shirt is gone.

He ripped it off.

His favourite coat as well.

As Pyrrha storms off, Jaune follows after her, trying to catch up with her, and she carries a tremendously stern scowl on her face, clenching one hand into a fist as she storms off. “Pyrrha!” He calls as he follows her, she slows down with tears in her fearful eyes of her enemy being over there, the one that took her from this world and sent her to eight months of torture afterwards. Pyrrha sharply turns to Jaune with those tears in her eyes, her anger turning to sorrow, as it always has.

Jaune looks into her eyes, and he wraps his arms around her, she returns the favour by doing the same, holding him tight as she buries her head into his shoulder. Pyrrha sniffles fearfully, remembering the pain she felt when she died, unable to breathe and feeling her lungs filling with her own blood. It was a horrific experience, and now she is supposed to forgive the woman that did that to her? “Are you alright? I’m sorry; I didn’t know she would have been back yet.” Jaune explains to her, whispering softly into her ear. “We could have talked about it beforehand...” He sighs, closing his eyes.

“It’s okay...I just...hearing her voice...” Pyrrha sniffles fearfully, feeling her wrists shaking from the trepidation that she felt when seeing her face again.

_Her eyes..._

_Wait..._

_What happened to her other eye?_

“Jaune?” Pyrrha tenderly whispers, they slowly break their hug to look at each other. She sits down carefully on a bench as she lays her hands on her armoured up lap. Jaune sits down beside her, looking at her as her long red hair brushes across the right side of her face.

“Yeah?” He responds, raising one of his blonde brows.

“What happened to Cinder? After I was killed? Her eye...it’s missing...” Pyrrha asks him, confused of what happened – and uninformed on Ruby’s Silver Eyed powers. Jaune sits there and he looks down at the floor, remembering the sight of the white light shining bright on the top of Beacon Tower...

“I’m not entirely sure, nobody saw what happened, and both Ruby and Cinder can’t remember.” Jaune explains, and Pyrrha’s eyes widen.

“Ruby?” Pyrrha inquires.

“Yeah, remember when Ruby said she saw you die?”

“Yeah...”

“Well, she wasn’t exaggerating.”

“What do you mean?”

Jaune lets out a shaken sigh, never forgetting the grief he suffered after her death, some of the things he said about himself. The amount of times he punched himself in the head for not being there for her when she needed him. But that is all in the past now – time to focus on the present and the future.

The past cannot be changed, only accepted.

“When Ruby got to the top, she saw Cinder shoot you with her bow...Ruby described it as – _I lost consciousness afterwards, I just remember everything going white as I screamed your name._ ” Jaune explains to her, and her eyes widen when realising that. She never wanted Ruby to see something as terrible as that, she is such a sweet thing...and she is becoming something else entirely after what their enemies have done to her.

“What did she do?” Pyrrha asks, Jaune’s blue eyes rise up to the sight of Beacon Tower, seeing the bright flash of white light which erupted from its peak, freezing the Dragon into stone and wounding Cinder.

“Her Silver Eyes...we’ve seen what that is now...she let out some sort of power from her eyes, it froze the Grimm Dragon to stone and must have burned Cinder’s eye off. I can remember the scream I heard, the bright flash that came from the tower...I don’t think I can ever forget it.” Jaune explains, his head sinks down towards his sternum again, looking endlessly at the floor. Jaune feels her firm and tender hand touch his as she affectionately rubs her thumb across his hand.

“I – I will try to forgive her...” Pyrrha reveals, making Jaune’s eyes widen and even throw him through a loop.

“You’d forgive her for what she did?” Jaune questions.

“I want to try.” She corrects.

“Why? She killed you.” Jaune states.

“Yes – and she could have done it much sooner than that. When we were in the Vault, even when I was fighting her – she was fighting defensively. She only killed me at the end, I think that has something to do with Salem.” Pyrrha explains, remembering it all in full detail now, unlike before when it was all jumbled up in her mind like shards of broken glass.

But her shattered memory is now fixed...

“I don’t know if I can, Pyrrha...” Jaune mutters, pushing his hand through his blonde messy hair.

“Kragen is right – the only way we can heal from our wounds is to move on. I saw the look in her eyes, she regrets what she did and wants to atone...I hope she can.” Pyrrha explains, and Jaune is just amazed by her kindness.

“You are too pure for this world.” He chuckles.

“Well...we’re doing this together from now on.” She promises with a kind smile.

“ _Together_ , together?” He asks her sarcastically in reference to what Nora always said about her and Ren’s relationship. Pyrrha giggles sweetly.

“If you’d have me.” Pyrrha whispers, and Jaune smiles back.

“Always.” He assures, leaning forward to kiss her.

 

**Adam**

The Stolen Bullhead roars across the Valerian Landscape, burning dust belching from its thrusters.

Sat inside of the vehicle are Adam Taurus and Mazen, along with the surviving White Fang Members which went with them. Some of the soldiers polish the metal on their rifles and handguns with cloth and oils, cleaning them for whatever battles may lie ahead. Adam’s hand shakes as he presses it against his head from disbelief of what has happened – the betrayal that Blake has caused.

And he has no idea that she has just returned to Beacon and is sitting at the mercy of her friends.

Her family.

His black gloved hand presses against the mask which hides the scarred eyes that remains beneath, gritting his teeth with what sounds like pain. Pain that resides in his heart with what Blake has done in his eyes – unaware that Vir Nominis Umbra is playing the Faunus for fools. He has Wilt and Blush on his lap, the red blade with a whetstone waiting to be used on it to sharpen its edge.

Mazen stands against the other side of the closed Bullhead with his massive arms crossed and his Chainsword leant against the wall, he looks at the reformed leader of the White Fang. “I’m sorry that the truth hurts the most, it often does.” Mazen states, proud of everything that has happened, because recent events have proved his words true. The ideas he fed into Adam’s head have now just been cemented inside his brain thanks to the work of Vir Nominis Umbra.

“Shut up...” Adam softly snarls, which Mazen responds by uncrossing his arms.

“I tried to warn you, Adam. That sly little Kitty has been playing us all for fools, played Sienna Khan for a fool.” Mazen explains, and the other White Fang soldiers listen to his gruff words. Whereas Adam clenches his hand into a fist, he may have turned against them but the pain is still there in his mind. “Blake Belladonna lied to you, used you as one of her little toys. And now Sienna Khan is dead because she trusted the kitty cat with the good looks, and now she has murdered her to take control.” Mazen explains, walking towards him, and some of the White Fang grit their teeth out of anger and disgust of what they are hearing of the woman that they once trusted their lives with.

“How many Faunus died on those Islands because of her lies?” One of the White Fang Militants mutters, with fury in his voice and disgust.

“My wife...Angel...she is dead because of Blake.” A White Fang operative snarls with anger, with his scaly arms tensing up with hatred.

“The White Fang will not let this betrayal slide, we will kill Blake Belladonna for what she did to us. And then the rest of Humanity will join her.” Mazen growls as he clenches his hand into a fist.

Adam yells with rage, suddenly springing up from the bench and swinging Wilt and Blush towards him, slamming the red blade against his neck to shut him up. Mazen grunts, catching the blade in his hand whilst feeling the blade against his throat, whilst Adam stares up at him with gritted teeth. “Enough...you damned fool.” Adam snarls with resentment as he glares at the creature.

But Mazen suddenly slams his head against the face of Adam, knocking him onto the ground with force. Adam grunts as he lays there, struggling to stand back up with his lack of an arm, but Mazen grabs him by the throat, opening one of the doors and swinging round, holding him over the edge of it. Adam gasps, grasping onto his wrist fearfully as he feels the wind rushing past his head and body, unable to see how high up he is, but the wind and speed of the Bullhead is enough for him to guess.

Mazen glares at the mask that he wears, squeezing his hand tight as he stares at him. “You are a pale imitation of a High Leader, Adam Taurus.” He growls with his gravelly voice that he has hidden away behind that mask. Adam continues to strain and struggle, grabbing his once-second in command’s wrist as he holds him there. “The Adam Taurus I knew would have never let his guard down like that, he would have just struck.” Mazen growls.

Mazen chuckles softly and smirks behind  his mask. “Maybe I should make this problem go away.” He says, and Adam screams with fear a she feels Mazen’s massive hand loosen around his throat, until it squeezes again to keep him there. “Maybe the Adam Taurus we once knew is dead, and this is just some sort of pretender! Which is it?” Mazen yells with rage, and Adam stares at him, using his voice to find his face.

Adam thinks...

Then he knows how to give him the proof he needs to show that he is Adam Taurus, not a pretender.

He just lowers his arms and lets his body become loose, not fearing death, only failing his people. “If my death helps the Faunus – then drop me.” Adam states calmly as he hangs above the hard ground that would most certainly kill him instantly. Mazen stares him down as he holds him there, then he suddenly swings back round and throws Adam back into the Bullhead, only just missing one of the White Fang Members in here with them.

Mazen stands tall as the wind blows across his body, he steps forward and slides the door shut behind him. “Good.” Mazen states, but his next statement is not what Adam was expecting. “But you are not our High Leader anymore.” He says, and Adam stares at him with confusion and raising his brow.

“Then who is?” Adam sternly questions as he stands back up, just as he asks a holographic screen opens up at the end of the Bullhead, with two Faunus Men staring at them.

One wears a red hood that functions partially as a cloak, made of two pieces held together by yellow buttons and string. He wears a black tunic with two sections extending farther down than the rest at his front, and a hole is cut out for his tail. Both the hood and tunic have white trimming. He also wears detached white sleeves, bound at the mid-bicep and the wrists. Black gloves serve that function and attach to his middle fingers. His white pants are pleated. He wears black open-toed sandals with fabric extending up to his knees.

The other, whom looks very similar to the other, wears the same style of clothing but is shorter and has fox ears opposed to a Fox Tail and both have dark tanned skin as Sienna Khan once did. They both have their hands clasped together, and they both bow down to the person before them. “Greetings – High Leader Ursus.” Fennec and Corsac Albain both simultaneously greet.

Mazen Ursus is the new High leader.

From White Fang Lieutenant to the High Leader, he has surpassed Adam and he has now become his right hand man.

Mazen turns to the two Spy-Masters that serve him with his huge arms at his side. “Fennec, Corsac – good to finally see you again. Too much time has passed in that cell of mine.” Mazen explains, staring at them both.

“That it has, High Leader.” Corsac agrees with a firm nod.

“What information have you brought us?” Mazen asks them both, and Adam stands there with disbelief and a clenched fist. He has betrayed the people who were his friends for five years to serve as the right hand man to the man who was his right hand man? What kind of cruel irony is this?

“Faunus across Remnant have begun joining our cause after that revelation made worldwide of what Miss Belladonna has done to our beloved previous High Leader.” Fennec explains.

“With the new growth to the Rebellion, that growth must have the supplements to arm our soldiers. Vehicles, food and supplies. And most importantly – advanced technology.” Corsac adds as he speaks.

“Agreed, I have seen what the Acolytes of Lien are now capable of. We need some of that technology if we are to pose any real threat to them.” Mazen explains with his hands behind his back. “Do you know where we can find any of this technology?”

“Thankfully, we do.” Fennec assures.

“It appears that Menagerie has become a place of interest for a certain Doctor Merlot – I’m sure you are familiar with the scientist and his rather...extreme experiments?” Corsac presumes, and Adam stands up, walking over to the screen.

“Menagerie is under reconstruction, we would have heard something by now.” Adam states, remembering when it was under his supervision. “I have only been away for a few weeks.”

“Very true, Commander Taurus. However we believe that Doctor Merlot has been hiding somewhere outside of Menagerie itself. And the island’s occupants have not reported in since you left.” Fennec explains, and Adam’s mouth opens slightly with concern. He may hate Blake now but he never hated the Faunus or the people of Menagerie.

“What? Surely there must have been a malfunction or something...” Adam presumes.

“With current events recently, it would be unwise to presume this. With the Doctor possibly residing there, it would be possible to bring a group of Special Forces there with you to secure the site’s technology.” Corsac explains.

“Very good, where would we find these Special Forces?” Mazen inquires.

“They are with us at this very moment. Corsac and I have both taken refuge on a ship we have stolen to arrive at Menagerie within the next few hours.” Fennec assures, only then do they hear the sea waves crashing against the hull of the ship that they are on. Mazen nods his head, looking at his Chainsword and then at Adam.

“Then we will meet you there.” Mazen assures.

“Commander Taurus, we understand you suffer some pain with recent events. If you are uncomfortable with –”

Something changes in Adam, instead of jealousy he seems to respect Mazen and his ability as High Leader.

_He has always been a great leader to our forces in the past and has always kept a level head..._

_Better than I ever have._

_I broke the White Fang apart under my watch, perhaps under his guidance he can bring us the peace we want..._

“My sword is yours.” Adam assures, speaking proudly as he stands beside Mazen, and the huge man looks at him slightly, surprised with his change of heart.

That...is the man he remembers.

Heart to the cause and nothing else.

“Besides...there is something waiting for me back at Menagerie.” He states, looking at his missing arm.

The Cybernetic Arm that was made for him. He never used it because he believed that having the arm missing would be a reminder of what it took to bring peace for Humanity and the Faunus.

That peace has gone out the window.

And now...

Adam Taurus has returned...

 

**Kassius**

His cybernetic hand gently touches the black and yellow one of Yang’s, still without a shirt on because he instantly went to see her. Completely informed on everything that happened in Vacuo after the C.C.T went down, he knows what happened to Yang, Weiss, Sun and Neptune. She looks at him with a sweet smile. “I missed you so much...” Yang whispers softly, her head resting into the pillow.

Kassius has his aura activated so then he does not contract the virus that has infected the woman that he loves so much. “I missed you too, Firefly.” He gently says as he holds her hand, she rolls over slightly so then she can look at him properly.

“I wish we could be reunited under more romantic circumstances.” She jokingly says, making Kassius laugh at the fact that despite that she is facing a life-ending plague in her body, she is still being flirty.

“Yeah...” He chuckles, looking at her with a smile. Her lilac eyes gaze longingly into his amber ones, all they both want is to kiss but they are too worried that doing so could spread Horridus Morbus to Kassius. They do not know the limits to which this plague is capable of, Aura may keep it at bay for some time, but who knows what kissing or other actions could do...

Too many unfortunate possibilities.

Yang looks at him and she can tell that there is something wrong, something on his mind.

“Kas?” She softly says.

“Yeah?” He responds.

“Are you okay?” She asks him, and he chuckles.

“No not really.” He admits. Yang shows the face of concern, despite not even noticing that _she_ is the reason he is not okay.

“What is it?” She asks him.

“I saw what this could do to you, Yang...I won’t let that happen.” He assures with a smile.

“I know.” She assures with a smile as well, then the door opens behind Kassius and he turns, seeing Glynda stood there.

“Kassius.” She calls.

“Yeah?” He responds.

“It’s Blake. Qrow’s interrogating her and you’re gonna want to hear this.” Glynda says. Kassius sits there, looks at Yang and he caresses her cheek affectionately.

“Glynda?” Yang weakly calls, and Glynda looks at her.

“Yes, sweetheart?” Glynda asks her kindly.

“She...she didn’t do it...did she?” Yang asks her fearfully, Glynda stands there and looks at Kassius.

“I’m not sure.” Glynda admits, Kassius stands between the two and he looks at Yang.

“Well I guess I’ll go find out.” He says.

Kassius follows Glynda out of the Amphitheatre, and they both approach the Food Hall, which is what they are using to treat the wounded and interrogate Blake at the same time. As they walk, Glynda reveals something and slaps it against his still bare chest. It is a white vest and he jolts from it, and from how hard she hit his chest. “Ow...thanks...” Kassius says, putting the vest on over his toned body.

Glynda smirks cheekily as she keeps walking with Kassius towards the Mess Hall. She then turns and looks at him as he follows her. “You said you saw what this virus does to people – right?” She asks him, and he looks at her.

“Huh?” He asks.

Glynda just gives him a glare which is enough for him to answer. “Uh, yeah.”

“When did you see this happen?” Glynda inquires, Kassius can still remember seeing those soldiers dropping dead as that black fluid started to pour from their eyes, ears, mouths and noses as they died in agony.

“In Atlas, but I think it was modified. It killed soldiers instantly, turned them into some sort of black goo.” Kassius explains, which makes Glynda shudder at the thought.

“Goo?” She asks.

“Yeah, best way I can describe it. Should’ve killed Jacques right then and there.” Kassius sighs as he clenches his hand into a fist.

_There was a Sniper Rifle there..._

_I could have taken the shot...easiest shot in the world!_

“It’s a good thing you didn’t.” Glynda states, which confuses him and his way of thinking.

“How so?” He questions.

“Killing him there and then wouldn’t have solved anything, would have just strengthened their resolve. And you would have been caught or killed.” Glynda adds, looking at him. “Sometimes we cannot just kill our worst foes in warfare just because we can – you must wait for the right moment. Otherwise it could spark something even worse.” Glynda explains, she has been a Huntress for a hell of a lot longer than he has.

He would be wise to heed her words.

He sighs, grabbing the bridge of his nose with his hand. “Do you think there’s a cure? Give it to me straight – what are you thinking?” He asks her, and she sighs.

“I don’t know...I’ve never seen anything like this. Kragen might be able to, but he has not said much about Horridus Morbus. Only its name.” Glynda explains.

“Do you think Merlot made it?” He asks her, and she thinks on that. She once dealt with Merlot many years ago on a mission for Ozpin.

“Maybe – but I don’t understand why he is helping someone like Jacques. I get Ortega because he needs the money for his army and this is just him holding his end of the bargain...but what could Merlot possibly have to gain?” Glynda wonders, starting to ramble on one of her ideas aloud.

“Because he’s a proper lunatic?” Kassius guesses, but she shakes her head.

“No, Merlot is many things but a lunatic is not one of them.” Glynda explains, and Kassius raises his eyebrow.

“You know a lot about him...why?” Kassius asks, she sighs and looks up at the taller yet younger man.

“Because he was once a good friend of mine...and he betrayed me and Ozpin.” Glynda reveals, causing Kassius to stop in his tracks and his amber eyes widen.

_Merlot, Oz and Glynda?_

_Well I didn’t expect that, if I’m being totally honest._

Glynda approaches the doors to the Mess Hall and pushes her hands against them to open them wide. She steps in with Kassius on her left, and across the room are the Silver Eyed Warriors and the Architect working on the wounds inflicted on Nora, Ren, Penny, Port and Oobleck. The Architect works on Penny since he is a machine just like her, fusing pieces of metal back together as she lays there on a table.

Then Kassius sees Blake sat there with Winter next to her as Qrow, Raven, Taiyang, Kragen and Hazel interrogate her on what happened back at Mistral. Kassius slowly approaches them with his arms crossed.

“I swear, I didn’t do it!” Blake begs, wide eyed with concern as she stares at Qrow and the others. Kragen appears to be the one on her side the most, perhaps because he is aware of the abilities that Vir Nominis Umbra is capable of. His staff rests on his lap as he sits on a metal table, listening to their words. But Qrow is not as convinced, showing her the footage that was shown on that broadcast, of Blake driving Gambol Shroud through Sienna Khan’s heart.

“This footage says otherwise!” Qrow argues, making Blake flinch from how loud he yelled at her. Ruby is in here as well, looking at Kassius with her head shaking. Oscar too, they both seem to agree with Blake but are getting annoyed by how Qrow is not as convinced. And so he should be, the footage is very convincing and considering that she did go there to meet with Sienna, it all seems to be too much to be just coincidence.

“Qrow!” Winter suddenly shouts, getting his attention. “I was with her, when we got there everyone inside was already dead.” Winter states, which gets Hazel’s attention.

“What do you mean – everyone?” He asks her.

“All the White Fang Honour Guards, they were butchered and in pretty bloody ways if I’m being honest. I have never seen anything like it, even the Grimm don’t do what this thing did.” Winter explains.

“How so?” Taiyang asks.

“They were splayed out, some pinned to the walls and ceilings. Blood everywhere but bodies were not eaten, just eviscerated.” Winter explains, still able to visualise the corpses across the hall. The glow of red that covered the floors, walls and ceilings.

“And then Sienna was dead?” Raven guesses.

“Yeah, and by the warmth of her body and how fresh the wound was...all that happened literally minutes before we opened the doors. Whatever it was – it managed to get in there, disguise itself as Blake and then escape without anybody seeing it.” Winter explains, and Blake still looks quite shaken from what they saw.

“The White Fang then started attacking the Acolytes of Lien that invaded the city, it was all-out war in the streets.” Blake adds.

“They’ve taken Mistral, too?” Taiyang asks.

“Yeah.” Blake answers, and Ruby sighs.

“All of that sacrifice for nothing.” She sighs, looking down at the floor. Nobody seems to disagree with her on that statement, because it really does feel like Scarlet and Sage died for nothing if the Acolytes of Lien now have full control over the Kingdom of Mistral now. And Vacuo is completely taken over by the Horridus Morbus plague, and Atlas is under the control of the Acolytes of Lien too.

Blake sits there, her eyes sad and ears showing the same emotion. “Let me see Sun...” She mumbles softly, and they all look at her.

“What?” Qrow asks her.

She suddenly erupts with rage, slamming her fist against the table, letting out a shout that nobody has ever heard before. The scream of a woman that desperately wants to see the man she loves who is dying not far from her. “Let me see my boyfriend!” She shrieks with animosity in her amber feline eyes, tears welling up from them as she stands up. Ruby’s silver eye widens and Oscar stands up.

Silence fills the room, and the Architect looks up from Penny at the enraged Faunus Girl. Kassius chuckles. “Note to self: do not piss off Blake.” Kassius mumbles to himself after seeing that.

Qrow looks at his sister and she sighs, nodding her head. The fact that she is that determined to see the man she loves could be enough reason for her to see him. “Fine...but we’re keeping an eye on you.” Qrow states, but Winter rolls her eyes.

“Qrow, why don’t you believe me?” She asks him.

“No offence but that footage is pretty damn convincing.” Qrow states with a scoff as he points at his scroll with that scene on record.

“If it happened do you really think I would have brought her back with me?” Winter inquires, and that sends chills down their spines when realising that she would have put Blake down right then and there if she had to.

That’s what it takes to be Atlesian Special Forces.

“Fair enough...but still, how do you explain it?” Qrow asks, then Kragen finally chimes into the debate.

“Vir Nominis Umbra could.” He reveals, and their eyes all turn to him, even Blake stops before she leaves and looks at him with wide eyes. Kassius uncrosses his arms and widens his eyes.

“How do you know that?” Hazel questions.

“I don’t know for certain, I have not seen him much but I have done my research.” Kragen explains.

“Do you know what he is?” Ruby asks, but he shakes his head.

“Not for certain, I mean I have a few suspicions but nothing concrete.” Kragen explains as he stands up, walking around.

“Well what do you know for certain?” Raven asks.

“Well, I know he has been around for millions – maybe billions of years.” Kragen explains to them, making them truly realise what they are challenging here.

“Pyrrha and Jaune told me about what he did to them, the game he forced them to play. You heard them as well...” Ruby points out.

“Exactly my point, he has existed for long enough to understand aura and the matters of what the world is better than any of us could dream of.” Kragen continues, walking around the small area that they have made from the chairs. “Although...I do believe we may have spoke of his name before.” He says looking at Qrow.

“When?” Ruby asks.

“You know of the Brothers of Light and Darkness?” Kragen asks them all, and they all nod their heads with agreement. “Well I am not certain if my theory is true, but I think he might be the reincarnation of the Brother of Darkness.” He reveals, and that truly scares them.

“Y-You think what?” Oscar gasps as he stands up, chills form on their bodies and their hairs stand on edge at the idea of that.

“You mean to suggest that we are up against a God?” Kassius asks fearfully.

“Again, nothing concrete here...but it is a possibility. Pyrrha told us when we were on our way back here, that the Onyx Phantom called Vir Nominis Umbra the Father of Demons. The Brother of Darkness is the father of the Grimm. It would not be overly ridiculous that the Brother of Darkness did not leave the world like his other brother did.” Kragen explains, resting both hands on the top of his staff.

“I never thought I’d say this but I hope to the Gods that you are wrong on this.” Ruby says with a nervous laugh, which Kragen responds with a similar laugh.

“As do I, Miss Rose.” Kragen says with a smile.

Blake – taken this information in – continues to leave the Mess Hall to see Sun where he is still inoperable due to the Horridus Morbus Virus that flows through him. Qrow sighs heavily, pushing his hand against his head as he leans forward. “I wish I didn’t quit drinking now...” He groans, desperately in need for one. Kassius is the first to try and get their minds back onto the most important matter at hand.

“I hate to be _that_ guy, but can we focus on the big priority right now? This Horridus Morbus thing?” Kassius inquires, and Kragen nods.

“Of course, Blake said something that I could not help but catch onto.” Kragen begins.

“Yeah? And that was?” Qrow asks.

“She said that Sienna noticed strange patterns in Menagerie and the movement of Dust across the Kingdoms. Lots of it in fact headed to Menagerie before the attacks ever happened. Sneaking it in with supply shipments for the reconstruction of Kuo Kuana.” He illustrates to them all, displaying his vast intellect.

“And?” Qrow asks with confusion.

“Think, Qrow. All that Fire Dust went straight to Vacuo to form that trap that killed all the Leaders of the Kingdoms in a few minutes. So why did all the dust that can be used for technology be sent all the way to Menagerie?” Kragen wonders as he stands there, and they all realise at the same time.

“His experiments...” Raven realises.

“We saw his Grimm Experiments in Mistral when we were helping the Witches, remember?” Taiyang points out, remembering the mutated glowing green Grimm that attacked them, the ones controlled by a native Leshen.

“That’s right...” Qrow agrees.

“Oh gods, they’re back?” Ruby groans, remembering when they went after the Doctor years ago.

“Where better to conduct these experiments than somewhere hidden in Menagerie? Sienna even had messages that never reached Menagerie’s people. She would have received replies otherwise.” Kragen explains.

“You think he killed them all?” Hazel asks.

“I hope so.” He suddenly says, confusing them and also worrying them.

“You hope?” Kassius questions.

“Horridus Morbus was a plague that hit my people thousands of years ago, nearly wiped us off the face of Remnant but our scientists managed to find a cure. This one though has been modified extensively. This man clearly is skilled in Biological Warfare – he would need test subjects to make sure it worked the way he wanted it.” Kragen states, and Kassius’ eyes widen.

“The soldiers in Atlas...” He whispers, and the others look at him.

“Huh?” Qrow mutters.

“In Atlas when it all went to hell, Jacques rounded the Atlesian Soldiers up and he gave them a choice. Join the Acolytes of Lien are die, because all the Atlesian Soldiers were given vaccines with Horridus Morbus in it. He could activate it with the flick of a switch on certain people. That must have been messed with.” Kassius explains, and they all nod.

“We need a cure for this thing...” Taiyang says.

“Wait!” Ruby suddenly calls out. “Team B.R.N.Z were in Vacuo when I left...they could still be there!” She realises with widened eyes.

“I hate to be cruel, Ruby...but what does that matter?” Qrow states.

“Think about it, we get them here with Raven’s portals we can try and cure them too. More people to help us! It just hit me that they were still in the city...” Ruby realises with widened eyes.

“We could also test if the cure works on them.” Raven says, which is pretty harsh. But it also does spare the pain for their daughters and family.

They look at Raven, because Ruby’s instincts have always been good before. “I can’t, I need to get my forces here to protect Beacon.” Raven explains, and Qrow grunts.

“Damn...” He sighs, but then the Architect stands up, walking towards them.

“She’s not the only one that can make portals, remember?” He points out, tapping his metal fingers against the side of his arm. Suddenly a blue portal opens behind him, luckily the plague does not come flooding inside of the Hall because the portals do not let air through. Only physical bodies.

“So we get them here and then head to Menagerie?” Qrow asks.

“It is the best option we have, but be careful. Who knows what Vacuo looks like now...” Kragen warns. He stands up and the Architect picks his rifle up, going with them. Qrow kicks his sword up into his hand and Hazel approaches as well. Whereas the others stay with the people they need to care for.

The three of them approach the portal, and it closes behind them.

 

 


	43. A Ghost City

**Qrow**

The howling wind whistles against his ear as he steps out from the swirling blue doorway opened by the Architect. It closes behind the tall mechanical man who looks around; rifle wielded in one hand as his glowing optic scans the fallen city.

The silence...

It is unnerving...

Only a day ago this place was once crawling with people all conversing and fighting with each other over the smallest things. Now it is nothing more than a ghostly reminder of what it is that they are up against, something unbelievably powerful, something that managed to take control of three Kingdoms in just thirty minutes. Hazel stands beside Qrow, towering above him with his fists clenched and the dagger he always carries tightly gripped in one fist. Their auras are up, and they can actually feel the Horridus Morbus plague against them, slowly eating away at the aura so then it can infect them.

The only one here that is safe is the Architect because he is a machine, and Penny is still too damaged from the crash to go on any more missions at the moment. Qrow takes his scroll out and he checks his and Hazel’s aura level.

They are still in the green, but they have already lost a sliver of their aura just standing here in the city. “Let’s make this quick...find Team B.R.N.Z and get them back home.” Qrow tells the two of them, drawing his sword as he takes the first step. The sand seems to have turned grey from the plague that floats in the air, the atmosphere is in fact thick with the plague...it is horrifying to know that there are still people unconscious in this city right now.

Hazel looks round a corner as he walks beside his allies, seeing that there are bodies of people lying on the ground. It is hard to tell if they are even alive anymore, but there is a stench in the air. Like the scent of rotting bodies everywhere...it is a terrible thing to experience. The Architect walks towards a building and he presses his titanium body against the adobe wall of the building, holding his rifle upwards so then he does not accidentally discharge it into either Qrow or Hazel. They cannot afford to take any damage from anything in here; they need as much aura as they can before the plague can get through and infect them.

The Architect peers round into the long street, there is a thick blackish mist in the air, and it must be the Horridus Morbus plague. The fog actually looks like a cloud of smoke – a lot like the smoke that the Grimm are made from. The stuff that they disintegrate away into...in fact it looks identical too it. “Hazel...did Salem ever mention this in her plans?” Qrow inquires as he stands beside him, not meaning the question in an insulting way – just in a curious way. But he can tell from the look on Hazel’s face...that this was never in her long term plan.

“She never said anything about a plague...” Hazel states with a shaken voice from what surrounds him. The wind screams as it blows past their heads, not only is the plague present but it appears that a storm is brewing around them too. The picking up winds and the amount of sand that is being blown into the city, looks like a Sandstorm is about to hit them soon.

The Architect lowers his rifle after aiming into the street; there is no sign of any Grimm or even Acolytes of Lien activity in the city. “It looks clear, come on.” The Architect whispers as he walks forward, and Qrow and Hazel stay close to him as well. The fog just gets thicker and thicker the further that they get. Distant howls of the Grimm echo in the distance of the abandoned city.

“This is really unnerving...” The Architect points out, which surprises them considering he is an Artificial Intelligence from a dead civilisation.

“Would’ve thought you’d be used to silent cities.” Qrow points out, not disagreeing with him, just surprised by that fact.

“I’m used to destroyed cities...not fully intact ones that are this silent.” The Architect states, moving slowly and carefully through the abandoned streets. Qrow can sense the ghostly memories of what this city was like before, scum and thieves everywhere scrambling for food everywhere. The city was already suffering from Famine and Disease, now a disease has completely claimed every single life here. That is if they are alive and not dead, they’ve not checked any of them.

All they need is to find the Team, unfortunately the rest of the people in this city are a lost cause.

Hazel moves round a corner in the street and his eyes widen with shock from what he sees, three Beowulves are hunched over a dead body, gnawing their bony teeth into the flesh of the poor victim which was taken by the plague. Claret covers their claws and jaws, dripping from their teeth as they rip flesh from the dead body’s bones. One of then slowly pushes its teeth into the head of the dead man, squeezing to crush his head.

Until the three Beowulves lift their heads with a growl, glaring directly at the trespassers that have arrived here. They snarl through their bloodied teeth, slowly stepping away from the remains of the body as they stare at their enemies. Hazel grits his teeth with rage when they charge towards them. Hazel grunts, catching one of the mutated wolves by the throat and lifting the Lycan off the ground to plunge his dagger deep into its sternum. Black smoke pours from the wound and the Beowulf eventually ceases to struggle, whereas Qrow slashes the creature’s head from its shoulders in one swing. The Architect stamps down onto the skull of the Beowulf as it lunges at him, crushing the bone and sending its body into a cloud of smoke.

The three Hunters approach the corpse which lies on the floor, blood everywhere; they cannot even identify the face anymore from the amount of damage done to his body. “This is wrong...” Hazel growls with anger, walking away from the corpse on the ground, and the two of them look at each other before to Hazel.

“What do you mean?” Qrow inquires.

“All of this...it doesn’t make any sense...it is not in her style.” Hazel states, remembering Salem and the forms of missions and objectives that they had. But Qrow scoffs, despite not knowing what Hazel means by that.

“I dunno, Hazel. Salem seemed pretty intent on killing all life on Remnant back on the Volcanic Chain Isles.” Qrow points out as he scratches the back of his head.

“No, you don’t understand.” Hazel says as he turns to face them both. “Salem believes in using people, _people are a resource_ was always one of her strongest beliefs. If that was the case then why the hell did she let an entire kingdom full of resources be discarded like that?” Hazel questions with confusion in his voice as he looks around. All three of them jolt when they hear a horrifying screech in the distance. They’ve never heard a Grimm make a noise like that before, it sounded almost human but as if someone was in immense agony.

“What the hell was that?” Qrow inquires with concern.

The Architect stares at the direction that the sound came from, he slowly tightens his hand into a fist. “Maybe they are still a use to her.” The Architect states, walking ahead of them. Qrow stares at the Architect as he watches him walk ahead of them with his rifle in his hand.

_He knows something..._

The Architect turns yet another corner, expecting another horror to await them. Something scuttled from their vision just as they entered this place, neither of them noticed it. There is something here, something that they have not faced before. Like whispers in the air, it is like they are being watched from the buildings that surround them. Screeches of Giant Nevermores echo above their heads, but it does not seem like the monsters can see them through the fog at the moment.

For now they are safe from detection.

But as they start to walk across the street, suddenly there is an almighty bang right in front of them and a bright flash of light. “Get to cover...” The Architect orders with a sharp whisper, taking cover behind a building. Hazel and Qrow do the same, ducking down behind some buildings to not get spotted. The Architect slowly peers round the wall and his metal flaps over his optics lift up with shock.

“Oh crap...” Qrow whispers.

“The Knights’ Bannermen are here.” The Architect says, staring at a squad of skeletal entities slowly walking through the street. Metal armour plating around the bones and glowing red flames in the sockets of where their eyes should be. Like the Grimm they seem to have a fiery red glow from within their bodies as they walk, like a heart or whatever it is that controls these soldiers. Two of them wield Arkhoni Swords, very clearly from their craftsmanship; no blacksmith from this era can make blades quite like the ones that they are holding. Then there are others that are holding rifles that are clearly Atlesian.

It is clear...

These things are people...

Corrupted into monsters.

Then the leader of the squad turns and points to the others, speaking in a tongue that only one of them recognises. Its voice is harsh and almost metallic as it shouts at them, stood tall and ready for anything. “Scitor de szakasz! Elhelyez der tosaitheoiri!” The Knights’ Bannerman soldier bellows aggressively, and the others turn and they walk away from that one. It turns and walks ahead, slowly with the sword held tight in its hand. It walks down the path that they have made, and Qrow goes to kill it stealthily.

Until the Architect points at him and shakes his metal head. Qrow’s eyes widen, and he quickly does as the Arkhoni A.I tells him, staying low and in cover. The Bannerman stands there; the unnatural breath leaves the bony jaws of the skeleton as it looks around. The three of them are ready to strike the Bannerman if he spots them...

But then it continues to walk onwards, leaving them behind as it enters a different pathway to search the area. They stand up, lucky that the being did not sense their presence. “Good job not attacking it.” The Architect says to him, but Qrow does not look as convinced.

“Yeah? How so?” Qrow asks him.

“The Knights Bannermen is essentially a hive intelligence of broken souls. Kill one, they will get more aggressive and will go to where they felt one of their bodies being destroyed.” The Architect explains, shocking them to their core from hearing what they are.

“That’s barbaric.” Hazel says with disgust of how something that evil could possibly exist.

“That’s Vir Nominis Umbra for you.” The Architect scoffs, but Qrow speeds up to touch his shoulder in order to get his attention.

“Hang on...do you know what he said? I’ve never heard any tongue like that.” Qrow says to him, and Hazel agrees with a firm nod of his head.

“What you heard was High Arkhoni.” The Architect tells them. “He told the other Bannermen to – _Search the area, locate the trespassers_.” He translates for them, High Arkhoni is clearly a very elaborate language, and clearly only certain people – even back when the Arkhoni Empire was still in power – spoke that language fully.

“I guess they know we are here.” Hazel sighs.

“Killing those Beowulves wasn’t a good idea; they are all still forms of Grimm. So kill any Grimm and they will investigate the area. It would be best for us to maintain a low profile and not attack anything that we see here.” The Architect advises, he is their best source of knowledge on these things after all. Hazel and Qrow follow him through the Fallen City of Vacuo, carefully taking their steps and keeping their emotions in check to not alert the Grimm and Knights’ Bannerman presence here.

They all duck down as a Grimm Wyvern flies overhead, roaring stridently as its long jet black wings are stretched out, smaller than the Grimm Dragon but just as dangerous. It moves fast, much faster than a Nevermore and vanishes into the thick layer of black fog over their heads. “I can barely see in here.” Qrow whispers.

“How’s your aura doing?” The Architect asks them.

Qrow and Hazel both check their scrolls, and they look at their levels, and it is not good. They are nearly down in the orange already from how long they have been inside of this plagued city. “We’re running out of time...I’m starting to feel it too.” Hazel says, having to shake his head to stay conscious from how hard he has been maintaining his field of aura. His aura is much larger than Qrow’s and even he is struggling.

But when they are walking, they notice the fog starts to thin slightly for a moment and their eyes widen with shock from what they see. Stood at the stairs of the Headmaster’s School, Shade Academy, are the Knights of Grimm. All four of them stand there with their weapons in hand, and they appear to know. Fury’s flames are burning hot and he looks around quickly with gritted molten teeth.

Then Death roars. “Knights’ Bannermen! There are Huntsmen in the city! Search the streets! Find them!” The Knight of Death bellows as he slams his fist against the adobe wall, before suddenly transforming into the giant jet black Nevermore that is his secondary form. The huge Nevermore takes off and screeches as it flies over head, Loss remains there before transforming into a Mourning Dove, Fear into the huge Bat and Fury into the flaming Wyvern. The Four Knights all take off and fly off in the same direction.

Their mission?

Unknown...

But they can be sure to find out soon enough.

“Yeah, good to see you too, Krekras.” The Architect scoffs sarcastically as he walks forward, holding his rifle in one hand as he keeps his body low to the ground. Passing by unconscious civilians...

The plague has hit them much harder than it has hit Yang, Weiss, Sun and Neptune.

Perhaps the amount of time left in the fog makes it worse?

But as they keep searching, they finally spot their unconscious bodies on the ground. “There!” Qrow whispers, remembering their faces from the Vytal Festival. They approach them and press their fingers to their necks.

They have a pulse...

But it is faint, for all four of them. And it appears that their blood vessels are discoloured in a bad way, they have had longer to take in the plague than the others did.

They are in dire need for medical assistance.

“We need to get them to Beacon as fast as we can.” The Architect tells them, hearing the deafening and terrifying pounds and beats of the drumming...but the drumming is the sound of marching bony footsteps headed their way. Something must have seen them...

But then...Qrow realises...

He hears the sound of the clicking and he turns his head.

There is a Seer here, watching them with its tentacles dragging across the floor and scraping through the stone as it hisses, getting closer as it approaches. Qrow stands up as he stares at the Seer and the black ball that is its head swirls from its glowing gold light...

To something else...

From the darkness of the Seer’s head, Salem’s face forms inside as he glares right into the eyes of Qrow. Of all the people he expected to speak to today, Salem was not one of them. Seeing her actually looking at him like that is a first for him, in fact he has not ever had a single conversation with her before. So he starts the conversation the only way he can. “Salem.” He greets with his cold and stark voice. Salem cracks a smirk as she looks at Qrow.

“Qrow Branwen...” She greets in return, Hazel stares at his former superior and stands up, whereas the Architect is keeping his eyes focused on everything around them. “Funny, how five years ago Tyrian told me that he killed you.” Salem laughs softly looking directly at her foe.

Qrow scoffs as he plants his hand on his hip. “With a stinger? Even you should know that I am harder to beat than that.” He scoffs as he looks right back at her.

“Indeed, and there you were – at Mistral, at the Volcanic Chain Isles...and now here. It seems that Ozpin’s little eyes are more resilient than I imagined.” She speaks with a laugh, and Qrow chuckles.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Qrow says, then the Seer turns so then Hazel is in her view. She looks at him and she sighs, almost sadly when she sees Hazel on their side of the table now.

“Hazel...” She sighs.

“Ma’am.” He greets in return, still referring to her as ma’am despite no longer being in her service anymore – perhaps just from habit of consigning to her as that.

“I am sad to see you with them, Hazel. Of all the people who served me in my Small Council, you were the one I actually respected the most. Your reasons were understandable, Ozpin took your baby from you and you wanted revenge.” Salem explains, Qrow cannot help but feel a little on edge with the topic of Ozpin coming up around Hazel. He is still revenge driven and if he learns that he is in fact at Beacon right now...

_I just hope he does not betray us..._

He snaps out of that train of thought when Hazel speaks to her. “I can assure you that my objective has not changed...just my allegiances have.” Hazel states.

“But why, Hazel? They defend him.” Salem inquires curiously, so he steps back and shows her the bodies around Vacuo.

“This...this is not what we wanted.” Hazel states, and he can see the pain in her eyes. “You always told me that you wanted to _save_ the world, not destroy it.” Hazel states as he stares at her.

“I am not the one in charge anymore, Hazel. You know who was responsible for all of this destruction – I too am not overly fond of the current course of events...but he wants this.” Salem explains, and hearing her speak like that really hits Hazel deep. He always remembered Salem being this confident powerful leader, someone who is extremely powerful and not to be messed with.

Now...

“What have you become?” Hazel mutters with disbelief. “You were always the leader...nobody would dare challenge you, and now you are taking orders from a Merchant?” He scoffs.

“He is no merchant.” Salem promises, she even looks back slightly to make sure that he is not listening to her words. Seeing her so scared is really unnerving...

_If she is this scared..._

_What are we really up against?_

“I do not even know what he really is...but he is more powerful than anything we have ever known.” Salem states which gives them all a chill.

“So you just blindly follow his rules? Help him carry out these mass genocides?” Hazel questions, but then Salem stares at him and she smirks.

“And you are not?” He asks him, which confuses Hazel, and then the Seer turns to look at Qrow.

“What are you talking about?” Hazel questions, and Qrow stares directly at the Seer, through it and into the red eyes of Salem as she stares straight back. Then Salem catches on, smirking and laughing quite sinisterly.

“Oh...you haven’t told him, have you, Qrow?” Salem presumes with a smirk.

“Told me what?” Hazel questions.

_Don’t do this..._

“Well, as an act of good faith to you Hazel, I will do his job for him.” Salem assures as she sits forward and stares directly at Hazel.

Then she tells him.

“Professor Ozpin – is at Beacon Academy.” She reveals and his hazel eyes slowly widen with shock and disbelief. “On their journey to find the Spring Maiden, they uncovered his body and took it back to Beacon before you ever returned. He has been in a Comatose State ever since...and they never told you.” Salem explains, and the shock slowly transforms into rage in Hazel as he clenches his hands into tight fists. Qrow’s eyes turn to his fists with concern.

“Because they fear you.” She tells him.

Suddenly the Seer explodes, black smoke and whispery howls rise from the shattered globe like skull of the creature floats away from the tentacles as they float down to the ground. They both turn to see the Architect aiming his rifle at where the Seer once was floating with smoke trailing from the rifle’s barrel. “Hurry up! We need to get them back to Beacon!” The Architect advises, and the marching is getting closer.

The Knights’ Bannermen must be right round the corner.

Qrow runs to pick up May whilst the Architect opens a portal after picking up Brawnz. But then they stop to stare at Hazel.

He is tense, gritted teeth with anger.

“Hazel...” Qrow softly says...

 

**Ruby**

Ruby is stood inside of the Amphitheatre with Blake as they are with their friends, and Ruby’s sister. She is sat down next to her sister’s bed as she looks at her. “Hey, sis...” She softly says to her with a smile, and Yang smiles, gently caressing her cheek with her thumb. With her aura up she is protected from the plague that could infect them. They have taken smart measures to keep the plague inside the Amphitheatre, such as using isolating tape around the walls of the building and even finding a shielding device to keep it all inside.

“I missed you little sis...” Yang softly says as she gently touches her long black and red hair. “I never did say how much long hair suits you, did I?” Yang sweetly asks her with a smile on her face. Ruby giggles shyly as she sits beside her closest friend.

“Well, I did have a good role model.” She kindly says, looking at Yang’s long locks of hair that caresses across her face on the pillow. Kassius is in the room as well with his arms crossed, letting Ruby have a moment with her sister. Blake is sat with Sun, holding his hand as she sits next to him.

“How many times am I gonna have to set next to you as you recover, Sun?” She sarcastically sighs, making Sun chuckle.

“Yeah, it’s becoming a bit of a thing now, isn’t it?” He points out with a chuckle. “First Ilia, then there was the Fear Toxin from Fear and now this.” Sun lists with a chuckle, thinking on the times he has taken a bullet for her. “I’d do it all again though.” He assures, and Blake smiles as she looks at him.

Then there is an audible groan from Weiss. “Alright love-birds, Nep and I are right here.” She reminds, making the two of them laugh.

“Yeah...” Neptune agrees. “Rather not watch Sun procreate.”

“Wow, I’m hurt Neptune.” Sun comments, making Neptune laugh. Kassius stands there and he chuckles, in awe of their ability to make each other laugh even in the darkest of times.

“You guys will never cease to amaze me with that.” Kassius says to them as he stands there, now with a new shirt and his other trench coat he has in his room. It seems he just has a whole tonne of these clothes just stored away somewhere.

“With what?” Ruby asks him, turning to face him.

“Your ability to shrug off the worst things in the world and just make everything happy.” Kassius points off.

“I don’t know if we do that, per say.” Weiss states as she looks at him from the bed that Hazel and the others brought down from the Dorms to them.

“You guys are all on the chopping block and making jokes, I don’t know if I’d be able to do that.” Kassius states.

“Wow, did you have to say it like that?” Neptune asks with a scoff.

“Eh, you know me. Never have been great and being fancy with my words. I say what I think.” Kassius states.

“Or Hyde does.” Yang adds.

“Or he does.” Kassius chuckles.

“He-he...yeah I do...” Hyde subconsciously agrees.

They all sit there, then Weiss sits up weakly, coughing as she does that. The four of them clearly are in a better condition than the people of Vacuo right now if Weiss is able to sit up. She presses her hand to her head as she sits there, wearing a patient’s gown over her body, since her dress as he been cleaned and washed so then it does not spread it anywhere. “Weiss?” Ruby says, standing up as she walks over to her B.F.F.

“I just want to sit up, I’ve been in this bed for a day now...I just want to do something...” She sighs.

“I know, but you can’t. Not until we get this thing out of you.” Ruby tells her.

“Just a bit of sunshine?” She asks her sadly.

“I mean I could open the curtains.” Ruby sarcastically asks, understanding fully what Weiss meant by all of that.

“I meant –”

“I know what you meant, but we have to follow the rules. If you go out there, the infection could spread.” She explains, and Weiss sighs, knowing that she is right.

“Why are you always right?” She asks, like she is having a tantrum.

“Trust me, I’m not always right.” Ruby states, looking a little sad when she thinks on that statement as well.

_I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life..._

Weiss sighs. “Well, when you’re right...you’re right.” She says with a sad look on her face. Weiss pushes her long white hair from her eyes, she has undone the bun and is long and wavy again, and just like how it was when she was on the run in Mistral nearly six years ago now. Feels like an age past now.

Then Blake speaks, and her soft and nervous voice gets their attention. “Guys?” Blake nervously asks, so they all look at her. Kassius with his crossed arms looks at her as well, he and Ruby can guess what she is about to bring up.

“Yeah, Blake?” Yang responds curiously. Blake looks at them, holding her forearm with her hand. Sun can practically sense the trepidation in her, so he sits up and he grunts as he does so.

“Are you okay, Blake?” He asks her.

“Yeah...I just...” She sighs, closing her eyes then she finally asks them. “Do you believe me? With what happened to Sienna? You believe that I didn’t do it, right?” She asks them nervously, anticipating some sort of heartbreaking betrayal. But these people are her family, and they will always have her back.

“Of course not.” Neptune states.

“You’re unpredictable at times but not a traitor. You would never betray your own people like that, or even the human race either.” Weiss states as well.

“Yeah, you know what the stakes are. And you know that we have bigger problems.” Ruby agrees.

“But...there are others here that don’t believe me, like your uncle and your mom.” Blake says, looking at Yang.

“Blake...you heard what Jaune told us about what Vir Nominis Umbra is capable of. He said that he can shape-shift...if he can do that then it is not that crazy that he would use you as a disguise to turn the White Fang against us.” Ruby states, not only defending one of her best friends, but also using her undeniable logic there as well.

“Yeah, that damn Soothsayer bastard is playing the White Fang for fools.” Kassius states with a shrug. Blake looks at them all, and her trepidation lifts, and a warm feeling returns to her body.

She sighs with relief, knowing that her friends...

Her family...

Trust her.

“Thank you.” Blake softly says with a smile.

A knock on the door gets their attention and Kassius turns to it, reaching his cybernetic hand out to open it up. Blake and Ruby are not too shocked and neither is Kassius, but the others...it is the first time they have seen her face since the Fall of Beacon. Pyrrha slowly and shyly enters the Amphitheatre, still with her hair down and wavy but she has finally had a shower and is not wearing her armour. She is wearing a shirt that she found and some jeans and a pair of trainers. Her eyes focus on them, and the four are shocked with widened eyes.

Only one phrase comes to Pyrrha’s head.

“Hello again.” She timidly speaks with a tiny wave of her hand. They all sit up with shock on their faces with wide eyes.

“P-Pyrrha?” Yang stammers with confusion. Hearing that Pyrrha is alive is one thing, but actually seeing her standing before you after knowing that she was killed...is something else entirely.

“I...I wanted to see you...I heard you were hurt.” She says, as Kassius gently closes the door, remaining where he is stood.

They are all still speechless of seeing her there, so Ruby speaks for them. “Nothing they can’t handle.” She assures, stepping over to them. Pyrrha may know about why Ruby has one eye missing, but it is still incredibly heartbreaking to see her without it. Her eye patch covering the eye with the rose engraved onto it.

Weiss is the first to ask the obvious question. “How are you...how are you here? Ruby told us that...” She stammers with confusion, of all the crazy stuff that has happened, this is the only thing that truly confuses her. Pyrrha nods her head as she stands there, holding her forearm in the same way that Blake did from her nervousness.

“I...I don’t really know...that part of my memory is still quite hazy. But...I think I have a good idea.” Pyrrha tells them.

“How?” Kassius asks as he uncrosses his arms.

“I was talking to Jaune about what I remember, and one of my first memories of being the Onyx Phantom was when I attacked you in the Emerald Forest from the darkness. I hurt Nora and Ren...” Pyrrha explains to them, trying to find her memories as she speaks. They can remember that very well, because that whole battle was what lead to the revelation of Kassius’ relation to Cinder and a bunch of them got quite injured as well. And Fear used their nightmares with Loss and their saddest memories against them. When also finding one of the first Visionary Books as well.

“Wait...what about before that?” Sun asks.

“That was Neo, there were two Onyx Phantoms. We figured it out, because the last we saw of the silent Phantom was when Jaune stabbed her shoulder with that hook in Vacuo after we fought all those Acolytes.” Kassius explains.

“And where we first met the Architect.” Yang remembers as she sits there.

“Salem had the Relic of Creation at that time, didn’t she?” Blake adds.

“My point exactly...I think it was after Mistral fell that I was brought back. I don’t think Vir Nominis Umbra is capable of creating life without it.” Pyrrha explains. “Big mistake on his part I guess.” She laughs softly, and it makes them happy to see her again. This is the Pyrrha that they remember, she may have always been very shy but she was funny as well.

She stands there, looking at them all shyly, then Blake walks over to her and wraps her arms around her tight. Pyrrha’s eyes widen with shock from that, then she slowly puts her arms around Blake. “We all missed you, Pyrrha...” Blake says to her softly, and tears begin to stream from her green eyes.

“I missed you all too...” She says with a smile. She walks over to each of the plagued and gives them all touching hugs. Finally after so long they have ultimately been reunited together, and things finally feel like they have hope again.

 

**Hazel**

The blue portal opens, and Hazel storms out, setting Roy and Nolan on the ground, then storming towards Beacon Tower with his fists clenched and eyes narrowed with rage. His teeth are gritted and he snarls with rage. The Architect and Qrow step out from the portal and they both set the plagued members down on the ground. The Architect looks at Qrow. “Go, stop him!” He orders, and Qrow stares at Hazel as he keeps on moving.

He runs after the huge man whilst the Architect calls in help with the team to get them into the Quarantined Zone. “Hazel! Wait!” He begs as he chases after him, but he shakes his head.

“I’m done waiting.” Hazel growls with anger, not stopping on his track towards the tower.

Qrow runs in front of him, holding out his hands and not drawing his sword. All he wants is to reason with Hazel, they are not just allies but they have become friends with him. Well, except for a few people here in Beacon. “Please, just hear me out! We never found the right time to tell you!” Qrow begs, walking backwards since he is not stopping, but Hazel is just looking over his head at the tower, fists clenched so tight that they could draw blood soon.

“Never found the right time? I told you that if we ever found him I would kill him!” He roars.

“I know, but we need him!” Qrow defends.

“Need him? So then he can just wait for a moment to kill our children again? I don’t think so.” He snarls, letting his mind be plagued with ideas of revenge. Qrow has to jog to get back in front of him, desperate to calm him down.

“Wouldn’t you rather hear him out? Understand what happened?” Qrow asks him.

“What is there to understand, Qrow? Huh? He forced that power on my daughter as he was going to do the same to Pyrrha! She became a target because of his actions and now she is dead!” Hazel roars with rage.

Suddenly Hazel grabs Qrow by his shoulder with his massive hand and throws him out of the way, Qrow crashes into the ground, sliding and rolling to a stop. “I’m done with talking...you hid this from me...now it is time for me to avenge my baby girl.” He snarls with tears in his eyes.

He kicks the doors to the Amphitheatre open and everyone inside gasps as they turn, seeing the huge man stood there, his shadow cast over them all. Pyrrha stands there with widened eyes and Kassius steps in front of him. “Now, now...Hazel...how much have you had to dri-” Hazel grabs Kassius and throws him against the wall with force, so hard that the wall cracks upwards. He lands on his knees and he feels the heat building in his head, eyes flickering between amber and fiery orange at times.

“Hazel! What are you doing?” Ruby screams, stood in front of him.

“Ozpin is up there...he has to pay for what he did.” Hazel snarls through gritted teeth.

Blake draws Gambol Shroud, they do not want to fight him but they also cannot let him kill Ozpin. “No! You can’t, we need him! He has information on things that we need!” Ruby shouts, but Hazel snarls with even more rage, clenching his hand into fist and fighting the rage in his heart which commands him to hit her. But he doesn’t, he just pushes her out of his way and walks forward.

But then...

Sun stands up...

And stands right between him and the door. Sun is in no condition to fight, he can barely even stand let alone use Ruyi Jingu Bang. Sweat trickles down his face as he stands there with a gritted scowl, staring right up at his face. Seeing Sun standing there strikes something in Hazel, seeing the pain on his parents’ faces again when he murdered them in cold blood. It still haunts him to this day, the things that Salem ordered him to do...will never cease to haunt him.

He does not want to hurt Sun...

“Sun...Get out of my way.” He quietly says, they all stare at Sun and Hazel fearfully.

“No...” Sun winces, feeling the agony in his infected body that the virus eats away at. Hazel’s eyes are focused on him and he grits his teeth, staring down at him.

“Move...” He demands again, holding the dagger in his shaking hand. Sun’s next statement stabs him even deeper than the last.

“The only way you’re gonna get to Ozpin...is by killing me.” He sternly states, which makes Hazel’s eyes widen. “You want him? Then you’ll have to kill me, just as you killed my mom and dad.” He snarls, and the flashing images appear in his eyes yet again. Like bullets hitting him in the chest over and over again as he sees her silver eyes close and the sound of breaking his father’s neck with just the movement of his wrist. “Go on then! Finish the job!” Sun roars, his voice echoes through the Amphitheatre.

They all stand there...

Hands at their weapons...

Ready to fight if they must.

Until...

“Hazel!” The voice of Cinder screams out, like an arrow through him he stops and slowly turns round. Pyrrha’s eyes are wide with shock and disbelief, not only because it is Cinder...but Cinder is defending Ozpin.

_She..._

_She really has changed..._

_What happened to you, Cinder?_

Hazel stares at her amber eye and she stares at his hazel ones as he stands in the middle of the Amphitheatre. She stands at the entrance, slamming the door shut behind her, as Kassius stands up, looking at his twin sister. “Cinder...he’s up there...” He stammers, pointing up at the tower with his shaking hand. His agony is shown in his body, his emotions linked to them.

“I know.” Cinder tells him.

“Then you know why I must do this.” Hazel states with a growling voice.

“No, because he was not the one that killed your daughter, Hazel.” She says, walking towards him, and he turns to her. He knows about what happened, he was part of the Small Council, he knew about the plan.

“Cinder...” He softly says.

“I killed Amber, Hazel. I did, shot an arrow right through her heart.” She tells him, and the memory of finding her body in the ruins of Beacon are still fresh to this day. Picking her up and burying her in the fields where she always wanted to be buried. The tears that ran down his face.

“Salem made you do it...you didn’t have a choice.” Hazel states.

“Didn’t I? I could have just taken the powers and left, but I wanted to kill her, Hazel.” She states, and they know what she is doing. She is falsifying the past to make herself look like a monster so then he will take out his anger on her instead of Ozpin. She really has become quite heroic now, Pyrrha is...

...stunned.

The Cinder Fall they knew was never like this.

Kassius stands beside his sister, ready to fight him if he must defend his sister. Hazel glares at her when she says that. “I let my lust for killing take over and I killed her right then and there, killed Pyrrha afterwards to get what remained of her power.” Cinder states, and Pyrrha looks away when she says that.

Cinder walks towards him slowly.

“I’m a monster, Hazel. No matter how hard I hide it, it is what I am.” She states, walking closer and closer to him.

“If you want blood for her, Hazel...” She says, holding her arms out to him, defenceless. “Take it from me, man...” She says, and Hazel’s eyes widen when he sees her walk towards him like that. “Come on...” She says as she stands there, and silence fills the room.

Hazel stares at her as her arms are out...

And he hears a little voice in his memory.

“Okay! I did it!” Amber shouts with frustration, as Hazel remembers back to when she was alive years ago...she was only eight years old at the time. A tiny little girl with brown hair and brown eyes like her mother’s. She has a bruise on her cheek and she sighs, looking down at the floor as she stands before her father. He was still as tall and muscular then as he is now, but he does not have the beard and lacks the scars. This must be long before she ever went to Beacon, before Ozpin.

Before Salem...

“You admit you did wrong?” Hazel asks her as he wipes the dirt from her cheek.

“Yes...and I accept the punishment.” She sighs.

“What was it you did?” He asks her, sitting down and looking at her as she holds out her tiny arms.

“I punched him, I started the fight because he was being mean to me.” She explains, looking at her father. Despite the fact that some mean bully was annoying her, she wants to take the blame for defending herself.

Hazel chuckles as he looks at her. “You’re just like your mother, you know that?” He asks her with a smile, she looks at him with a sad expression. Clearly her mother and his wife died some years ago.

In fact, Amber never knew her mother, because she died during Childbirth.

Amber was all he had.

It is no surprise that he ended up with Salem after what Ozpin did to her. “How?” Amber curiously asks her father.

“You always are happy to take the blame for something you are not at fault for.” Hazel says to her.

“But I hit him.” She states.

“Yes, you did. But why did you do it?” He asks her.

“Because...he upset me?” Amber presumes with confusion on her little face. Hazel smiles and he holds out his arms.

“Come here, little leaf.” He whispers to her, so she waddles over to him and wraps her arms onto him, unable to reach his back from how broad his body is. “It’s okay to defend yourself, but it is better to accept responsibility when needed.” He says to her.

“I love you daddy.” She says to him, and he smiles.

“I love you too...” He replies, kissing the top of her head affectionately.

He stares at Cinder after remembering that, seeing how she is taking the blame for it, even making it out to be worse than it was so then he does not make a big mistake. He stands there, holding the knife in his hand with a shaking wrist.

He sighs, sliding the blade back into the scabbard, walking away from the elevator and leaving the Amphitheatre, passing by Qrow. They all look at Qrow with confusion.

“How did he know?” Ruby asks.

“Salem...she used one of those Seer things to talk to us...” He tells them.

Pyrrha stares at Cinder, seeing the pain on her face after she did all that to stop him. She was ready to die to protect Ozpin, to protect all of them.

Cinder turns and leaves, walking outside and Pyrrha is left with that question in her mind.

_What happened to Cinder?_

_After she learned Kassius was alive?_


	44. A Leaf's Redemption

**Pyrrha**

The echo from the doors slamming shut so hard still is in their minds, the aggression that was in Hazel, his determination to kill Ozpin was really quite terrifying. And also very familiar as well, he seemed to go back to the mindset that he had when he worked for Salem. _Nothing matters anymore, just get the job done_ sort of mindset. Ruby stands there, and she turns to see Blake helping Sun get back into his bed, setting him down and pulling the bed sheet over his weak body. “Please...don’t try something like that again, Sun.” Blake begs him with concerned eyes.

Sun smirks with a chuckle as he looks at her with his head resting into the pillow. “Always worrying about me...” He says with a smile as he looks up at her amber eyes, making her laugh with his constant ability to find the good in anything. Ruby looks back at Kassius, stood up as he cracks his neck, Pyrrha stood there and looking at them all.

“Cinder...she risked her life to protect you all...to stop Hazel without hurting him.” Pyrrha says softly with disbelief in her voice. It is all so strange for her, that Cinder Fall – the same monster that killed her in the first place, starting this whole mess.

Kassius looks at her when he hears her say that and he crosses his arms. “There’s more to her than meets the eye, Pyrrha.” Kassius says, and she looks at him. Despite how much time Kassius has put into helping Jaune, Ren and Nora to find Pyrrha, she still does not actually know who he is.

“Forgive me, but I don’t think we’ve officially been introduced.” Pyrrha says to him, and Kassius stares at her. Ruby cannot tell if Kassius actually likes her or not, or if he is just a little defensive of his sister. But either way, they all think it is a bit unfair of Kassius to act like that around Pyrrha.

Cinder may have changed.

She may be his sister.

But she did murder Pyrrha and destroy Beacon only six years ago, nearly seven now.

Nevertheless, Kassius answers her query whilst giving her that look. “Kassius Locke, I’ve been helping Jaune and your team locate you for the past five years.” He informs, and her green eyes widen with confusion.

“Why?” Pyrrha asks.

“Why?” He replies with a question.

“I just mean – we never met at Beacon, why would you help him find someone you don’t know?” She asks him.

“I owe him and the rest of you all a debt.” Kassius says, looking down at the floor.

“No you don’t.” Yang says.

“No, I do. If it weren’t for all of you and everything you have done...helping me get over my grief of what happened to my team...dealing with Hyde, stopping my want for revenge. I may not even be here right now, I owe that and I want to repay it. That’s why I helped Jaune find you.” Kassius explains to her, and Pyrrha looks at the man, seeing the scars on his face, unaware that it was Cinder’s accidental launch of that arrow that did that to him in the first place.

“It doesn’t mean you owe us, though.” Weiss says to him, getting the attention of his amber eyes.

“Yeah, we would have done that no matter what. You’re one of us, Kassius.” Ruby says with a smile. Kassius scoffs, shrugging off the blush that forms on his cheeks from all those kind words.

“Alright let’s not get all mushy with all this now.” He scoffs. Ruby and the others giggle at that, and Pyrrha is still left with questions. Mostly around one certain point, and Kassius can tell that she has noticed that he has something on his mind. He pushes his back from the wall and he walks past her, towards the doors. “Come on, Pyrrha. Let’s talk outside.” He says to her, and Pyrrha watches him as he walks past her, opening the doors and walking out. Pyrrha sees him then turns to Yang, she nods with a smile.

_Nobody trusts him more than her...I guess I can trust her._

She turns and follows, pushing the doors open to follow from behind. She sees him stood by the fountain with his arms crossed, one leg crossed over the other in that stance, hat sat on the edge of the fountain. Pyrrha slowly walks up to him with curiosity in her green eyes. “Okay...I need to know, Kassius. What is the deal you’ve got with me? I can see it in your eyes.” She says, planting her hand on her hip as she looks at him.

Kassius sets his eyes on Pyrrha then he sighs, finally telling her what has been crawling around in his mind. “Look I – uh – I know it couldn’t have been easy.” Kassius says to her. “All those months, alone in the Charred Forest, with _him_.” Pyrrha looks down at the floor, touching her arm when he says that. “And I’m sorry for what happened to you...but it’s not her fault.” Kassius says, talking about Cinder obviously.

Pyrrha raises her brow and she starts to scowl, not aggressively but still in an angry way. “She murdered me, shot an arrow through my heart.” She retorts, pointing at the area in her sternum where she still feels the arrowhead plunging through her. “I can still feel it, the terrible agony of an arrowhead puncturing my lungs and breaking one of my vertebrae.” Pyrrha describes, and most people would cringe at such descriptions, but Kassius does not. After all he knows pain better than most people, something he and Pyrrha do seem to have in common. “So I’m sorry if I hold her responsible for sending me to that hell.”

Kassius stares at her and he looks at his cybernetic hand, flexing the cybernetic fingers back and forth. “Did Jaune tell you that she is my sister?” He curiously asks her, looking at her again and she looks surprised by that. “Her real name is Sapphire Locke, but she has spent so much time as Cinder Fall that she has become somewhat accustomed to it. Only responds to me when she hears that name.” He explains as he thinks of her, remembering the old times when they used to fight together.

Pyrrha softly giggles when the idea comes to her head. “Did she come up with the name?” She inquires, and Kassius chuckles.

“Wouldn’t surprise me, she always did like ironic names.” Kassius admits, making them both laugh. But then the smile drops when he stares at his hand, and then at her again.

Pyrrha can see that look form in his eyes again, and it truly does send shivers down her spine. “I’m not gonna lie to you Pyrrha – I have concerns about you, Jaune did say that you are free of the Onyx Phantom. But after what I saw that thing do to my team...to Vetra...” He slowly says, it has been a long time since he has even thought of her name.

Vetra...

His former lover after he split up with Yang when he left for Haven Academy, after being rejected from Beacon but being accepted there instead. “Who’s Vetra?” Pyrrha inquires, and he looks at her.

“My old girlfriend...Yang and I broke up, only dated for a few months at first and I got accepted into Haven long before she ever did for Beacon. I had to ship out, met my team...and her...” He explains, still able to see her face, her short hair and beautiful eyes. Vetra was admittedly a very beautiful young woman, someone that Hyde also grew quite fond of as well. The very thought of her starts to bring back memories that he tries to shove back into the past. “You never forget your past – even if you manage to move on...” Kassius sighs, shutting his eyes.

“When did this happen?” Pyrrha asks.

“Five years ago...today...” He reveals, it has been five years on this exact day since his team was massacred before his very eyes. Five years since he first set his eyes on the Knight of Death and the Knight of Fear. “The Onyx Phantom butchered my team before my very eyes.”

“Why are we talking about the Onyx Phantom?” Pyrrha questions with apprehension in her vocal tones. “The Demon that followed me is gone, I destroyed it. And if this was five years ago, then it couldn’t have possibly been me. Umbra wouldn’t have been able to revive me without the Relic of Creation.” Pyrrha explains to him, on her theory.

“I know...but he has been able to trick us before. I’m not accusing you of anything yet, but I am still suspicious of you. I never did see the face of the Onyx Phantom, only her eyes and her body, that was it. Could have been anybody.” He explains, and Pyrrha thinks, and she still does not have any recollection of ever killing his team.

“I promise you – I did not do it.” She speaks with determination, but it sounds more like she hopes that this is the case. At the end of the day, none of them really know if it was her or even if it was Neo. They do not actually know for certain when Neo started the whole masquerade of the Onyx Phantom for Vir Nominis Umbra and the Knights of Grimm. “But...how can you be certain that you trust Cinder?” Pyrrha asks him now, and he sighs, rolling his eyes.

Showing the exact opposite side of what he just did to her, being quite hypocritical in his view on these matters. He will show such suspicion towards Pyrrha and the Onyx Phantom links to his team being murdered, but he will shove away her concerns of his sister.

Despite the fact her evidence is stronger than his.

“Pyrrha...” He sighs.

“She murdered me, destroyed Beacon and caused Penny to die. Caused _Yang_ to lose her arm.” She states, and he suddenly gives her a bone chilling stare, head twisting round to meet hers so fast that it makes her stop her sentence in her tracks.

“That...was Adam...not my sister.” He growls with anger.

“Wasn’t it? She brought him into the battle, if it weren’t for her making a deal with him she could still have both of her arms.” Pyrrha boldly states, which could have been a risky move. Especially when Kassius suddenly springs up from where he leant, fists clenched tight and she can see the flickers of red behind his amber eyes.

“Pyrrha!” He suddenly yells with rage, raising his metal finger to point at her. “You are treading on some...mighty thin ice here.” He snarls with gritted teeth. Pyrrha is wise to back down, Kassius has mercy but she has heard the stories of Mr Hyde. She heard the roars he made in the Emerald Forest when he brawled with Kannix and what he did to Adam when he just saw him in Raven’s hideout.

Despite that he changed sides.

Pyrrha cools off, stepping back from him slowly. “I’m sorry...I went too far.” She apologises, Kassius eventually cools off and he shuts his eyes, pushing Mr Hyde back so then he can calm down as well.

“She has suffered more than you can imagine.” Kassius states, sitting down on the fountain edge beside his stetson.

“I dunno, I can imagine quite a lot.” Pyrrha shrugs, some of things that Vir Nominis Umbra showed her, did to her and forced her to experience by watching others in agony. Those memories will never leave her, and will never leave Jaune from what they both experienced.

“I’m sure you can, and I am hoping that you can sympathise with her on that.” Kassius says. Pyrrha shakes her head as she stands there.

“Do you really think I can _sympathise_ with my murderer?” She questions.

“She is trying to redeem herself for her sins, better than what most people hope to do.” Kassius says, picking up his stetson as he bats some of the dirt from the crown of it. He then fits it onto his head as he looks at her. “And besides, she was in a very similar position as you after all.” Kassius points out.

“How so?” She inquires.

“She was under the eye of Salem, her Small Council...and unknowingly under the eyes of the Knights of Grimm and even worse, Vir Nominis Umbra.” Kassius explains, a chilling thing to think of, the idea that there are worse monsters watching every step you take, and listening to every breath and every thought. “What else could she have done after you went on your little suicide run?”

“She could have just injured me.” Pyrrha states, which makes Kassius laugh at the way she is acting. She is acting in a way he never expected.

She is being naive.

“Pyrrha, you know that Jaune told me what happened that night, right? And that I asked her about her side of the story as well?” Kassius inquires.

“I presume so.”

“Well then you can _presume_ that Cinder did not in fact want to kill you that night.”

“I find that hard to believe after she shot me in the heart and burned me to ash!”

“Because you were acting selfishly.”

Pyrrha stops when he says that, and this is something that has plagued her mind for a while, and she has let her hatred for Cinder blind that fact from her mind. Her green eyes widen with realisation after he says that, remembering the pain that Jaune went through when she abandoned him. “What you did that night was selfish – you managed to escape the Vault from Cinder, because she let you escape, because she did not want to kill either of you.” He lists. “Then you confessed your feelings to the guy you love, kiss him and proceed to march off to your own death. You might as well have told him that you loved him then shot yourself in the head in front of him, because that is essentially what you did.” Kassius explains, with a very ridiculous metaphorical scene playing in his head of her doing that exact thing.

Pyrrha stands there and she touches her arm again sadly. “Jaune is a very dear friend of mine, and when he told me about that – I won’t lie – I was pissed at you.” Kassius states, which makes her jolt from that.

“I...”

She cannot even formulate words, she feels so much pain and sadness towards this topic that she begins to tear up. Kassius sees the tears, and he sighs, backing off and he looks down at the floor. He turns round and he presses his hands against the fountain, staring at his own reflection. In a weird way, he sometimes sees Mr Hyde looking back at him in the reflection of the water. The top hat wearing jester looking fellow with a crooked body, yellow teeth and red eyes with a mad smirk, with a cane in his hand. “Great, now I’m the one that went too far. I guess we’re even now.” He chuckles, which makes her laugh again.

Luckily Kassius always knows how to bring warmth back to a cold conversation to not cause everyone to break down into tears. “I...I was just so caught up in the belief of _destiny_...” She says, and the very mention at the word seems to trigger something in Kassius. He tenses his arms, like being stabbed with a needle of disgust at the mere mention of that word.

“Destiny...” He scoffs sarcastically with a soft voice.

He turns round to look at destiny. “Why the hell would you put your faith in something like that?” He asks her.

“You...you wouldn’t understand.” She states.

“Wouldn’t I?” He asks her.

Pyrrha exhales, closing her eyes as she lets her breath from her lips and lungs. “I was extremely lonely at school before I moved to Vale, kids loved to hang out with me because I was the rich girl. But none of them ever liked me, they only wanted to use the things that I had...I cried myself to sleep most nights.” Pyrrha explains, remembering back to when she was ever so small and precious. A tiny ball of love and joy which was surrounded by liars and deceivers that only wanted to take what she had and nothing more.

Until Jaune.

Until Ren and Nora.

Until all of them came barrelling into her life.

“Then...one day the kids in my school told me of a Soothsayer that was camping not far from where we were. For a small fee he claimed he could tell us our futures...and ever since then I believed in my destiny. Until I died, and I realised that he was Vir Nominis Umbra all along.” She explains, with a sad expression.

Then she looks up at the sky. “But I don’t regret believing in destiny...it got me here, perhaps in some way I still do believe in destiny, just not the one that he told me.” She explains, touching her long curly red hair, before she hears Kassius laughing at what she just said.

“Destiny...” He scoffs once again, then she turns to face him. He stares at her and he walks towards her.

“You wanna know what destiny has done for me, Pyrrha?” He asks her. “My father abandoned my sister, my mother and me. My mom died from cancer, my sister and I were left to survive on the streets of Vytal. We got arrested and I was nearly eaten alive by a damn Terror Bird, my sister became manipulated by a monster. I lost my arm, lost my team, the girl I loved and then I nearly lose my face from my own sister because of an accident.” He lists, all of the bad things that have happened to him.

Pyrrha cannot help but show sympathy to him, and all he has survived.

“I’m done putting my faith in destiny, in gods and any other almighty constructs.” Kassius states.

“You’ve seen gods.” She states.

“I never said I don’t believe them...I don’t put my faith in them.” He says.

“Then what do you put your faith in?” She asks him, and he stops, turning to face her. She is not asking this out of rivalry like before, this is because she wants to know what to put her faith in now.

Kassius looks at her and then at Jaune as he sees him walking towards the Dormitories. He points at Jaune and she follows his finger and her eyes widen and her heart flutters when seeing him. “The people we love...” Kassius answers.

Pyrrha looks at him and she smiles.

“I’m sorry.” She softly says.

“Don’t be – I like to fight.” He admits with a smirk, making her smile.

“No...I mean...for everything you have suffered.” Pyrrha says, and Kassius smiles to her.

“We’ve all suffered in different ways – what matters is what we do with that suffering. Just as Cinder has – you should talk to her. See her side of the story, she might surprise you.” Kassius suggests, walking away from her and entering the Amphitheatre again to stay with them. Pyrrha looks down and she looks at her hands.

She closes them and she exhales.

 

**Cinder**

The young woman is sat on her bed in the Dormitory that she has claimed, fiddling with the ring that she always wears to use the dust that forms some of her weapons. Not like she needs to anymore because of her powers, more of a way to remember everything she is...and everything that she has done.

Her long black hair sits across her left shoulder, her one amber eye gazing at its complex design made from silver entirely. A beautiful ring, it is true, which matches her face. Her beauty has never really been appreciated until she changed her sides and been more open with everyone. She closes her eyes, thinking of someone particularly important to her.

Her red eyes...

Her green hair.

“Where are you, Em?” She mutters softly with concern in her trembling voice.

Her door knocks and she jolts, turning her head when she hears the door knock. Cinder Fall has become so timid and jumpy compared to the emotionless monster that she became for a few years. She stares at the door with her one remaining amber eye, then stands up to approach it and open it. She twists the knob and slowly opens the door.

A gasp escapes her mouth and her eye widens, meeting her green ones and the long red hair.

_Of all the people..._

_I didn’t expect..._

“Pyrrha?” She stammers fearfully. Pyrrha stammers as well, both nervous of each other but for different reasons. Cinder is nervous because she is afraid she may be out for vengeance, something she can accept but she does not want to die. At least not yet she doesn’t anyway, and Pyrrha is nervous of speaking to the woman that killed her six years ago.

“Um...Can I come in?” She inquires shyly.

“Uh...uh sure, yeah, come in.” She accepts, stepping away as she picks up some of the books that she has been reading. A lot of them are of the expansive history of Remnant, obviously none of the ones here would have much to do with Arkhoni if they are written by current Historians. Although some have been written by Kragen, offering his knowledge to them so then they can learn from the mistakes of the past Great Empire. “I wasn’t expecting visitors, you know?” She mutters as he stands by the window.

Pyrrha looks at her and she sighs, staring with the obvious place to begin. “I spoke to your brother.” She states, and Cinder smiles with and she giggles softly.

“Of course, he recommended you talk to me, right?” She presumes.

“You guessed it.” Pyrrha agrees.

“Thought so...always thinking about others.” She says as she sits down on her bed, looking at her still.

“He thinks highly of you, you know that?” She says.

Cinder looks down at the floor, closing her amber eye. “He shouldn’t...I’ve done unspeakable things after we were split apart.” Cinder states, her hand shaking around when she just thinks on those crimes.

Cinder turns and looks at Pyrrha, right at her. “I don’t blame you, you know? You have every reason to hate me for what I did to you. I’d hate me if I were in your position.” Cinder states with the shrug of her shoulders. She still wears the same black Fall Maiden Dress that was made for her by Salem and her people, but has her heels on the floor beside her bed. Pyrrha is still extremely uncomfortable as she stands here in the same room as Cinder, feeling like she is about to die all over again.

But Kassius is right about this.

The only way she will be able to get over this is by talking to her.

“I don’t know if I will be able to forgive you, Cinder...but I am willing to try.” She admits, which truly surprises Cinder, widening her eye in the process and making her mouth drop with disbelief.

“Why? Did my brother put you up to this?” Cinder grills, stepping close, but Pyrrha recoils back fearfully of her, which makes Cinder stop. She constantly has to remember that in Pyrrha’s eyes she is still the monster that stuck an arrow through her and burned her to ashes. Whilst destroying her School and most likely killing countless innocents in the process.

Yet here she is...

Sitting in one of the dormitories of that exact same school.

“He suggested it, but – he’s right...and there’s something I want to know...” She says to her, which gets Cinder’s attention. Cinder steps back with curiosity, then she crosses her arms when she says that.

“What do you want to know?” Cinder curiously inquires, Pyrrha exhales to build up her courage.

“Nobody knows about what happened to you after you saw Kassius again – you vanished for ages...then you suddenly reappeared again to save Ruby on the Volcanic Chain Isles.” Pyrrha explains, which leads to Cinder’s eye darting down to floor as she recollects her memories of what happened in those weeks. “What changed in you, Cinder? I remember you as this blood thirsty monster that just wanted to watch the world burn – no offense.” She says to her.

“None taken, you’re not wrong after all.” Cinder sighs as she takes a seat on her bed, looking down at the floor, fiddling with her fingers.

“Cinder...what happened to you?” She asks, and she looks at her, revealing the scarred handprint on her chest to her again, by just pulling the shoulder piece of her dress down slightly.

“Apart from that?” She asks, remembering the searing pain even now and the laughing from Fear that haunted her.

“You know what I mean.” Pyrrha says, and Cinder sighs, looking forward again, pulling the dress back to where it was. She fiddles with her fingers some more, then she snaps her fingers at Pyrrha, swiftly pointing to her bed. Practically ordering her to sit down next to her for the story she about to tell. Pyrrha walks over to her and she awkwardly sits next to her killer who sits there.

“So you wanna know what happened?” She asks her.

 

Five years prior...

“Kassius” Cinder screams with horror, the screeching wail of the Salem’s Eye Spell roaring at his feet as the arrow lands before him. The spell detonates into a powerful and fiery explosion, flames scrape across the left-hand side of his face and his body, burning hot stones slice across his face and he is thrown across the air. He then plummets off the side of the cliff face in the Emerald Forest, tumbling to the ground.

Cinder stands there, wide eyed at what she just did – she does not even notice Yang running right past her to save Kassius from his impending doom. Tears stream from her eyes, she slowly releases her bow and it collapses into burning hot embers, she then falls to her knees with horror.

She stares at the floor...

_What have you done?_

_You idiot! You stupid, stupid idiot!_

_Your brother is alive after all these years and you could have just killed him!_

It is like everything has just become muffled around her, and then she snaps out of it when she hears Yang scream from beneath her. “Kassius! Just hold on!” She yells desperately, faintly hearing the sound of him gasping for air and vomiting blood from the trauma he has suffered. Cinder stands up, backing up before she turns and runs away from the scene of the crime.

Yang looks up...

And Cinder is gone...

She sprints through the thick bushes of the Emerald Forest to find her way to safety, not even certain of where she is going the whole time. Barging through the leaves and ducking under branches between her and wherever she will go. “I ran...like I did the last time I thought I lost him...” Cinder narrates to Pyrrha in the present day.

“I ran and I ran...I didn’t stop, even after I got out of the Emerald Forest...”

Time passes as she runs so desperately, the trees thin after she escapes the Forest, leaving Hazel, Fear and Loss with Mercury and Emerald to fight their foes. She could hear the sounds of the battle getting fainter and fainter the further she got from it all. The days passed around her, and her running slowed, into a hobble as she wandered and wandered across the roads. Like she has been going for so long, her hair is dishevelled, and her lips chapped from a lack of drink. Her breath rasped, and knees weak.

“I...I remember the thirst, it was so bad it felt like I was crumbling away into nothing. I could barely stand at one point...it was gonna happen sooner or later.”

As Cinder continued on her trek, the dehydration got to her, and she collapsed, falling face first into the muddy road as the rain fell around her. Lightning flashing around her and thunder bellowing, mud covered half her face as she laid there. The cold biting into her skin, and she was alone for nearly three hours, the rains even stopped before.

“Then a man found me...”

A horse slowly approaches her, the clopping of its hoofs puncture through the thick mud, the loyal creature brays as it approaches. “Whoa...” The man speaks to the horse, and the animal stops right there, adhering his command. He hops off the horse and lands down beside Cinder, crouching down to inspect her condition. “Hey? Can you hear me, honey?” He speaks with a raised voice in the hopes of waking her up. He presses his fingers to her neck and can feel the faint pulse, she is alive but in dire need of shelter and food.

He looks around and he sighs. “Alright, your coming home with me, sweetheart.” He softly says to her, scooping her light body up with his arms, he strains though from doing it. He has a strained voice as he picks her up, and he climbs back onto his horse, keeping her on his lap with his coat wrapped around her and the hood pulled up. She rests against his chest and he picks up the reins. “Hyah!”

“He took me back to his farm that he owned nearby, not many farmers live in Vale, so it was quite a surprise when I eventually woke up. His name was Reg.”

Cinder lays there in a bed with a fireplace crackling beside her to keep her warm, since a second storm arrived soon afterwards. Her long black hair acts like a cushion for her, keeping her close, and the rain patters against the glass panes, wind howling like wolves and thunder crashing. A powerful bolt of lightning strikes not far from where they are, and the thunderous bang suddenly wakes Cinder up, she gasps from the ever so loud boom that woke her. She looks around nervously as she lays there.

She then looks at her body and something is off...

She is not wearing her dress, she is wearing a white gown around her body to keep her warm and only her undergarments underneath. She then notices the dress is hung up, left to dry after it has been cleaned. Then she sees him sat there in the rocking arm chair by the fireplace. “I was hoping you would wake up.” Reg calmly speaks to her with a soft spoken voice.

“Who are you? Where am I?” She questions sternly with gritted teeth.

“It’s alright, don’t worry – my name is Reginald Pyrestar. You are at my farm, I found you passed out on the road, you were freezing and dehydrated. So I took you here and nursed you back to health.” He explains to her, then she looks at her dress being dried.

“Did you...” She questions.

“Undress you? Yes to get you out of that freezing dress, you were gonna die otherwise.” Reg informs her, but Cinder gives him a suspicious scowl. “Don’t worry I didn’t do anything – I’m not like the Traffickers.” Reg assures, looking out the window at the raging storm clouds. Cinder tries to get up, but her body is too weak, and her aura is still repairing the damage that the cold has done to her.

Reg looks at the young woman with awe. “I’m amazed you even survived, the stage of hypothermia you had should have killed you, and yet here you are.”

“Well...I have a few gifts.” She admits, sighing as she lays there in the bed.

“So what is a pretty young thing like you doing all the way out here in the Valerian Countryside?” He inquires curiously.

Cinder stares at him.

“I didn’t know what to say to him...I was stuck in a weird place – after I thought I lost Kassius the first time I let Salem do whatever she pleased with me. Let her turn me into a weapon of her own choosing...but here...I didn’t even know who I was. If I was Cinder – or Sapphire...” Cinder narrates in the present to Pyrrha.

Her eye flared with intensity of her Fall Maiden powers, but she did not do anything. She just sighed as she sat there, looking up at the ceiling as she listened to the wind. “Mission went bad...” She sums up, being a Huntress is no surprise out here.

“Ah...a Huntress.” Reg deduces, then looking at the Dress. “Then that explains that Dress of yours, so what’s your semblance?”

“I...”

Cinder froze.

“I don’t have one...” She reveals, and Reg raises his brow.

“The thing is – I wasn’t lying – I really don’t have a Semblance, not a real one anyway. I have the Fall Maiden’s power, sure...but other than that – I have nothing at all. Just a girl with ambitions to be powerful...to be feared. Look where that got me...”

Reg looks at her as she tells him that and he turns round to the sword hooked onto the mantelpiece above his fireplace that burns hot. He points at it as he looks at her. “That was my weapon – I called it Fire Breather.” He tells her, and she scoffs.

“You? A Huntsman?”

“Yes, sweetheart. I was a young man once, believe it or not. And I had ideas of being a Huntsman, I was one for a few years...I was good at it...” He says with a smile and a chuckle.

“Why aren’t you anymore?” She inquires.

“Too old, diseases hit me and some diseases cannot be fixed with aura.” He explains, only then does Cinder notice the shaking hands. He has a case of Arthritis which must be developing at a consistent rate.

“I felt bad for the poor old man – once a Huntsman and now a farmer because he was too weak to fight...but I also admired him. He showed me that anyone could change.”

Cinder rests her head into the pillow, listening to the rain that patters against the panes of the windows. “I have to ask – when I was undressing you to get you in that gown...there’s...an odd scar on your chest.” He points out and her eyes widen, head sharply turning to face him with narrowed eyes. “How did that happen?”

“It’s...a long story...” She sighs, not sure to tell him who she is. He has just taken in the person responsible for the Fall of Beacon Academy after all.

He looks out at the storm and the night. “Dawn’s some way off...we’ve got time.”

“I don’t think you caught my drift – I meant I don’t want to talk about it.” Cinder states, rather coldly as she stares at him with her stern expression. Reg smiles and then he shows a mark on his neck. A brand of some kind, one that has an X on it.

“I got that from a bunch of Bandits that captured me...branded me as a slave. I still remember how much that hurt...something similar?” He presumes, so Cinder sighs and gives him a vague answer.

“Something like that...” She sighs.

“Hmph, I’ll take whatever I can get with you, darling.” He says, standing up slowly to go over to a warm drink he has made for her. He approaches her and he gives it to her carefully. “Be careful, it’s still quite hot.” Cinder holds it in her hand, feeling the warmth travel through her palms and through her arms. She closes her eyes as she feels the warmth, holding it close to her heart.

“I had to ask him...I never met anyone like him before.”

“Why did you take me in?” Cinder asks him with confusion after he sits down, and he shares the confusion.

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“I mean – you’ve no idea who I am, or the things that I have done. Why would you risk taking me in?” She asks him.

His answer is the most surprising thing of all.

“I know who you are, Cinder Fall.” He reveals, and her eyes widen with shock and disbelief. “I could recognise your face from the feed when Beacon fell, and now hearing your voice I’m even more certain.” He tells her, which now makes her even more confused to why he would ever take such a monster in. Feed her, give her a warm bed to stay the night.

“Then why? You know what I have done...the sins I have committed...” Cinder states.

Reg smiles as he looks at her. “Because I believe that there is more to you than that, that it is never too late for someone to come back.” He says, shrugging his shoulders.

“How would you know that?” She asks him.

He looks at her, and then he leans forward, cleaning his throat as he begins to speak to her. “I was a soldier once...uh-huh, not just a Huntsman, but one that hailed from Atlas, would you believe that. I come from that pompous place...can’t tell you how much I love the warm weather of Vale.” He chuckles, then looking outside. “Apart from the weather though.” He chuckles.

“Years ago I was ordered to come here with my platoon, some Valerians were causing some trouble for the Schnee Dust Company, ol’ Jacques Schnee wanted them to be – taken care of.” He describes, using his fingers to show quotation marks. “Pompous prick.” He scoffs, making Cinder laugh softly since she can agree on that title for the man.

“All my superiors thought I was brave – but I wasn’t – I mean I never ran from a fight but not because I was courageous, nay – because I didn’t want my buddies to think I was a coward. They would have gunned me down in an instant if I did that.” He explains, thinking back to his younger days. “I was a coward, you see – but I followed orders, no matter what they were.”

Cinder raises a brow when he says that. “Burn those cottages? Gotcha back sir, I’ll burn ‘em to ash. Steal the food from those starving children? Done deal sir. Gun down that family so then we can take their shoes? Not a problem, sir.” He lists, always putting the word sir at the end of every single time he said yes to those orders.

He looks down and he closes his eyes with grief. “I will never forget – one time we raided a small village here in Vale, in the outskirts. Just because we could, stole from them, burned their houses. One woman started shouting slander at us – claimed we were no better than the Grimm. But that wasn’t true – the Grimm are mindless and do what they are born to do. But us? We could have helped those poor sods, instead we pillaged them. We were worse than the Grimm, we were the real monsters.” Reg explains to her, speaking from memory so clearly that he can actually see it. Cinder looks at Reginald, at his wide eyes as he sees it all with grief in his bloodshot eyes. “I took my knife and sliced her son’s throat open right in front of her...and the others held her back, then shut her up with a pistol jammed in her mouth, and he pulled the trigger.” Reg describes, and Cinder looks down.

She may have been merciless once...

But she can see where he is coming from.

There is only so much evil someone can take before it breaks them, and she has reached hers. Reg sits there, and he looks at her. “That night? I have never felt such shame...so much shame that whenever I ate cooked steak I’d taste nothing, drink the freshest wine and feel nothing...someone tell me the funniest joke and not a laugh would escape my lungs.” Reg describes clearly to Cinder. “All I could do that whole night was hear the voice of that woman wailing her son’s name as I slit his throat and let his blood cover my white armour...” He says.

He looks out at the window, endlessly almost. “I’ll hear her screams for the rest of my days, no doubt...” He says sombrely, which makes Cinder look down at the floor. She closes her eye, and she can hear her voice.

“Do you believe in destiny?” The ghostly voice of Pyrrha Nikos echoes in her mind.

“I thought of you when he said that...because I will never unheard your last words, even when you are sat right there beside me.”

Reg pushes his arthritic hands against his lap as he stands up, walking over to Cinder slowly as he speaks. “Now I know I can never bring that poor lad back but what I can try and do with the remaining days I’ve left is bring a little goodness into the world. It’s all any of us can try, isn’t it?” He says as he stands by her bed, then to the window, staring out at the storm.

“It’s never too late to stop...robbing people, killing people and burning down houses just for your own reasons. Whether they are selfish, under orders or even just because you find it fun.” He states as he stares at the forks of lighting that crackle through the clouds.

Then he looks at Cinder.

“Never too late to come back.” He says with a smile, and Cinder thinks on his words.

“Never too late to come back...I’ll never forget his words...”

Reg smiles as he looks at her then he turns away from her, leaving the campfire burning. “Get some sleep, my dear.” He says as he walks away from her, leaving her with all that knowledge. Cinder lays there in the bed, pushing her head against the pillow as she stares at the dancing flames. She sighs, closing her eye as she lays there, slowly and eventually falling asleep.

“I slept like a log that night...and I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that he told me. I wanted to thank him in the morning...”

“...but...”

In the morning...

Cinder’s amber eye opens wide when she hears the screams of terror and agony from outside of the house she has been staying at. She sits up suddenly when she lays there, the logs in the fireplace crumbled away into white ashes, she clambers out from the bed in her gown, looking out the window when she sees something horrible.

The many farmers that work for Reg...

Pillaged...

Blood everywhere from their slashed open bodies, and she steps out into the field, her feet pushing into the soil, walking past the many bodies that have been cut down. Hoof prints in the soil where they attacked. She looks around, then she gasps, seeing the tree.

He lays against the tree with a spear rammed through his chest, blood dripping from the end of it where he is slumped. His skin pale and eyes faded from his death, she crouches down with a saddened eye, before she closes his ones she releases some tears from her own one. She crouches there with a sniffle as she remains beside him. “Why didn’t you wake me?” She sniffles.

“I could have saved them with my powers...but he wanted to protect me...he died protecting me...”

“And I couldn’t protect him...”

Cinder clenches her hand into a fist and she grits her teeth with rage, fire erupting from her eyes.

“But I could avenge him.”

Hours...

Days...

A Week...

Time passes by so fast when vengeance is on someone’s mind, and Cinder traverses across the Valerian Terrain with the same cloak that she wore to conceal her identity to get aboard the Drift of Wandering Star. She has her Fall Maiden dress on underneath the cloak as she walks along, and her amber eye turns when she hears the sound of a bunch of brutish men abusing a young woman. They strike her over and over again, laughing as they attack her. “Never should have stole from us!” One of them yells with a laugh.

“We could just hang ya! But I think we can have a little fun first.” The other chuckles as he punches her in the face. The woman cries out with pain as they attack her over and over again with their fists. Cinder continues to walk past them, hood over her head as she walks, listening to what they say.

“We’re gonna butcher ya! Just like that old man!”

Cinder stops.

And she slowly lifts her head with a scowl, her amber eye glows fiercely. She slowly looks over her shoulder to stare at the men that beat her, and they are Acolytes of Lien. She walks towards them and pulls the hood down, and throws the cloak from her body as she storms towards them. “Cinder Fall?” One of the Mercenaries names with recognition.

“Hang on a minute...” One of them stammers, until Cinder suddenly grabs him by the shoulder and pushes him away from the young woman. She pulls the woman from the grasp of the other and blasts a powerful gust of wind from hand, so powerful the impact sends him tumbling. He staggers back to his feet, Cinder looks at the young woman, and says only one thing.

“Close your eyes.” Cinder advises, and she does so as the Acolyte of Lien charges towards her with an electrified Baton raised above his head. He swings at her, but she ducks down then grabs him by the waist, throwing him over her back, before swinging round and striking the other with her forearm in the face. She grabs the one that tries to grapple her by her torso, but she swings her head back into his nose and kicks him in the chest. The first that attacked rushes towards her and goes to stab her with a knife and she catches his wrist, snapping it in one swift movement, catching the knife in her other hand.

Cinder drives the blade right up his jaw so hard it spills claret down his armour, then she ducks down to avoid the baton that the other Mercenary picked up. She kicks him back, then swings round and throws the knife into the eye of the other, killing him instantly. She stands there in front of the civilian that she just rescued and stares at the Mercenary...

And then she realises something.

He has a spearhead attached to his belt, the same one that was rammed through Reg. She connects it together and her eyes narrow with anger, igniting with flames, slowly walking towards him. He crawls back fearfully as she grabs him by his collar, lifting him off the floor, walking towards a broken tree branch on the ground. “W-What are you doing?” The Mercenary stammers.

“That old man’s name – was Reginald Pyrestar.” She snarls, and with all her might she brings his whole body down onto the branch, and it aggressively protrudes from his throat. Blood sprays out and pools around his head as she stands there, staring at his corpse on the ground. She extinguishes the flames around her eyes, then turns to the young woman.

“I took the woman to the nearest inn, and I tracked the Acolytes of Lien down to find the Drift of Wandering Star. I got aboard...and then I waited for the opportune moment to free Ruby.” Cinder concludes.

Pyrrha sits there with awe in the present day, she never expected that she would have done that to her once allies. All for a man she only had one conversation with, and now she would do that for all of them.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me for what I have done...I just want you to know something...”

She looks into Pyrrha’s eyes.

“I know where I belong now...

...it’s right here, with all you, stopping the evil I helped create.”


	45. Something More...

**Ortega**

The Admiral is sat in a chair inside of the Drift of Wandering Star, listening to the thrum of the powerful engines of his ship. His fingers grip onto a photograph of him with Penny and his Wife many years ago, and he has tears in his eyes, grasping the beloved picture tight as he sighs. He folds the photograph and he puts it back into his breast pocket when he hears the sound of a hologram projector activating behind him. He pushes the wheeled chair back and turns to face the man that he called.

Doctor Merlot forms from the holographic pixels, stood there with a proud smirk on his face, his cybernetic hand grasping his collar as he looks at his ally. “Admiral.” Merlot greets.

“Doctor.” Ortega replies in the same way.

“Alright then, why have you called me here, old chap?” Merlot asks him curiously as he stands before him, but not in person.

“I need to ask you something.” Ortega says.

“And that is?” Merlot responds.

“Back on the Volcanic Chain Isles, with Penny – why didn’t you wipe her memory?” Ortega asks him, and Merlot raises his brow.

“I don’t understand.” Merlot responds.

“You know what I am asking, Merlot, I am looking for the answer.” Ortega states as he stares at the Scientist.

“You asked me to bring your daughter back to life, now I am no miracle worker but I am still trying my best here.” Merlot explains.

“But you didn’t wipe the memories of the previous droid?” Ortega questions.

“Droid? That was your daughter.” He reminds.

“No, that was a pale imitation of my little girl, and you know it.” Ortega states with a stern look in his eyes as he stands before his ally. Merlot stares at the Admiral and he crosses his arms now, looking right back.

“Memories are not something you can just plug in and plug out, Ortega. Bringing somebody back to life is hard work anyway, but trying to accomplish that are save memories from a corpse is even harder.” Merlot states, staring right at the Admiral, who tenses at the word corpse when he describes his daughter who died. “I’m afraid the case is, that your daughter had friends when she was at Beacon, more than she ever did when she was human. Do you want the version I bring back to life to have the bad memories or have bad memories and the good, where she has lots of friends?” Merlot asks him.

Ortega never expected this level or morality from Merlot, he always struck him as a crazy scientist who just wanted to play god all the time. “Didn’t take you for a moralist.” Ortega scoffs.

“I’m not – I’m a realist.” Merlot corrects.

“Penny’s _friends_ are our enemies; one of them is a girl that has caused her death twice now.” Ortega states.

“No, Darren – Pyrrha Nikos did not cause her death when she was alive, that was the bullies. How was she to know of her when she never spoke to her?” Merlot asks him.

Ortega glares at him, because he cannot help but notice the fact that he is defending Pyrrha and the others extensively now. Which begs the question that has just entered his mind. “Whose side are you on, Merlot?” Ortega asks him, staring straight at the holographic projection of him.

Merlot remains quiet for a moment, until he narrows his eyes. “You know which side, Ortega.” Merlot replies, turning and walking away from the feed.

Ortega stands there with a tensed body.

_No..._

_I don’t, Merlot..._

_Are you with us?_

_Or with them?_

**Kassius**

Kassius walks across the courtyard and he pauses for a moment, when he sees a red flash in the centre, near the fountain. The red portal opens and Raven emerges, with multiple Bandits with her with their rifles at the ready. Raven has finally got her Bandits here to help protect the sick students from anyone that would dare attack the school. They all walk out and one of them sits down on the fountain with a glass of beer in his hand. From the way he was swaying and stumbling, he is probably off his face with alcohol.

Kassius turns and continues to walk towards the Dormitories, passing by the room that has Jaune and Pyrrha sat inside of, speaking to Nora and Ren who are still recovering from the crash. But it is not them that he has come to speak to, as his hand approaches the necklace with that data chip attached to it.

He turns the next corner, and he sees the closed door there. He holds the data chip in his hand, looking at it, he has held onto this for so long...

Now he can finally finish the plan he had with him for so long...the moment he has wanted to give her so much closure on.

He knocks on the door, and the door opens, seeing her amber eye looking at his amber ones. “Kassius?” Cinder softly speaks with disbelief when she sees him stood there. He smiles affectionately as he looks at his sister.

“Can I come in?” He asks her, she nods and steps out of his way so then he can walk in. He walks past her and she slowly closes the door behind him. Cinder turns and looks at him as he looks out the window.

“What’s up?” Cinder asks him curiously, and he chuckles.

“What? Can’t I just check up on my sister?” He sarcastically asks her, and she smiles, laughing at his never ceasing ability to be a smart ass.

“I guess some things don’t change.” She laughs.

“Well it’s fun to be a douche sometimes.” He admits with the shrug of his shoulders. But Kassius does eventually drop the act and he looks at her curiously. “That was a brave thing, Sapphire – what you did, risking your own life there to stop Hazel.” Kassius points out and Cinder looks down at the floor.

“His heart...I know it’s in the right place, he has just suffered more than most – and he doesn’t know how to get that pain out.” Cinder explains, she has known Hazel long and trusts him as well.

“Do you trust him?” Kassius asks her.

“Yeah, but he shouldn’t trust me – not after what I did to his daughter.” She sighs, looking at the floor as she sits on the bed. Kassius touches the necklace, fiddling with the chain.

“We know what it’s like, the other side of what he suffers from.” He points out.

“Yeah...I guess we do.” She admits.

Kassius looks around and he snaps the necklace from his neck, walking over to Cinder’s scroll on the table, picking it up and she looks confused. Kassius does not even notice all the messages that she has sent out there to try and find Emerald, to countless contacts to try and locate her.

She still has not given up hope.

“What are you doing?” Cinder inquires as she watches Kassius flick the lid from the memory which carries something important to her.

“I’ve been carrying this around for far too long – I never found the right time to give this to you – I don’t even know if this is the right time...but you deserve to see it.” Kassius explains, plugging it in.

“See what?” Cinder asks as she stands up, and Kassius presses play, then sets the scroll down on the floor.

Suddenly the scroll projects a holographic body before Cinder and her eye widens with shock and disbelief, she freezes in place from whom she sees stood there. The woman is a little taller than her with long black hair and amber coloured eyes, just like theirs, and she looks just like Cinder just a little older. Strikingly attractive features on her face and a curved body, although there are signs of illness in her. Paler skin than normal and what looks like sweat trickling down her face.

“Sapphire...Kassius...my little ones...” She begins.

It’s their mother...

The mother who passed away from cancer when they were young.

Kassius stands out of the way, he has already seen this messaged, but this is for Sapphire, not for him. Cinder stands there with her eye wide and mouth partially open, hand reaching out to touch hers but feels nothing.

All she wants is to hug her mother again.

“If you are watching this, then I must be gone by now. I’m sorry that we could not be having this conversation face to face, but – I just want you to know...” Their mother speaks with a frail voice, either from the sickness or from her emotions ravaging her as she speaks. Knowing that her son and daughter would be watching this after she has died.

“Kassius...” She speaks, and Kassius lifts his head almost from instinct when her voice speaks his name. He looks at her as she stands there in the recording. “Keep up your drawing, you are a very talented artist and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You are a kind soul and don’t ever let the bullies push you down – if they push you push back, you are not the freak that they said you were. Hyde is not imaginary, he may not be perfect but he is your friend.” She speaks, and even Kassius can feel the emotion that Hyde feels.

Even he cared for their mother.

“Sapphire – baby girl – I hope that you are still gonna go and perform one day...you will always be one of the best singers I have ever known.” She begs her with a smile and with tears in her eyes from the recording. Kassius looks at his sister and can see that she is fighting the tears as she watches this final goodbye from their mother.

“I know what you think of your father – and I don’t blame you, but don’t think that he is a monster. He is not a monster, he just had to leave...we all know that deep down he wanted to be there for us, but the government called for him. He was ordered to leave us, and I do not know why but he is out there somewhere...I know he is thinking of you...he loves you.” She promises with a kind smile, and Kassius clearly has been thinking on that part as well.

He has always remembered his father being an asshole...not a man that cares but was forced to live away from them. But Cinder is fixated on her mother’s face, the tones of her voice...she has not heard that voice in a very long time. She can feel her emotional chords beginning to pull inside her, her breath becomes more ragged as she watches.

“I wish I could be there for you...on your wedding day...but I knew that when I was diagnosed that there was no going back. I was told some bitter truths, like that the cancer would eat away at my brain over years and years, and that I would be left a shell if I do not take the pill that they gave me...a dark truth when doctors give you a pill to end your own life...isn’t it?” She scoffs as she speaks, sharing the same sort of darker sense of humour that her children appear to have.

Finding the humour even in the darkest of times.

But as the recording continues to pass by, Cinder slowly begins to break down, tears stream down from her eye and she sobs as she stands there. All she wants is to hug her mother; even Kassius wipes a tear from his eye as he stands.

“Kassius...look after her, we both know how fragile your little sister is...don’t let this break her soul...and don’t let this destroy you, teach Hyde to be more than what he is. You are both stronger than the world.”

“I know you, Sapphire...my sweet little angel...I beg of you, don’t use my death as an anchor, please do not let me be the thing that stops you from becoming who you want to be.”

“I will always be with you...both of you...”

“Look after each other...”

“I love you so much...”

“Goodbye, Kas...Goodbye Saph...”

The hologram fades away before Cinder’s eyes and she falls to her knees, crying as she sits there, and Kassius crouches down beside her, gently rubbing her back with his hand. “Are you alright?” He asks her.

She looks at her brother with teary eyes, sniffling. “Yeah...just...I miss her, Kas...”

“Me too.” He agrees, wrapping his arms around his little sister and she wraps hers around him.

He looks at the chip on the floor...

This is the feeling he thought he’d have when he wanted to kill Ilia...

Closure.

**Ruby**

Ruby takes a cloth rag as she gently slides it across the many sheets of metal that cover the body of Crescent Rose, the red paint scratched in places from constant combat. Better condition than the last one, since that was broken into two halves and left where it fell, with their home. She is perched on a step outside of the Amphitheatre where Yang and the others are waiting. Brawnz, May, Nolan and Roy have been taken inside, still unconscious whilst the others are carrying some beds down for them to sleep in.

She raises her silver eyes when she notices Hazel stood by a tree with his arms crossed. He has not said a word since Cinder stopped him from going after Ozpin. He could have easily sunken the blade of that knife directly into the Professor’s heart, and Cinder of all people was the one that stopped him from making that mistake. Ruby has become a master of examining people, especially after being captured in Salem’s Sanctum for the length of time that she was captured for.

There is great pain in his hazel coloured eyes, she can see that his fists are clenched even with his arms crossed, the veins in his tree trunk sized arms push up against the skin as he tenses. He is like some sort of time bomb, ready to detonate at a moment’s notice, and the only thing holding him back is how much he cares for everybody here.

Ruby stands up and she squeezes the trigger on Crescent Rose which sends each plate of metal folding back away into the rifle form, locking together into the compacted form, then she connects it to her belt as she approaches him. She holds her hands together shyly as she approaches him – she has not had many conversations with him, but Oscar has.

And she trusts his judge of character.

Her long black and red hair blows in the breeze as she approaches him, he does not even seem to notice until she audibly clears her throat in order to get his attention. He utterly dwarfs the young woman, and he has to look down to see her silver eye that always looks like it glows. “Hey, Hazel...” She softly greets with a kind smile, showing that there are moments where she is just like the sweet little flower of sunshine and happiness that she once was.

She just needs to find it again.

He looks at her then his eyes move up to Beacon Tower, and he sighs with a grunting voice. “Ruby...” He greets, after all the Silver Eyed Souls he has killed, he never expected in his life that he would be allied with one.

“Are you okay? Things got pretty tense back there with Sun and Cinder.” Ruby points out; he sighs and then looks down at her.

“Did Oscar ask you to talk to me?” Hazel presumes, since he is the one that is probably the closest to Hazel, other than Cinder – although their relationship seems to be on rocky ground. Understandably rocky ground as well, she was not completely exaggerating of how she used to be. She was once a monster, forged and molten into an evil woman by Salem, until Kassius cooled the fire that was burning her soul.

But at the end of the day, no, this is all Ruby.

“No, I saw you stood here, and I was concerned about you.” Ruby replies with the shrug of her shoulders. He looks down at her then down at the autumn leaves that float past them. Autumn has finally arrived now, and it has been exactly seven years after Beacon fell, and the scars are still there even now.

“I’m fine.” Hazel lies.

“No you’re not; you stormed in there with purpose, Hazel.” Ruby points out, then Hazel speaks softly as he closes his eyes.

“He can’t get away with it...” He mutters to himself.

“Huh?” Ruby responds with a raised voice, lifting one of her brows curiously to whatever it was that he had said.

“Ozpin...he can’t keep getting away with it. All the lies, everything he has done in his life, the people he has sacrificed to get to where he is now.” Hazel growls with anger.

“B-But...I don’t understand...” Ruby stammers with confusion.

“I served Salem long before my daughter was killed, because I heard of the things that Ozpin did. And when he used my daughter – caused her to fall in love with the previous Fall Maiden so then she’d be in her final thoughts...what kind of monster could do such a thing and walk away from it unpunished?” Hazel questions, looking at her again with his fierce hazel coloured eyes, which have given him his name.

“But Cinder was the one that killed Amber – not Ozpin – so why did you stay with Salem afterwards?” Ruby inquires; Hazel looks down at the ground when she says that. Like he cannot really think of a reason.

“I don’t know – she was all I had – I let my mind...go blank...wanted to fight until I died...then you and Oscar came barrelling in and here I am.” He sighs, scratching the back of his neck as he stands there.

He lost everything and he could not move on, could not even live with himself for being unable to save her when she died.

“I placed so much hatred on Ozpin – he was the only thing keeping me going – he partly still is.” He states, staring up at the tower where he is still asleep.

“Revenge is not the way forward, Hazel. Look at what happened to the Spectre, to Neo, even to Ortega. All of them let their quest for payback take them over, and they let it become all they are.” Ruby explains with the shrug of her shoulders, and she is not wrong. Kannix let the hunger for vengeance he had for Kragen consume him over centuries, a millennia...

Neo has let her hatred for Ruby and to avenge Torchwick turn herself into a Proxy for Vir Nominis Umbra.

Ortega has let the idea that Pyrrha was responsible for the death of the real Penny Polendina take him over and now he has nothing left but rage in his grief stabbed heart.

Hazel looks at her and he asks her a question she never expected. “Do you plan on having children, Ruby?” He asks her, and the question creates a buzzing feeling in her heart, like a million butterflies are dancing around inside her. These sorts of questions always get her nervous and start stammering all over the place.

“I – uh – I dunno...um...” Ruby nervously stammers.

“Because if you ever do, you will learn that you will do anything for you baby...when that child is taken from you, messed with by somebody else like that...you don’t think clearly.” Hazel assures, pushing his back from the tree as he walks away from her, ending their whole conversation. Ruby watches as the broad man walks away, the man who seems to be surrounded by an aura of grief and heartbreak everywhere he goes.

She looks down at the floor, touching a streak of long black hair that sits on her shoulder, closing her nervous eye when she thinks on what he said. She has never thought that far ahead, into the relationship she has with Oscar. She has never even had sex; she is still a virgin and is scared to think of what would happen to that child in this world. If the baby merely had Silver Eyes it would have a target on its back from birth just as she has had.

She knows for certain that Yang wants to have a baby, because she does not want to make the same mistakes that her own mother made. Sure, Raven has atoned for those mistakes by being there for her right here and right now, but she was never there for her childhood. Or at least she was never there and Yang knew about it, she wants to always be there for her baby and raise it in a safe world.

Ruby wants something like that too...

To be a mother just like her own, but not disappear and lose her life, leaving her child haunted by the loss of her or his own mother.

But first...

They need to stop the enemy.

They must stop Vir Nominis Umbra and whatever game he is playing.

But before she can ponder on the question that Hazel asked her any further, she hears the sound of somebody approaching her from the left. Her silver eye drifts round with her body, to see Kragen walking over to her with his Isomacium Staff in his hand, using it like a walking stick. “How is he feeling?” Kragen inquires curiously as they both look at Hazel walking away.

“He is still angry that he can’t kill Ozpin...” Ruby answers, and Kragen sighs through his nostrils, nodding his head. “He said some pretty scary things about the Professor...are they true?” She asks him, and he looks at her.

“I don’t know, I never really meddled with any of his business.” Kragen answers with a firm shrug of his shoulders. Then he gets onto the topic that he has approached Ruby about in the first place. “Well, I might as well get to the point. I need you to come with me, Ruby.” He says to her.

“Why? What’s happened?” She asks him with concern in her voice.

“Nothing, but I have something important that I must discuss with you. You, Oscar, Pyrrha and Jaune. I do not think we will have a better time to do so.” He says to her, which has really hit her somewhere deep. The four of them are being spoken to about the same thing?

This cannot possibly be good...

 

Ten minutes pass as they arrive at the place of the discussion...

The door opens up, and Kragen walks inside with Ruby in tow. Jaune is leant against the windowsill with his arms crossed, Oscar walks over to Ruby as he smiles, and she smiles back. Pyrrha is sat firmly on one of the beds with her hands on her lap, looking at them with a friendly smile. The door slowly shuts behind them, and timid Ruby looks back at the door, nearly jumping when it does.

She slowly turns back and sees that the Architect is here with Kragen, as always. He is stood in the corner with his mechanical arms crossed, back leant against the wall. Kragen stops at the edge of the room, looking at the four that he has called here today. “Okay...we’re all here, so what’s this all about, Kragen?” Jaune inquires, curious to know why he is here.

“Yes, I would like to know as well.” Oscar agrees, walking over to Traveller’s Atrocity on the table next to him, placing his hand against the wooden surface of it. The eyes of the four young warriors are all trained on the old Silver Eyed Warrior.

“It has come to my attention that there is more to the four of you than meets the eye.” He says to them, instantly grasping their attention. All of them look at each other with confusion, Pyrrha looks at Ruby, Jaune looks at Oscar, they all switch between each other, before their irises return to Kragen’s.

“What do you mean?” Pyrrha inquires.

“Yeah, I don’t get it...I mean I know I have Silver Eyes and all, but...” Ruby speaks with confusion in her voice.

“This is not about your Silver Eyes, Miss Rose.” The Architect states.

“Then what is this about?” Jaune asks.

Kragen looks at them and he sighs, trying to find where to start on what he is going to tell them. About the importance of who they all are. “Have you not noticed how important the four of you are in all of this, yet?” Kragen asks them curiously, but they are all speechless and completely lost in whatever he is talking about. “Apparently not...well I guess it is about time you know. There is a reason that the four of you have all met, and it has come to my attention that there is more that connects you two together than merely love.” Kragen explains, pointing to Jaune and Pyrrha.

The look of concern on Pyrrha’s face is priceless, like she is getting tired of hearing about how destiny is real and is not real. “What are you saying?” Pyrrha asks.

“The Nikos and Arc Families have been around for thousands of years, and believe it or not – but the Nikos Family line was once carrying the same trait that Ruby Rose has.” Kragen explains.

“The Silver Eyes...” Ruby mutters.

“Yeah, you told us all about this when we first met.” Jaune remembers, seeing the huge room where Kragen told them all about Salem and how she was allegedly once a Silver Eyed Warrior, and how it all slowly fell apart around her.

“Well, the Arc Family were great warriors as well, warriors that were in fact charged with guarding the Relics.” He reveals.

“Not all those Guardian Knights we faced on the Volcanic Chain Isles were Silver Eyed Warriors, you know. Isomacium can absorb the Aura from anybody, as long as they know how to use it. Remember, Krekras Blackridge managed it, he is still trapped in it to this day.” The Architect states, reminding them of this fact.

“You mean...the Knights that we fought in there...could have been my relatives?” Jaune asks, sounding really worried about this idea, that he could have been cutting down his ancient forefathers.

“No, no – you see in Arkhoni Tradition, family names were more like titles, or house names. Anybody that would be a part of the house, whether related in blood or not, will take the surname. Arc, Nikos, Blackridge, Schnee – everyone would share the name. It was hoped that by doing this that rivals would struggle to find the true heirs to the lands and earnings – keeping it safe no matter what.” Kragen explains to them, really showing the difference between the different family names.

“So...who was Cynthia?” Oscar inquires, he never forgot that girl that he met in Arkhonex, the Nikos Girl that spoke to him.

Pyrrha raises her head when hearing the name. “Cynthia Nikos?” Kragen presumes.

“Yeah, the girl I met...and tricked...” He says, despite being loyal to Ruby he still feels bad for tricking her in that way. He would have rather just say that he is not the guy she was waiting for, instead of just using her.

But it all seems to be another page in Vir Nominis Umbra’s cruel game.

“She was blood related, yes – a lowborn daughter but she became much more.” Kragen explains.

“Wait...you met one of my relatives?” Pyrrha questions with widened eyes.

“Yes, I was sent to Arkhonex and I spoke to her...She helped me get aboard a ship, but I was pulled from the moment in time before they ever got to the Volcanic Chain Isles.” Oscar explains to them all.

“Cynthia Nikos met a young Arc Squire, and they managed to unite their houses when Arkhonex started to collapse. They were the start of the Silver Eyed Warriors, the Arcs trained them whilst the Nikos Family kept it all stable...then they found me after Yenna and I got split apart in that battle. We secured the Relics for some time before Ozpin arrived.” He reveals.

“Ozpin?” Ruby buzzes.

“Yes, the same Ozpin you know. After the War ended, and centuries passed...he found where Dragonspire Keep was hidden, and he presented his plan. Since we were on borrowed time, he told us that he wanted to build four Academies in the four Kingdoms to protect these Relics. We...eventually agreed.” Kragen explains.

“Wait so are all of those people Arcs and Nikos?” Jaune asks.

“Not anymore, we took in many, and the families were scattered. The two of you? You and your families are all that remains of those ancient families.” Kragen informs them, which sends a chill down their spines at the idea of that. They have just been dumped with so much information about who they are, about Ozpin and his plan; about everything...it is a lot to digest.

“But...why does that make them so important? What makes Oscar and I so important?” Ruby asks, looking at Oscar for a second when she points him out.

Kragen plants his hands upon the head of his staff as he stands there. “You have all managed to survive through events that should have been your end multiple times; one of you has even managed to crawl from the depths of death and return.” Kragen states.

He suddenly takes his staff and points it to Pyrrha, so quickly she has to pull her head back from how close it got to her petite nose. “You have been granted with immense skills and power from your family name, you returned from the Charred Forest and already want to fight back against the enemy.” He states, then pointing at Jaune. “You wield a sword made from Isomacium and the combined powers of Nikos and Arc; you even have managed to strike down Starla Schnee in a single swing twice now.” Kragen states.

Jaune thinks back and remembers the two times that he managed that...back at Mistral five years ago in that massive battle that took place, he was wounded and somehow managed to snap her Tonfas when he struck her – then slashed her into shards of ice. He then did it again when the Volcanic Chain Isles erupted, and when thrown through the air he managed to cut her down again. “I thought it was luck.” Jaune states.

“Knights never go down that easily, that sword of yours holds more secrets than I think we realise. I do not recall the Arcs ever using that exact sword, I’ve seen similar, but not that one.” He says, staring at it.

“Didn’t you say it was your Grandfather’s?” Ruby asks him, and he nods his head.

“Yeah, it was passed down to me; he used it during the Great War.” Jaune says as he picks Crocea Mors up, looking at the blade as he sees the many grooves across it where he has fought. “I never knew my Grandfather; never even saw a picture of him.” He feels the gentle and warm touch of Pyrrha’s hand on his, comforting the sadness in his heart.

The staff swings round towards Oscar next, his eyes widen with shock just as the others did. “Oscar Pine, for whatever reason you are the last Traveller to have been born since the Fall of the Arkhoni Empire, why the power has been granted to you is yet to be seen. But a Traveller is extremely powerful and this Time Character that has been watching you is very concerning to me.” He says.

“Why?” Oscar inquires.

“Because I saw him destroy the Visionary Book in the Library in the Deserts of Vacuo five years ago...and for some reason I felt like I have seen him before.” Kragen says, looking like he is theorising in the back of his head. But then he knocks it off, looking at Oscar’s eyes and continuing with his point. “And there is the fact that Umbra has spoken to you on many occasions, and the prophecy.” He says.

“The prophecy?” Pyrrha asks.

“There was an old Prophecy many years ago that I heard, back in Arkhonex, and I believe Vir Nominis Umbra said something similar to you.” Kragen explains, looking at Oscar.

“I think I know what one you mean.” Oscar agrees.

“We don’t.” Jaune says.

“Well, the prophecy claims that the child of a Traveller and a Silver Eyed Warrior would mark the end of tyranny. And the fact that a Silver Eyed Warrior and a Traveller have fallen in love...let us hope that the prophecy is true.” Kragen chuckles as he stands there, and Ruby looks down at the floor.

Another reason why she is nervous about having a baby...the prophecy...she cannot help but feel like that having a baby would feel more like a duty.

The staff suddenly points at Ruby, she yelps from how quickly he does it – the Architect cannot help but chuckle at how Kragen keeps making them jump from how he points at them like that. “And finally – there’s you – I always suspected that you would be the one that the stories told of – a smaller and more honest soul that could bring peace. It is why I agreed to help free you from Salem five years ago – and after what I saw you do a couple days ago...” Kragen speaks, almost awestruck when he thinks on this.

“I did what?” Ruby asks.

“The Boulders...I have done that test with Silver Eyed Warriors for millennia, and nobody – not even I – have ever managed to accomplish what you did.” Kragen tells her, which is a real compliment as well, considering how long he has lived.

“What did she do?” Jaune asks, since he and Pyrrha were in Atlas at the time.

“Ruby managed to use her Silver Eyes to lift thirty boulders bigger than this dorm into the air on her second try – no Silver Eyed Warrior has managed to lift over ten of them in one go, let alone thirty.” Kragen tells her.

“What are you saying? That I’m some sort of magic Silver Eyed Girl?” Ruby asks, and he stops there, going silent since he cannot find an answer.

“I don’t know – and that is what makes me curious...there is something about the four of you...something more...” Kragen tells them.

“Sure...but how does that make us super important? Just sounds like we were all lucky.” Jaune says with the shrug of his shoulders.

“No, Jaune – the fact you do not realise is the point. Everyone else you have known has been controlled in some form, but you four have not.” Kragen says.

“I have.” Pyrrha states.

“No, he used the Onyx Phantom and even that struggled to hold you for long. But he cannot control the paths any of you take – and that angers him – maybe even scares him.” Kragen explains to them, and Ruby looks down at the floor.

“Him – you mean Umbra?” She guesses.

“Correct.” Kragen nods.

“Yeah...we’ve heard what Umbra pissed off sounds like...” Jaune shudders, looking at Pyrrha. That roar that he made will forever haunt their dreams from how he was so angry.

Going from calm and charismatic was truly intimidating.

“How do you know he has manipulated the others?” Pyrrha asks.

“He has managed to use Hyde on Kassius, used Cinder’s loss to turn her into a monster, used Weiss’ bad childhood, Blake’s fear, Yang’s rage, Nora and Ren’s family – he has used everything to make them all do things that can break them.” Kragen tells them.

“Blake...With Sienna...” Oscar mutters when he thinks on it.

“He can Shape Shift, we’ve seen him do it countless times in the Charred Forest.” Jaune confirms.

“So he can manipulate people without having to do it forcefully like he did with me?” Pyrrha asks.

“Vir Nominis Umbra is like a force of nature, he can just make things happen without needing to be there. He can control anybody, even me if he wanted to...But not the four of you, he has tried with family and yet you have never done what he has wanted the four of you to do. You are all wildcards, and I still cannot fathom why.” Kragen explains, placing both hands atop his staff.

“Perhaps if the Gods are still watching – they have plans for the four of you.”

_The nightmares..._

_Roman..._

_Even Tyrian..._

_Is that Vir Nominis Umbra trying to manipulate me?_

“But...I killed Dew...” Ruby remembers, looking at Kragen, and he looks at her.

“Yes...you did...”

“So he manipulated me.”

“No – that was merely because of what you have suffered. He did not cause that, he merely took advantage of the opportunity.” Kragen states.

“How do you know that?” Ruby asks him.

Kragen looks her in the eye and he smiles.

“I don’t.”

 

**Pyrrha**

She sits on the bed of her dormitory, Ren and Nora are both joking around in their beds, still recovering from their wounds. They do look a lot better, no longer requiring bandages to cover their wounds from the crash, although they still need some rest to let their aura recover and repair the remaining damage.

Pyrrha turns her head when hearing the door opening, she lifts her head and eyes softly widen when she sees Jaune stood there. “Hey...can we talk?” He asks her, obviously must be talking about what Kragen has just told the four of them. About the history of their families and the possible advantage that they could have against Vir Nominis Umbra...even if they do not know for certain what that advantage is.

But it’s something, and that is better than nothing at all.

“Sure.” Pyrrha responds, standing up from where she was sat, walking over to where he stands, and Jaune closes the door behind them. They both stand outside the dormitory in the hallway, Jaune leans against the wall and presses his foot back against it.

“Man...All that stuff that Kragen told us...I never even...” Jaune stammers.

“I know – our families were once united...” Pyrrha repeats from memory, hard to even fathom this sort of information. Jaune chuckles as he stands there, looking over at her with a smile.

“I guess fate did bring us together.” Jaune admits with a chuckle, but Pyrrha does not seem to share that sort of response. She touches her long red hair and looks down at the floor sadly when he says that.

“Does that...change anything between us?” She asks him nervously, he can hear the shallow shakiness in her voice. Jaune smiles and he walks over to her, gently holding her hands as he looks into her large emerald green eyes.

“No...I still feel the same, Pyrrha...even if there is something bigger around us. I still love you, and I always will...I won’t fail you again.” Jaune says, sounding so guilty when he says that, sighing as he looks down at the floor, shutting his eyes sadly. Pyrrha touches his cheek with her hand and he looks at her.

“You didn’t fail me...I mean I’ll admit I was losing my mind a bit when you still didn’t get the hint at first.” She says with a little giggle as she speaks, which leads to Jaune groaning and leaning backwards.

“Come on...we gonna bring this up for the rest of our lives?” He groans with a chuckle that he could not keep down.

“Of course.” She admits.

Jaune sighs, with what sounds like defeat at hoping that they would stop bringing up his stupidity a few years ago. “Gods...every time I think about what we were like back then...I just want to grab myself by the shoulders and yell – _she’s into you! Can’t you see that?_ ” Jaune chuckles which makes Pyrrha laugh, covering her mouth and bouncing on the spot as she giggles, even snorting a little as well.

“I know...I always want to warn us too – go back to when I was small and beg myself not to go and speak to that damned Soothsayer...probably would have stopped all this from happening.” She says with a heavy sigh.

They both wish they could change their past mistakes...and doesn’t everyone?

“Well, our mistakes are a part of our lives now...I guess we’re just gonna have to make do.” He says, but saying that sparks an idea in Pyrrha’s mind. She looks at her long wavy hair, and thinks about the Onyx Phantom paintjob on her armour. _The armour is exactly the same, if anything better than my old armour..._

_All it needs..._

_Is a new coat of paint._

“Jaune...” She softly says, looking at him as he turns his head.

“Hmm?” Jaune responds, looking at her.

“I want your help with something...”

 

A couple of hours later...

Ren and Nora turn their heads when they hear the door open and their eyes widen when they see Pyrrha step in with Jaune. The blonde haired Arc Knight steps aside as Pyrrha walks in, the black and gold armour has been improved, and now is coated with a bronze coloured gold-ish tint instead of the intimidating version it once had. With a new red velvet sash attached to her waist, Milo and Akuou also have been improved as well.

But the thing that they find most incredible...

Her hair...

She has tied it back into the ponytail form.

She may not have her circlet anymore.

But she is the person that she thought died on that tower again.

Pyrrha Nikos...

Has finally come home.


	46. Menagerie

**Blake**

Sun gently caresses her long jet black hair with his weak hand, the drugs in his system are helping him move around better, and even Neptune is actually on his feet right now. His legs are wobbling around from the weakness that Horridus Morbus has inflicted on him, but at least they can still move around instead of being stuck in those beds for ages. They have already been there for a couple days now since the plague was unleashed on Vacuo. Weiss and Yang are both asleep right now, only Neptune and Sun are awake as Neptune continues to walk back and forth, a simple exercise to keep his body from degrading.

The last thing they want to suffer from is Muscle Atrophy, because even if they find a cure for Horridus Morbus, their muscles could break down and they will be crippled due to a lack of exercise.

Sun looks at Blake’s stunning amber feline eyes with a smile on his face. “Still can’t believe how we first met.” He chuckles, reminiscing back to that day in Vale when he was the no-good stowaway on that ship, and Weiss suspected he was the one that robbed the Dust Store. She even thought he was potentially a member of the White Fang as well for a couple of seconds.

Blake giggles, remembering how time seemed to slow down when he passed by her and winked straight at her with that damn smirk of his. She would be lying if she said she didn’t find him cute when he did that the first time, but it was more the fact that he looked after her for a couple days without her really saying a word to him. And he still looked after her and never judged her for her past with the White Fang – especially what he thought he saw when Hazel lead those Acolytes disguised as White Fang to kill them all.

The first steps made by Salem’s Small Council to destroy the reputation of the White Fang and turn them into monsters.

Her smile warms his aching heart as he looks at her. “Yeah... _no good stowaway_.” She softly says as she remembers back to that day.

“Those were the days...when the biggest threat was just some asshole with a hat.” Sun remembers, since they were the second group of people to actually engage in combat against Torchwick. The first was Ruby, and then Blake and Sun challenged him at the docks before Penny showed up and wrecked the place with her power.

“In comparison to everything I kinda miss him; at least we could handle him.” Blake says with a sigh, looking down at the floor. “Now we’re fighting an enemy that can just...disguise itself as people we know...even ourselves...and destroy everything we worked to achieve in half an hour.” Blake says with a stammer in her voice, clearly thinking about what Vir Nominis Umbra has managed to achieve. Sun can tell whenever she has something on her mind, perhaps even faster than knowing what he is thinking about before he even speaks.

Then again...

It’s unlikely he ever thinks that far ahead.

“You still thinking about Umbra?” Sun asks her, sitting up slightly as he looks at her, her eyes looking at some of the scars he has collected on his bare chest from fighting this godforsaken war. Even the one on his shoulder where Ilia stabbed him with her Dust Charged Whip and the scars up his back where Fear slashed his claws across him.

“I can’t stop, Sun...If he could do that...then why hasn’t he just made us all look like monsters?” Blake questions with confusion.

“I don’t know...maybe because that would be too easy. Oscar told us some of the stuff that he told him – he has made it pretty clear that he does this because he enjoys it.” Sun explains, which does not really bring much comfort to their souls. Blake looks sadly down at the floor, she looked up to Sienna like an Aunt, she was a great friend to the Belladonna Family, and now she will go down in history as the one that murdered her unless they stop him and set all this right.

Then she feels his thumb ever so gently touch her chin, lifting her head up so then she looks upon him. “Don’t let him get to you though, it’s what he wants.” Sun assures, despite not knowing if that is the truth or not. She smiles and she rests her head on his chest, still holding his hand affectionately. Sun softly strokes her long black hair to calm her down, she listens to his heartbeat and she finds some comfort in that she can actually hear it.

But then...

They hear a cough that does not belong to any of the four of them, but to one of Team B.R.N.Z, she lifts her head and Sun turns. Neptune turns around, still pacing back and forth to just keep the blood flowing throughout his body. Their eyes widen when they see Brawnz and May both waking up from their slumber, coughing with pain from what lurks in their bodies, sweat trickles down their skin as they start to sit upright. May winces, closing one of her eyes and grabbing her side, feeling an organ in tremendous pain right now. “W-Where are we?” May timidly asks, as she looks around the room and realising she is in a patient’s gown. Brawnz too, looks very confused.

From their perspective...the four of them were just walking around Vacuo to find any clues of what happened to the Headmaster and in tracking Cardin down...and then they woke up here after Brawnz heard something beeping underneath one of the structures. Blake stands up and walks over to the two conscious ones of the team, and she eases them both back into their beds, they are nowhere near the strength that these four are currently at since they have only just woken.

It has taken much longer for them to wake up in comparison to Yang and the others; perhaps longer exposure to the plague has changed something in them. Perhaps the strain that they are suffering with is on a different level, since Yang, Neptune, Weiss and Sun only inhaled a small amount of the Pathogen in comparison.

The two of them look at Blake with confusion of everything that is happening. “What are you doing here? I thought you and Weiss’ sister went to –” Brawnz stops speaking when he sees Weiss asleep across the room from him in that bed, then he sees Yang and then Sun and Neptune both awake. “What happened?” He asks with confusion. “How long have we been out?”

“Calm down...” Blake hushes gently as she stands there, sitting down on the edge of his bed as she looks at him and May. “The four of you have been out for nearly five days now.” Blake informs, in which their reaction leads to their eyes building from their faces.

“Five days? We need to get out there and follow the tracks...” Brawnz stammers, but Blake shakes her head.

“Forget Cardin, forget the Murder...Vacuo is lost to us. Vacuo, Atlas and Mistral have been taken over by the enemy.” Blake sums up, and that just seems to worry them even more than calming them down. Yang and Weiss both moan as they start to wake up, then they realise that two of Team B.R.N.Z have actually awoken now, finally.

“What do you mean?” May asks.

“Some sort of plague was unleashed on Vacuo, everyone in this room but me has it...my aura protects me from getting infected but it has broken yours and you cannot repair it.” Blake explains, which truly shows how dangerous and unique this contagion really is. Most infections and stuff are healed by aura and cured pretty much immediately; it is how Huntsmen don’t die during their battles most of the time.

This is much different.

“The whole city?” Brawnz stammers.

“Yes, Atlas was attacked by the Acolytes and all the politicians have been assassinated. And now with the Leader of the White Fang murdered by someone disguised as me...the White Fang are now against Humanity again. And all of that happened in half an hour.” Blake explains, that piece of information still sends chills down everybody’s spines whenever they hear it.

“By the gods...” May gasps with fear, looking down at the floor, pressing her hand to the side of her head.

“This...this is really bad...then where are we?” Brawnz asks her.

“Beacon Academy, the only safe place we have left.” Blake states, and Brawnz cannot help but raise an eyebrow at the point that has been boggling their minds for a while.

“Wait...they haven’t even touched Vale?” Brawnz asks, and Blake looks at the others, and they shrug their shoulders.

“Not yet...that’s what we’re worried about. I think it was a message, or a warning to us.” Blake states.

“A message? What kind?” May inquires.

“One that states that our enemy is extremely powerful, and if he could orchestrate all of this to happen in just under thirty minutes across the globe...what could he do to a single Kingdom?” Blake says, and that sends a few nightmares through their minds.

Vir Nominis Umbra left Vale untouched...

The question is...

Why?

Blake turns her head when she hears the door open behind her, and when she turns round she sees Ruby stood there with Jaune at her side. “Blake, there you are. You need to come with us, Kragen has a plan of how to get into Menagerie without calling the Knights Bannermen to our doorstep.” Ruby explains.

Now she is fully informed on the Spectral Knights...

What plan could this possibly be?

 

**Kragen**

The Elderly Silver Eyed Warrior stands at a large table in the Mess Hall which has been left in the middle of construction since all of this has gone downhill. He has his Staff laying on the table and hands behind his back, with Qrow stood inside and a couple of Silver Eyed Warriors. Included are Gray, Vos and Serena – the scientist with Silver Eyes – along with Pyrrha, Oscar and Kassius. Penny is still too damaged at the moment to go anywhere, but they still have the Architect coming with them to help with any hacking that may need to be dealt with.

Raven is not in the room, still sorting out the details with her Bandits she has ordered to protect Beacon while they are gone, and Hazel is staying here too...worrying considering everything as well. With Taiyang not present it is clear that he is staying here with his daughter, and Cinder is nowhere to be seen for now. Glynda remains here too, but Winter has agreed to come along for the ride as well, her swords sheathed in her scabbards as she stands there. The doors open, leading Blake and Ruby entering the room with their weapons holstered with Jaune closing the doors behind them. With Ren and Nora both to injured to go anywhere as well, seems only half of Team J.N.P.R is going to Menagerie.

“Miss Belladonna – glad you could join us.” Kragen kindly greets with a respectful bow of his head.

“Sorry I’m late – so what’s your plan?” Blake asks, crossing her arms as she stands there. The Architect chuckles at her eagerness to get straight to it.

“Straight to the point...I like it.” The Architect chuckles, looking at her before giving her a thumbs up.

“Okay, I have gone over the information that we have on Menagerie and it is clear that something is happening there. Lots of dust has been sent there along with lots of advanced Atlesian Technology. But that is not the kicker – this is the kicker.” He says, holding up a photograph of an ancient piece of metal, with lots of markings on it that they do not recognise.

“What is that?” Blake inquires.

“That is from Arkhonex. The City – which I might add has been lost since it fell, all documents of its location, ancient maps, have been lost. Burned to ash when the Empire Fell, so how he managed to acquire a tablet like this from the City can mean only one thing.” Kragen explains.

“He knows where Arkhonex is.” Jaune answers, walking over to Pyrrha who leans against one of the pillars inside. She looks over at Oobleck and Port, who she at first did not even notice are in here with them.

Clearly they are coming along for the ride as well.

“How important is Arkhonex in all of this?” Qrow inquires.

“Arkhonex was abandoned when the Grimm we controlled turned against us, massive bloodbath, we didn’t stand a chance. However nobody has been able to enter the remains of the city since due to the concentration of Grimm inside.” Kragen explains.

“Meaning – there are ancient manuscripts still inside and information that could be the key to stopping Umbra.” The Architect states, which catches their attention.

“Wait a minute...the Arkhoni were trying to stop him?” Ruby asks him, now she is in the dark unlike Blake.

“Oh the Scientists of Arkhonex were a very pokey bunch – wanted to learn how to control or destroy anything. Even if they could take over the power that the Gods had to become something more powerful – wouldn’t surprise me if that is why Umbra stopped us when he did. They must have found something _big_.” Kragen explains, and Oobleck chuckles when he peaces it together.

“And something powerful enough to overthrow the gods...” Oobleck begins to say.

“Would be of great interest to Merlot.” Winter concludes, and even links it to one of her own theories. “My father has been trying to Control the Grimm for ages now, must have been the reason he brought Merlot into it. If he could control something on that scale...that would definitely be of interest to him.” Winter states, remembering the conversation that she had with him five years ago when he nearly had the Spectre kill Nora in front of Ren.

Blake looks at Winter. “And control the Faunus.” She adds, then Winter looks at her.

“Exactly.” She agrees.

“But not only this – and more importantly to our cause at the moment – Horridus Morbus hit our people once before. Thousands were killed but the scientists managed to create a cure, now the cure would be lethal if we found some vials of it still intact after thousands of years. But we could remedy a version of it from the formulas.” Kragen explains to them all, and that creates some hope for them all.

Qrow chuckles at how well they have all managed to piece this information together. “Well alright...what other leads do we have?” Qrow asks, and Kragen looks at him, then at Pyrrha.

“It appears that we know of another artefact that Merlot has set his eyes on. But it has not arrived there yet, not certain of its location but it is worth mentioning.” He says, revealing another photograph in which he slides across the table towards Pyrrha. Her eyes widen and she walks over to it, staring at it profusely.

“That’s...” She stammers.

“Your circlet.” Kragen says, and on the black and white photograph is an image of her circlet on a mantelpiece.

“Someone must have managed to get into Beacon and steal it.” Cinder’s voice suddenly says, making them all turn to see her stood there.

“But how? The place was filled with Grimm. It was on top of Beacon Tower.” Ruby explains, at the end of the day the three of them in this room know that better than any of them.

“I know, and Salem never took it. She went back to find it, and it was gone. Someone must have scaled the tower before it was rebuilt and after the Fall of Mistral to acquire it.” Cinder tells them, and this does ask many questions of how it managed to get there. Wherever this location is, but it seems to be on auction somewhere, being sold.

Pyrrha lifts her head from the photograph to ask the important question. “Why would he want my Family Circlet?” Pyrrha asks him, looking as worried as ever as she sets her eyes on him.

“As I have informed you – powerful families in Arkhoni Culture would have heirlooms crafted for their descendants to look after and pass on. Both you and Jaune have the same thing.” He says, and they both look at each other, then Jaune draws Crocea Mors and looks at the blade. There are faint markings in the steel that he has never noticed before, and when seeing them his eyes widen with disbelief.

“There’s...faint marks on my blade.” Jaune reveals, and they all look at him, Ruby’s silver eye widens with disbelief.

“Really?” Blake asks him with wide eyes.

“Yeah...I never saw these until you mention it.” He says, and Kragen nods his head.

“High Arkhoni, each one would carry an important message that the descendants would have to learn. It is entirely possible that whatever is on your Circlet – is of great importance now more than ever if Merlot has taken interest in it.” Kragen explains to her, and now her heart is racing. She thinks back to the circlet to see if there were any markings...

Then her eyes widen. “There were markings on the back of it, the side nobody would see...but I just thought it was wear and tear.” Pyrrha says.

“That sounds like Arkhoni Hieroglyphics to me, alright.” The Architect chuckles, shrugging his metal shoulders beside him.

“Okay – so there are old messages on here...how are we supposed to read them? You two are the only ones that read them, can’t you tell us what it says?” Jaune asks him, and Kragen nods his head, but not in agreement.

“That is very true, however I will not always be there to translate the Arkhoni Tongue for you, the road ahead will undoubtedly force us to head deeper into the remains of my people. This means you must all learn how to read our language.” Kragen explains, and their eyes widen with shock at that.

“Wait what? Seriously? How the hell are we meant to do that?” Oscar asks him.

“Yeah, learning a whole language along the way will take a long time.” Cinder states, planting her hand on her hip.

“Indeed, which is where the Architect’s newest invention will come in handy.” Kragen says, looking at the mechanical man next to him and giving him a nod. The Architect nods back and he turns to a bag that he has brought, holding it by the strap as he walks over to Qrow first of all.

“Yeah, the name _Architect_ is not just fancy – I was initially just an Artificial Intelligence in charge of designing the cities, towns and even villages of our Empire. Therefore I learned how to build, and I also knew how to make devices.” The Architect explains to them, reaching into the bag and taking out a type of bracelet in which he puts in Qrow’s open palm. It is made from metal and seems to have electricity running through it with a glowing blue energy flowing through it and on the circular holographic button on the top of it.

“What’s this?” Qrow asks him.

“This is a Translator that I have fashioned, it is small and very lightweight, and all you need to do is point the blue bit at some Arkhoni Hieroglyphics, and it will translate it into the Common Tongue.” The Architect informs for them, giving each and every one of them one of these bracelets. They all put them on one at a time, and when Jaune gets his one, he tests it out on Crocea Mors.

Jaune takes the sword and sets it down on the table, then extends his hand and just lifts it up so then his wrist is pointed directly at it. Then he presses the blue button and a glow of blue light forms from it and it scans across the hieroglyphics across the blade, scanning back and forth and then forms a holographic screen before his very eyes. The same hieroglyphics print into the holographic screen, then it loads for a couple seconds...

Then it is translated...

His eyes widen when he sees what it says.

_Tis not the strength of the blade that makes one great, but the will of the man who wields it._

He looks at Kragen and he smiles. “Do you understand why the sword was passed down to you now?” Kragen asks him and Jaune cannot help but laugh with amazement.

“My parents...they did believe in me after all...they knew I was strong...I just needed to find it in myself.” Jaune whispers, then looking at Pyrrha who smiles with happiness for him. He picks the sword up and looks at the blade, knowing it is so special to him now, before sheathing it into his scabbard.

“These Bracelets can translate any ancient Hieroglyphics or even just the standard High Arkhoni tongue that some of our kind spoke in. Now we can actually understand the messages left behind for us, without the Visionary Books doing it for us.” The Architect concludes, giving some bracelets out to everyone in the room, still carrying some more for the others who are still incapacitated right now or not here.

Jaune sheathes Crocea Mors away, and he exhales with relief, finding some closure to that question he always had.

_Was I worthy to carry this sword?_

Apparently – he is.

Blake touches the bracelet, then she lifts her head and looks at the older man. “So – what’s your plan in getting to Menagerie fast without alerting those Bannermen things?” Blake asks him, still not overly certain on what those things are. Kragen looks at her and he nods his head with a smile.

“Yes, that is the hardest obstacle. Now unfortunately we will not be able to get there instantly, but we will be able to get there faster with this plan I have created.” Kragen explains, revealing a large map on the table of Remnant. He points at the Island of Menagerie, which is very far from their current location at Beacon Academy. They all walk over and look over the map, staring down at it almost. “As you can clearly see, we need to get there fast without alerting them with the usage of teleportation...but we are going to have to in order to make the operation run fast.” Kragen explains.

“Okay...then where are we teleporting to?” Gray asks, stood by his shoulder with his arms crossed. Kragen takes his finger and points at a lonely little island just off the coat of the southern reaches of Anima. Then it is just a journey across the ocean to get to Kuo Kuana.

“Here, there is a small Airport here that we can use to get our hands on a couple of Dropships. It is entirely possible that there are some Atlesian Ships left behind there.” Kragen explains.

“There are.” Winter reveals.

“There is?” They ask.

“That island is an Aircraft Testing Facility, I know of a certain vehicle there that we could nab and get there very fast.” Winter informs, and Qrow chuckles with amazement.

“To think I doubted you Atlesian Specialists.” Qrow chortles as he walks over to Winter, in which she shoves him with her elbow. “Ow.”

“It’s called a _Prowler_ , next generation Stealth Jets, extremely fast with some good armaments on them. Can get us in and out quickly. Should be able to fit all of us inside it as well, pretty big from when I last saw the prototypes.” Winter explains.

“Did they finish it?” Vos asks her, a good question too.

“A few were completed and passed all checks, we just need to locate it. Hopefully my passes still work, then we can get in quickly and steal it.” Winter tells them.

“That will be faster than a Bullhead, we can get in and out as fast as we can. Blake, you know Kuo Kuana better than any of us. Any idea of where he could be hiding?” Qrow asks her, looking at the timid young Huntress.

“I – uh – I dunno, we’ll see when we get there. I haven’t been back there in over a year since it was being rebuilt.” Blake explains, touching her arm when flashing memories come back to her mind. Seeing Fury slamming his burning axe straight into her father’s stomach and burning her mother to ashes...it will be hard to go back there again after what happened. Especially now that Adam has turned against them once more. “It’s entirely possible that Adam and the White Fang could be there, they are going to strike any small-scale facilities to gain a foothold over us and the Acolytes of Lien.” Blake explains.

“Then we need to move fast.” Winter tells them, turning and walking towards the door. Kragen pushes his hands from the table and he picks his staff up and follows her. But then he stops and turns to the others.

“There is great risk going after Doctor Merlot – if I were you I’d make sure you say your goodbyes to your friends.” Kragen advises, and the Architect walks past Ruby and picks up his rifle. Serena sighs, nodding as she follows, then Ruby stops her by grabbing her wrist.

“Whoa...you’re just a scientist, why are you coming with us?” Ruby questions.

“I know people like Merlot, and I know chemistry. I can try and see what stuff could help cure your friends in his lab.” Serena states.

“This won’t be an easy rodeo, Serena.” Ruby advises, or maybe even just warns. But then she snatches her hand back from Ruby’s grasp.

“I can handle myself, kiddo.” She assures, scoffing as she walks away from her. Ruby sighs, then looks at Blake, Oscar, Pyrrha and Jaune who stand before her. Kassius stands there too and he smiles.

 

**Ruby**

She opens the door slowly and gently, to see that Yang is awake and so is Weiss, speaking with the waking up members of Team B.R.N.Z in their beds. Yang turns and her eyes light up when she sees her sister walking inside with the others. They walk inside, and Nora and Ren are here as well. Clearly feeling better with their auras charged up, stood inside with their weapons in their grasp. “Ruby...” Yang softly says, and Weiss turns to see her with a smile on her face. Sun sits upright, and even stands up as he slowly walks over to Blake.

Blake wraps her arms around him, feeling his hand push through her hair makes her close her eyes in this embrace. Ruby hugs Yang affectionately, burying her head into her big sister’s shoulder. “How are you feeling, sis?” Ruby gently asks her sister.

“Like death, but I can walk around at least.” Yang shrugs, looking over her shoulder to see Kassius stood there with a smile on his face. Kassius approaches and Ruby steps aside, she squeezes her arms around him tight and she looks into his eyes. “You’re going aren’t you?” She asks him with a nervous voice. Kassius sits there with Ruby stood next to him, but then she turns when she feels the ice cold sensation of Weiss’ eyes staring at her, so she walks over to her next.

“Yeah, headed to Menagerie. See if Merlot has some sort of cure tucked away in there, but if he doesn’t we are hoping that he has info on where to find Arkhonex.” Kassius explains to her, and she raises one eyebrow.

“Arkhonex?” She inquires.

“Yep, according to Kragen – there could be some stuff for a cure there, or at least a formula for one.” He tells her, and that warms her heart with hope that this plague will be out of her system soon, and the systems of her friends’.

Ruby walks over to Weiss and gives her a warm hug, even noticing that her tail of hair has been undone and left so then her white hair can go all wavy like it sometimes does. “You let your hair down again.” Ruby points out, and Weiss sighs as she touches it.

“Yeah, had to because it was annoying me when laying about like this. Can’t wait to sort it out.” Weiss says with a grumpy look on her face.

“No, I like it like it like that.” Ruby sweetly says to her.

“Really?” She asks her with a curious expression.

“Uh-Huh, brings out your eyes. Also makes you look a little more relaxed.” Ruby states with a cheeky smirk on her face.

“Oh ha-ha.” She sarcastically says, looking up at her from where she sits.

Stood with Neptune is Oscar, sat beside him on his bed with his arms crossed. “Menagerie, huh? Always wanted to see that place.” Neptune mutters with a chuckle.

“Well, if you’re good I might consider bringing a present back for you and Sun.” Oscar says with a chuckle.

“Oh thanks, if it’s a cure for this damned thing I would be in your debt.” Neptune says to him, then Oscar gives him a quizzical look.

“Pretty sure you still owe me a debt from when I saved your ass from Watts five years ago.” Oscar says to him and Neptune sighs, slapping the bed.

“Crap yeah...still can’t think of something for that.” Neptune says as he thinks on all of that.

“Don’t worry about it, you don’t owe me a thing. Your girlfriend would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t.” Oscar tells him with a smirk on his face, and just at the mere mention of her, Weiss’ head spins round and stares at him with narrowed eyes. Both of them hold up their hands in a defensive way when she does that.

“I love her but gods is she scary.” Neptune says, then she just winks and looks back at Ruby.

Pyrrha and Jaune both walk towards Ren and Nora, and they both hug them with kindness in their hearts and bones. They then switch so then they make sure that hugged both of them in time, and Nora smiles when she looks at Pyrrha in her newly sprayed armour. “It’s good to see you looking like you again, always thought the ponytail looked better.” Nora honestly says to her, and Pyrrha awkwardly smiles.

“Thank you?” She says, unsure if that was a compliment or not.

“In a good way! In a very good way, as in you looked pretty hot with loose hair but this makes you look _smoking_ hot!” Nora exclaims, and that makes her giggle, she is exactly as she remembered. Crazy yet lovable at the same time, and Ren is as honourable and as deep as ever as well.

“You’re headed out?” Ren presumes.

“Yeah, headed to Menagerie.” Jaune says.

“Ooh, say hi to any Faunus you see there.” Nora says to them with a smile, and Pyrrha laughs.

“We’ll be sure to when we go through Kuo Kuana.” Pyrrha promises.

“Yeah, I bet the Faunus there are gonna be real happy with how little resources have been sent their way. Wood and stuff anyway, just Dust has been sent there.” Jaune says to them, and they nod.

“We would go with you, but...we feel like Beacon needs more Huntsmen protecting it.” Ren says to them.

“We were hoping you’d say that, after that crash...you guys still need some time to recover.” Jaune says to them, and Nora gasps.

“If I didn’t love you so much I’d take that as an insult!” She squeaks, making him laugh.

Then the silly behaviour ceases when she hugs Jaune. “Just...take care of each other?” Nora asks him, and in a strange twist of roles. Jaune steps away and looks at Pyrrha with a smile.

“We always have.” He kindly says to her, making Pyrrha smile.

 

**Blake**

They look back at the Amphitheatre as they step towards the Architect and the portal that he opens up for them. The blue energy cracks a doorway open for them all to step through. They all wave to Penny, Glynda, Ren and Nora who stand at the doorway. Cinder looks across the courtyard and can see Hazel stood relatively far from the others with his arms crossed. He just looks at her, and only nods without waving.

Cinder nods back as she steps through the portal as she follows Kassius through it. Ruby is the last one to go through before the Architect. He stands there and nods as he steps through, and the blue portal close behind him. Blake emerges from the other side and she looks around with widened eyes, it is the Airfield where the Atlesians test their aircraft. It is ghostly quiet here, abandoned after Ironwood called in all Atlesian Personnel to cower years ago.

Seems they never returned and left the Prowlers here under tarps. Winter approaches the gate with her scroll, looking around as she takes the scroll and swipes it across the scanner so then they can all enter it. The scanner beeps green and she sighs with relief. Ruby and Blake advance with their weapons raised just in case. “Keep your eyes open, the Knights’ Bannermen would have sensed the Portal here.” Kragen advises, as Gray aims his sword forward.

Qrow walks forward and he has a bit of nervousness in his eyes, and for good reason. Especially when Jaune walks under a roof and some water falls from it and onto his head. Winter stops and looks at him, catching onto his concern. “Qrow? What’s wrong?” She asks him, walking alongside him and he sighs.

“I shouldn’t be here...” He says to her.

“Why?” Winter inquires.

“Raven isn’t here...her Good Luck Charm cannot balance out my Bad Luck...I’m worried of what might happen because of that.” Qrow tells her, and then he walks ahead. Winter turns and sees Pyrrha nearly trip over on a rock sticking up from the ground.

His bad luck is already having an effect on them.

She closes her eyes and she sighs, this really is a risk bringing him here, but they insisted on having someone with his skill. And Raven could not leave, she needs to keep an eye on the Bandits she has brought with her, and on her Daughter. Winter hates leaving her sister behind but she put those feelings aside and focused on the bigger picture.

If only Raven could have done that.

Port approaches a corner and he presses his back to the wall, peering slowly into the Hanger where some old abandoned aircraft have been left behind. “Whoa...” Port slowly says with widened eyes, stepping round when he sees them.

“Port? What is it?” The Architect asks him.

“Look, some of these vehicles haven’t been used since the Great War. Hawks, Falcons...just left here to rust away.” Port scoffs, and Ruby walks up to him to start a curious conversation with him.

“I thought History wasn’t your think, Professor?” Ruby points out with a gleeful smile on her face.

“Ha! I admit I am more of a – _man of action_ – type person, but I have read my fair share of history books.” Port promises with a smile behind his thick moustache, walking into the hanger and looking around. There are no bodies, it was definitely abandoned, and most of the vehicles seem to be missing. He touches the pain which has peeled away and the rust that eats the metal on the incredible aircraft. “A shame, such beautiful handiwork, wasted.” He sighs, shaking his head with disapproval.

Oobleck pushes some of the cans on a box off so then they make a loud noise to draw any Creatures of Grimm from the hanger. But there is nothing, dead silence is in the air and nothing more. Oobleck pushes his glasses down slightly as he looks through the fence and his eyes widen with disbelief. “Oh dear...” Oobleck says, getting the attention of Kassius and Blake who are behind him.

“What’s up?” Kassius asks him and he sighs.

“I think I know what happened to the Atlesian Personnel. They never made it back to Atlas.” He reveals, and they see in the water are some floating skeletons that were left behind to rot away.

“What happened?” Blake gasps.

Oobleck scans their bodies with his eyes and her manages to determine what happened here pretty much instantly as he looks at some of the buildings. “Seems when Beacon fell, these people were watching the feed. Look at the walls.” He says to them, and they turn their eyes to the steel walls of the hangers, deep scars and slashes across them. Even some bullet holes where they missed their targets.

“The Grimm...” Kassius realises.

“They must have attacked when they were watching the feed.” Blake says.

“Sensed the negativity, and wiped them out.” Oobleck states, walking away from the fence where he saw the skeletons in the water. “Griffins and Nevermores must have attacked, killed them and dumped the corpses into the ocean around them.” Oobleck adds, crouching down to a rifle that is just left on the ground, rust formed across it from time that has eaten away at it. “Unnatural monsters.” Oobleck softly says, Ruby still remembers why he wanted to be a Huntsman.

To stop things like this from ever happening again.

“I heard theories that places hold the last emotions felt when a location is abandoned...is that why the Grimm tend to congregate to old Ruins?” Kassius inquires, and Oobleck stands back up, straightening his hat.

“Possibly...which begs the question here...” Oobleck agrees.

“Where are they now?” Blake says as she looks around at the skies, and not a Nevermore in the sky.

Absolutely nothing.

“Come on, let’s just find the Prowler, this place gives me the creeps.” Kassius sighs, walking away from the rifle that they found and walking to the other hangers.

Pyrrha turns a corner with Cinder walking with her, both of them saying nothing to either, until Pyrrha gathers the courage. She looks at her and still has that conversation that they had with each other on her mind. “I’m...sorry about what happened to Reg.” She softly says to her, and Cinder smiles softly in return.

“Me too.” Cinder replies as they enter another Hanger, looking around inside and their eyes widen.

“Is that it?” Pyrrha asks her.

“Let’s find out.” Cinder says, looking over her shoulder and calling her name out. “Hey, Winter! Is this the Prowler?” She calls, and Winter jogs over to where the two of them are standing. Winter slows down and she snaps her fingers with a smile on her face.

“There it is...still squeaky clean as well.” She scoffs with amazement, walking towards it. It is very large with a long snout and wide triangular wings. It has multiple missiles at the ready under the wings and a Dust powerful cannon under the snout of the vehicle. Winter climbs onto it as the others head towards the rear door to get inside.

“You know how to fly this thing don’t you?” Kassius asks him curiously as Port walks past him.

“Better than you know how to fly.” Port chuckles from memory.

“Hey, that crash was not my fault.” Kassius defends, following him inside, whilst Winter just rolls her eyes. They all sit down inside and when they do, the lights activate and are bright red, for stealth they use red light since that is harder to see than other lights. They all sit down and clip their seatbelts in.

“This is your captain speaking, we are beginning our departure. Make sure you are strapped in, because turbulence on this flight can kill. No fuss, no fun please.” Winter speaks into the intercom, making them laugh. It is still strange in Ruby’s eyes to hear Winter having such a great sense of humour.

Hopefully that can last.

The Prowler exits the hanger and roars across the runway, taking off into the sky and using the afterburners to move at great speeds.

 

Around half an hour passes...

The Prowler approaches the island of Menagerie and Blake stares out the window at the town of Kuo Kuana, seeing it getting bigger and bigger. The Prowler decelerates as it approaches, then the thrusters rotate round and the flaps guide the huge aircraft towards it, using the Vertical Take-Off and Landing Mode to slowly descend with its landing gear towards the sandy ground at the Pier.

They unbuckle themselves and step out the door as it opens, looking around. They are all hit with a thick blast of hot air from the Menagerie climate. Blake looks around as she walks out and Ruby stands beside her, looking around. “This is your home?” Ruby asks her, and Blake nods with a smile.

“It’s beautiful here.” Jaune says with awe.

Cinder stretches out her arms as she steps out, feeling the warm air in her skin. “I could get a tan here.” Cinder sarcastically says and Kassius scoffs as he walks past her.

“Really?” He says.

“What?” Cinder questions, then Ruby looks at Blake as they walk towards the town.

She is on edge...

“Blake? What’s wrong?” Ruby inquires with a nervous voice, and the others slowly pay attention to Blake’s attitude.

“Blake?” Pyrrha softly speaks as she turns to her.

“What is it?” Ruby asks her again.

Blake looks around, and she has noticed something is immediately not right. As Sun always said and complained about, Menagerie was always so cramped and crowded, especially when repairing it after the destruction of the Volcanic Chain Isles.

And now?

It is dead quiet.

Not a soul for miles.

“Where is everyone?” Blake stammers fearfully.

They look around and the silence hits them as well, for a place that is supposed to house and entire species...

It is very empty.

She looks around, and she cannot help but feel that something else is off as well.

Like...

Something is watching them.


	47. Horridus Morbus

**Blake**

She can feel the cold air brushing across her cheek, and the Architect looks around. He scans the air with the software that he has built into him as he looks around. Despite lacking a human face, they can tell that he is just as confused as she is. “That’s weird...” The Architect states as he looks around, holding the rifle in one hand as he examines the scene. Qrow turns with an intrigued expression on his face.

“What is it?” Qrow asks.

“There is no sign of Horridus Morbus pathogens in the air; I thought it could have been like what happened at Vacuo.” The Architect says, since he was there and saw how dead silent the city was as he stood there. But Qrow then catches onto something a little more disturbing than that, crouching down to the floor to see the sand as settled.

“There’re no bodies...and there haven’t been any for a while by the looks of things.” Qrow tells them, sliding his finger across the sand that has settled. The sand sticks to the prints on his finger, and he looks back at them as he does that. They cannot help but sense the same feeling that Blake has.

The young Faunus Girl focuses her senses from her ears, the little cat-like ears perk up to hear the faintest breezes but she cannot hear a sound. Not a voice nearby, not a shuffle from someone walking through the bushes...not even the tweet of a bird. It is dead silent in Menagerie, and it has made things very, very tense right now. “That would have taken weeks, hell even a month to settle. And nobody around to disturb it?” Oobleck questions as he looks at the sand, and they cannot help but notice it all over the place. Sand has settled everywhere; they are on a desert island so it is expected.

But...

Not a single footprint?

That is worrying.

And they have not even left the docks yet, they still need to move further into the town. Blake sighs, walking ahead of them with Ruby and Oscar following her. They have their hands close to their weapons as they walk along, scanning the many houses that they pass by. She may have complained like Sun once did, but what she would give for another Faunus Civilian to bump into her by accident. “This is not right...there were people everywhere here. Even after Fury attacked Menagerie last time, I was here only a few months ago. Everything was fine.” Blake speaks with a concerned trembling voice, checking every single window. Hoping to see a little face peaking through the blinds.

“Could have the White Fang captured them? Or recruited them?” Kassius suggests as he catches up to Blake, Ruby and Oscar. But Blake shakes her head, she knows the people of Menagerie too well and why they fled all the way to this _Safe Haven_.

“No, the people who lived here were tired of fighting. Both Ex-White Fang and Ex-Military lived here, or just people that wanted to stay away from the torment our species suffered.” Blake explains, which explains further why this is so strange. Port crouches down to a house and checks under the stilts that hold it up, and there is nothing underneath it. Unlike the attack on Vacuo, there is no sign of the Horridus Morbus Caches that were placed and detonated.

“There’s no sign of an attack either.” Port adds, standing back up as he follows them across the path that moves through the street. The breeze blows dust across the pathway before them, like they have entered a set from a Western Movie, or something. The wind whistles around them like it is trying to get their attention. Pyrrha looks around and she feels her heart beating hard, so she tries something.

“Hello? Is anyone here? We’re just passing through! We mean you no harm!” Pyrrha calls out, her regal voice echoes through the town of Kuo Kuana.

Nothing...

Just her own voice echoes onwards, so she sighs with frustration, getting sick and tired of the constant silence that surrounds them. “Well, it was worth a shot.” She huffs.

Jaune crouches down as he looks down at some pieces of paper that have sand and dust covering them, but it is all just notice papers. He squints his eyes but he cannot completely make out the title.

_Mi-g_

_L-t loved one, ple-fi-b-too-late_

He sighs, unable to read most of it as the grit has smudged most of the ink off. But he does not even realise what it was saying. But as they walk, Blake stops when she notices something, eyes focusing onto a Notice Board with letters still hanging from it.

“Uh, Blake? What is it?” Ruby inquires, then she notices it as well, and they slowly walk towards it. There are multiple posters that have been nailed to the Notice Board that are quite intimidating, making their eyes widen.

_FIGHT FOR YOUR FALLEN LEADER!_

_JOIN THE WHITE FANG!_

_BRING HUMANITY TO JUSTICE!_

_BRING BLAKE BELLADONNA TO JUSTICE!_

There are posters everywhere of the White Fang trying to bring the Faunus together to wipe Humanity off the face of the Earth, to kill Blake. Seeing these hateful posters hurts the poor Belladonna in ways that she could not find imaginable, she even tenses her arms and clenches her hand into a fist with anger. She grits her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut as tears begin to stream from them. But she sucks it up, and bites her lip to hold back the desperation to cry over what has happened.

Ruby can sense the pain that pumps through her Faunus’ friend’s heart, so she gently touches her back to soothe her consciousness. “Hey...are you okay?” Ruby asks her, but she forcefully wipes a tear from her eye just as she clears her throat.

“Yeah – let’s just keep going. I don’t want to have to stay here any longer than we need to.” She sternly replies, but not towards her in any way. Ruby does not ask because she has a pretty good idea of why she is acting the way she is. Ruby looks at Oscar and he looks just as sympathetic as she does, so they keep following her. But when they walk, Pyrrha slowly walks up to them and looks at the couple.

She still does not know what happened here five years ago.

“What’s wrong with Blake? She’s acting...stranger than we are.” Pyrrha admits, since the whole situation is rather abnormal. Ruby closes her eye sadly as she looks at Blake who walks ahead of them with her fist clenched and with tears in her eyes.

“Blake...she was born here. And five years ago, before Haven fell the first time – her parents and hundreds of Faunus were murdered here at Menagerie from an attack.” Ruby explains, and Pyrrha’s green eyes widen with shock, and sympathy for poor Blake.

“Oh my gosh...how? Who attacked?” She asks, and Oscar is the one who answers that question, for Ruby’s sake.

“Fury...it was the first time any of us bar Kassius ever saw one of the Knights of Grimm.” Oscar informs her.

“Did Fury...”

“Kill her parents? Yes, he did.” Oscar answers as they walk through the town.

Pyrrha shows so much sympathy towards the poor young woman, looking at her as she walks. She has such a way of showing her emotions without meaning to, the sternness in her eyes resembles that of when she was hiding the fact she was  a Faunus. But now the sternness is just the memories of what this place haunts her with. Gray walks over to her and looks at her. “So...Blake...when was the last time you came here?” Gray asks her curiously, Blake looks up at him and some of the tension in her eyes fades, replaced with sadness instead.

Hard to tell if that is any better.

“Two months ago.” She answers, rather bluntly as well as she walks.

“Do you mind if I ask why you came here?” Gray inquires, and she sighs, looking at him again.

“I was visiting with my boyfriend – Sun Wukong? We wanted to see how things were going, and I was speaking to Adam here not long ago.” Blake explains. “My parents are buried here thanks to him – so is Ilia as well, we managed to get her off the islands...I was hoping Sienna could have been buried here too...” Blake says, then she pauses, looking down at the ground sombrely.

“...but...” She sighs, and never continues to speak to Gray on that matter, she just keeps walking ahead. Gray looks rather sad for her, whereas Vos is just staring around the place. As a Hunter, not even a Huntsman, he knows how to examine the environment. And he feels that same feeling that Blake has been feeling. The feeling that something is constantly watching them, but they’ve no idea where it is coming from.

Kragen keeps moving with the Architect beside him, and Serena with him as well. She keeps her eyes on the surroundings, and also has a journal in her hands. She holds her pen and constantly writes down everything that she can see.

_The air is bone cold, and the town was dead silent._

_We were all on edge and for good reason, the entire island seemed to have been abandoned. No signs of combat anywhere, no bullet holes in the walls, no slash marks from the Grimm. And most importantly..._

_Not a single body._

_I am not very certain of what this means, even if the Horridus Morbus plague was unleashed here as well as Vacuo, the missing bodies still would not add up. Why would the enemy unleash a bio-weapon on an unsuspecting town for the Faunus to live in and just take their unconscious bodies?_

_It doesn’t make any sense, and I am nervous to know what happens next._

Kragen looks at her and he rolls his silver eyes, she is like a journalist the way she writes. “Do you have to scribble down every single important detail?” Kragen asks her, and Serena scoffs as she looks up at him with her large silver eyes.

“You’re one to talk, the man who wrote several biographies about your little Empire you had all those years ago.” She scoffs, then he looks at her with a rather cold stare.

“I had the common decency to wait to write though, that young woman over there? Miss Belladonna? Her parents were murdered by Axzura Vex here five years ago, and she has returned to find her home empty. Show some damn respect.” Kragen demands with a soft-spoken voice, walking ahead of her. The Architect scoffs too, walking past her as he speaks.

“Damned Scientists.” The Architect whispers, so she decides to challenge the seven foot tall robotic man.

“You got a problem with me, robo-boy?” Serena challenges, making him laugh at her eagerness to fight something more powerful than her.

“Me? Let’s just say that I don’t trust scientists.” The Architect answers as he stares down at her.

“Yeah? Well we are the ones that get our hands in the mud and build a better tomorrow.” Serena scoffs, speaking as if she is showing a pathetic presentation to a bunch of teenagers who want to learn to become scientists.

But the Architect’s following statement is enough to shut her up completely. “Or shatter our yesterdays.” He states, staring straight at her through that blue V shaped optic he has that seems to glow brighter when he says that. Her eyes focus onto the optics when he says that, and she already can tell what he meant by that.

Scientists are the reason that the Arkhoni Empire collapsed, they created defences that turned against them in the end. Transformed the Creatures of Grimm into tools that they could use for their own gain, until Salem came along and took full control. Then their cities were destroyed and the Empire was thrown into chaos. The Architect says no more to Serena, just turning back around and walking on, grabbing his Poncho that is wrapped around his chassis and he flicks it slightly with his hand.

Serena sighs, shoving her journal back into her bag and following them.

Cinder keeps walking, her large amber eye examining the area as she walks, then she ends up walking alongside Jaune, who does not even look at her. She exhales softly, then looks up at him since he has grown taller than her now. “Jaune...” She gently speaks, but he swiftly raises his hand, not even turning to face her.

“Not a goddamn word.” He snarls, moving away from her, and Kassius watches Jaune as he keeps walking. He sighs and walks over to his sister, noticing her pain.

“Give him some more time, Sapphire. He will come around eventually, they both will.” Kassius assures, but Cinder’s face does not seem to be as swayed.

“I dunno, Kas...I think maybe I have made too many permanent mistakes.” She sighs, walking beside him, her eye focused on the ground. Until she notices something in the reflection of a puddle, so she yells to stop them all from walking. “Whoa! Stop!” She shouts, and they all stop in their pace, spinning round to look at Cinder, who has her eyes focused on something inside of a house.

“What is it?” Qrow questions.

Cinder and Winter both approach what appears to be a remote explosive of some kind, stuck to a long metal pipe that runs through this building. Cinder presses her ear to it and her eye widens when she realises what this huge pipe is. “There’s a bomb planted on this pipeline.” Cinder tells them, and Blake looks at it, then it hits her as well.

“Of course...this is the main Pipeline that runs through Kuo Kuana for any ships that need refuelling at the docks.” Blake says, then she walks over to the curiosity where Cinder and Winter both stare at it. There are no lights flashing on it at the moment, it seems to only be triggered by a remote detonator.

“Someone has planted this.” Winter states.

“Oh you don’t say, I thought it showed up there all by its lonesome.” Cinder sarcastically scoffs, making Winter roll her eyes at her unprofessionalism.

“Who would rig the pipeline like this?” Pyrrha asks with nervousness in her voice, that’s when Qrow slowly draws his sword as he looks around at the higher buildings. The many alleyways and the possible attack points.

“Stay sharp people, could be an ambush.” Qrow advises with a soft spoken voice.

“Yes, we have tactical disadvantage right now.” Oobleck agrees as he holds his coffee thermos in his hand, ready to transform into its real form, not the disguised form that it has. But the detonator never blows up the bomb and there is no attack, not a sound for miles. The silence has not been disturbed by anything other than their own presence.

“Can we disarm it?” Jaune asks.

“No, it’s linked to a detonator. Someone has it, they will only detonate if they press the button.” Winter answers as she turns away from the bomb

“Well, let’s hope to god this person doesn’t change their minds and blows us all up.” Jaune sighs.

“Well...so far so good I guess.” Cinder says as she slowly backs up from the bomb on the pipeline.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Kassius asks her.

“We haven’t been blown to smithereens.” Cinder answers.

“Point taken.” Kassius chuckles as he stands beside her, looking at the offline bomb.

“Alright everyone, keep an eye out for anymore charges. The last thing we want is for this pipeline to explode on us.” Qrow advises, walking forward with his sword sheathed back onto his belt but he keeps his hand as close to the hilt as he can. Therefore he can draw it as fast as he can.

This silence and emptiness is really starting to mess with their heads.

Blake continues to take point through Kuo Kuana, with her hand held close to the back of her hip so then she can draw Gambol Shroud. Her large feline amber eyes stay focused as she checks the buildings. They even begin to spread out as the pathway gets larger, and some of the doors have been left open. Ruby walks into one of them with Vos walking beside her. The Half-Cyborg Silver Eyed Warrior grabs one of the couches and lifts it up with ease with his metal arm, checking under it for anyone hiding.

Nothing.

“This is getting so old.” Vos sighs with annoyance, letting the couch crash back down, making Ruby jump.

“What the hell was that?” Jaune calls out.

“Sorry, it was me.” Vos apologises as he walks through the house, then leaves it as they regroup with them all.

“You ass.” Gray mutters.

“I heard that.” Vos assures.

“Oh I was hoping so.” Gray chuckles.

Blake cannot share the same enthusiasm that they have; she is too focused on finding out what has happened to her people. They all keep walking through Kuo Kuana, and they finally make it to the summit of the hill, and Blake swallows in the emotions that course through her body. She stares across the town of her home, and she can see the Belladonna Estate in the centre of the village, and just like the area they just traversed.

Not a soul to be seen or heard.

Not even Grimm either; it is completely empty, which makes it all the scarier.

Ruby stands there then looks at her friend, seeing her hand shaking slightly as she looks at her home in the distance, holding back tears. Ruby puts her hand on her shoulder with a kind smile that eases the tension in Blake. “Come on, let’s go.” She affectionately says to her, and they all walk down the hill towards the house.

The wind blows across the landscape, and Qrow watches the skies out of instinct, for either the Grimm or the Knights of Grimm. Always waiting to see the marking-less black Nevermore, or the decayed Bat or the infernal Wyvern flying overhead. But Pyrrha is always looking around for signs of the real enemy that is probably watching them at this very moment. The Soothsayer must be around here somewhere, the watchful eye of their enemy never fades.

Blake, Ruby, Kassius and Oscar walk ahead, towards the Belladonna Estate whereas the rest of the regiment stay nearby to help secure the area. Making sure that nothing is nearby. Blake walks towards the house, and she closes her eyes with a sigh. She can still see the memories, like flashing images of the past in her eyes. The damage done to the house, the screams that echoed, and the roar that Fury made.

Then as she turns to the garden where it happened, she can see it happening all over again. The sight of her mother turning to fight Fury as he stormed towards her with those two daggers of hers. She put up a good fight, for as long as she could. But it wasn’t enough, and Ghira died in the process. His arm burned to ashes and then getting a burning axe slammed into his gut with Fury’s rage.

“Ghira!” Kali’s scream echoes through Blake’s mind, seeing her reach out for her dying husband was agonising. But not as horrible as watching Fury reduce her beloved mother to ashes before her very eyes.

As the flashing memories fade back into the sea of distant memory, she stares at the three graves buried in the garden.

_Ghira Belladonna_

_Loving Husband and Father_

_Kali Belladonna_

_Loving Wife and Mother_

_Ilia Amitola_

_Trusting Friend and Ally_

Blake shuts her eyes as tears begin to leak out from the scleras, and she bows her head to the fallen, still remembering how Ilia lost her life. Being butchered by the monster that was Tyrian Callows, at least he died at the hands of Ruby. And she was there to watch the psychotic monster die, falling to his death.

Screaming.

Kassius’ amber eyes stare at the grave of Ilia, still feeling so much guilt for how he let his lust for revenge take him over. How he wanted to kill her for betraying him like that, but she was a victim as much as he was. Tortured by the Onyx Phantom and Fear to locate his team so then they could kill them.

But...

Why?

Ruby looks at her friend and gently bumps her shoulder with hers, to get her attention away from the sadness that eats away at her soul. “Hey...are you alright?” She asks her, Blake sniffs.

“Yeah...just...not easy seeing their graves like that.” She softly says, crouching down to wipe the sand from the stones that settled on them. Kassius looks at the graves, then he crouches down and notices something peculiar.

“Hello...” He mumbles.

“What?” Blake asks him, and Oscar notices it too.

There are footprints that lead up to the graves of Ghira, Kali and Ilia but they do not belong to either of them. They were here before, and then he picks something up that is hidden behind the graves.

Flowers.

“Unless we have real bad memory and we already paid our respects recently – someone was here.” Kassius says to them as he places the flowers back down onto the grave of Ghira’s where it was left.

“Someone has been here.” Oscar mutters.

“Adam.” Blake speaks with certainty in her voice, and they all look at her with confusion.

“Huh?” Ruby asks her with a confused expression on her face.

“Adam always cared for my parents, no matter what happened between us he always cared for them. He buried them after me and Sun ran from Fury.” Blake explains to them, and that sends a chill down their spines.

“He’s here.” She repeats with complete certainty in her voice, squeezing her eyes shut with fear of what might happen if they cross paths. She does not want to fight him, they were finally repairing the gap that formed in their friendship, and now the hole has returned once again. And it feels deeper than ever before.

“Guys!” Jaune calls, snapping the four of them out of it when they hear his voice, so they all turn to see him stood there.

“What?” Oscar asks with a raised voice.

“Another bomb?” Kassius asks.

“Yeah, but it’s still not active. But there’s something else...you’re gonna want to see it.” Jaune tells them, and Blake stands there, slowly looking back at the graves.

“You guys go on...I...” Blake stammers, but she does not need to finish her sentence. Ruby gently smiles as he pats her shoulder and they leave her be for a moment. Parallel to what Sun needed to do now, she turns to the graves of the closest people of her childhood that have died. She crouches down and places her hand down atop her mother’s grave. She lowers her head.

Then she speaks with a fragile voice.

“Mom...Dad...Ilia...” Blake whispers softly as she speaks to the graves before her, voice cracking from the choked up emotions in her. “I’m sorry you couldn’t be here with us anymore...” She stammers as she speaks to the graves of those she cared for. “Things have gone so, so wrong – I never wanted any of this to happen. I never wanted any of you to die for this stupid war...but I’ll never stop.”

“I’ll always keep going...

...for you...”

Blake stands up and she looks at the graves, slowly stepping away from them with a saddened expression. She turns and walks away from the three graves, unable to say any more words, returning to Ruby and the others.

To learn what it is that they have just uncovered.

 

**Brawnz**

The young huntsman sits on his bed, hours have passed now since they left for Menagerie, and they have uncovered more equipment in the storage rooms of Beacon. Such as a Heart Monitor each of them and some more medicine to keep their immune systems up, but nothing seems to be holding Horridus Morbus back from affecting their bodies. Brawnz has sweat trickling from his skin, and his bones feel like they are made of glass. He groans with pain as he sits there, having to crack his neck every now and then or touch his right arm.

It’s like he has an itch for some reason.

“Hey...Brawnz?” Yang says to him, getting his attention.

“Hmm?” He responds as he looks at her, and Yang sits upright as she has tied her hair into a ponytail it stays out of her eyes.

More or less.

She too is sweating a fair bit too, but looks a little better than he does, his skin is pale and his eyelids seem to have developed rashes. He is taking this much worse than the rest of his team are, but they are all doing much worse than Yang, Neptune, Sun and Weiss are. Perhaps it is because they were stuck in Vacuo for longer than they were.

They were only vulnerable to the pathogen for a minute or so, maybe even less thanks to the warning that the Time Entity gave them. “How are you feeling, man? You don’t look so hot.” Yang points out as she stretches her arms outwards.

Brawnz chuckles sarcastically. “Well don’t worry, goldilocks you still look sexy right now.” He assures, and Yang raises an eyebrow at his rather inappropriate comment. She can hold her own against him with ease, he is just lucky that Kassius isn’t here.

“Good thing Kassius isn’t here or he would have force fed your foot.” Yang says with a smirk, and he chuckles.

“Never took you for the chick that would want a committed relationship.” Brawnz states as he sits there, looking at the fit woman, despite their condition right now. She still looks like she could bench press with ease.

“What makes you say that?” Yang inquires.

“I dunno – you’ve always struck me as a chick who would like having one-offs, you know?” He says, and she sighs.

“I admit I have tempted myself a few times in the past – but Kas and I – something just clicked with us a long time ago. It was Ruby who never wanted a boyfriend at first, always thought that the Grimm would keep her occupied.” Yang explains with a sarcastic scoff as she shrugs her shoulders, and Brawnz looks down at the floor.

“Until the Grimm mess you up.” Brawnz adds, and Yang shuts her lilac eyes.

“Yeah – until the Grimm mess you up.” Yang agrees, still uncomfortable on the subject of her little sister being tortured by those monsters.

“Well – is he a good guy? I never had the pleasure of meeting the dude.” Brawnz asks her; clearly he is into her and is a little jealous that Kassius beat him to it. But even then, it is unlikely that Yang would ever want to be in any romantic relationship with him even if Kassius never existed in her life.

“No he’s a monster that likes to wipe out all life on Remnant.” Yang sarcastically answers with a pair of lowered eyelids. “Of course he is...he’s troubled, but I love him and I just want him to happy.” She says as she holds a photograph in her hands on her bare lap, stroking his face.

The photo is that of a selfie that they both took when on holiday to the Canyons of Vale when they went with Ruby and Oscar one summer. She is up against him with one of the happiest smiles she has ever expressed, head resting on his shoulder, and he has a smile as well. Not showing his teeth like she does, but he never does with his smiles. The pair are so close that they have become inseparable.

“Well he’s a lucky guy to win a chick as hot as you, must admit.” He says, and Yang laughs.

“Are you _always_ this forward with girls?” Yang asks him, when the voice of Nolan emerges and catches her attention. Nolan and Roy have both woken up now, still weak but awake.

“Yeah...” Nolan responds, May has gone to sleep however to try and recover as best she can.

“How many girls have you had in your bed with this strategy?” She asks him.

“Ten.” He admits, and Yang raises her brow.

“Five.” He sighs.

“How many girlfriends?” She asks him, since there is a big difference between the two.

“None.” He sighs. “But – I don’t think I’d be any good at committed stuff, I like that way of life. Way more fun.”

Yang rolls her eyes. “Well that strategy would never had worked on me, buddy-boy.” She says as she lays back onto her bed and she rests her head on the bed. But as Brawnz sits there, he reaches to the back of his neck to feel something that scratches a little, making him shudder.

“I – uh – where’s the bathroom? There is one in here, right?” He asks.

“Yeah, it’s down the steps and to the left.” Yang guides, not looking at him, only the picture of her and Kassius, holding it close to her chest, closing her eyes as she thinks about him. Brawnz stands up and he weakly walks down the steps in the direction that Yang told him, and he turns to the left and enters the bathroom, walking right inside.

He barges the door open now, no longer hiding that something is extremely wrong with him. He holds his stomach and gags profusely as he stumbles over to the toilet, and he vomits violently into the toilet. He wretches and retches as he empties his body of his body fat for some reason, and he opens his eyes to witness something chilling.

There is blood in the toilet...

Dripping from his mouth...

And some sort of black gooey substance as well drips from his nose. He stands back up and he looks in the reflection, turning the tap to pour water into his hands. He splashes the hot water into his face and he scrubs the crap from his face and the sweat off. He presses his hands against the porcelain to stare into his reflection, which has been obscured by steam. He rubs his hand across the mirror so then he can see his face and he touches his eye as he looks at his reflection.

There is a stinging sensation in his eyelid, so he pulls it down to look inside. And he gasps from what he sees...

His eyelid is beginning to bleed; it looks like it is rotting away from the inside somehow. He staggers back with horror, only to feel a crunch in his right arm that causes him to flinch with pain. He lifts his right arm and he stares at it...

Something moves in his arm that sends a chill through his body. The bones are moving around even though he is not moving them, like they are trying to break through his fingers or something.

Brawnz stares at his reflection with fear.

This is bad...

This...

Is unnatural what is happening to him right now...

 

**Blake**

Blake approaches Ruby and the others to see that the Architect is crouched down at a terminal that they have discovered with damaged wiring, creating some distortion on the screen and audio. But a little message does manage to come through, and Kragen looks very concerned.

“...Merlot Industries...” The familiar voice says and Blake stops when she hears that name, remembering back when they thought they stopped Merlot when they were at Beacon on a training mission.

“Merlot? What is this?” Blake asks them.

“That’s what we’re gonna figure out...I know that voice, it must be who I think it is...” Kragen says with a worried voice as he holds his staff.

“Gotcha!” The Architect cheers, and the distortion fades and it shows photographs of Menagerie with the voice in the background, speaking to the Faunus by the sounds of it.

“This is Yenna Azula.” The voice introduces, and Kragen’s eyes widen when he hears her voice again after so long, and so does Qrow’s.

“Yenna...” He gasps.

“Who?” Pyrrha asks.

“The Spring Maiden...she’s here?” Qrow questions with confusion.

“She must have come here from the Mirror, teleported here, remember?” Cinder states, remembering back to Ephai when they realised that both the Spring and Summer Maidens had vanished without a trace. Therefore both of them could be here in Menagerie somewhere, and clearly Yenna is still fighting for the good side.

The message from Yenna continues on. “If you’ve made it this far, then you’re either desperate or stupid.” Yenna states, with her regal and rather formal accent, not very dissimilar to the accent that Velvet has. “Listen to me, Menagerie is not what you think it is, the Acolytes of Lien have taken steps to hire Faunus Mercenaries to infiltrate the Sanctuary for your people. Doctor Merlot has taken advantage of Blake Belladonna’s generosity and turned this place into something else...something monstrous.” Yenna explains, and Blake’s eyes widen.

“They were under our noses the whole time?” She stammers in a soft voice.

“Turn back now, communications here have been blocked by a Radar Dish found on the northern side of Kuo Kuana. Help will not be found here, Menagerie is a lie – stay away.” Yenna warns, then the feed cuts off, along with her voice. Qrow looks at Kragen and they are both further intrigued now.

“Alright, so we’ve got the Acolytes of Lien, the Spring Maiden and Doctor Merlot – any ideas of how this all ties in?” Kassius asks them all curiously.

“I don’t know...but I’m scared now more than ever.” Blake says.

“Why?” Jaune asks her.

“Because this is Merlot – who knows what he could be doing with those poor refugees?” Blake asks them.

Suddenly a voice screams at them and a bullet comes shooting right in between them, causing them to scatter and take cover. The bullet fragments against a wall, and they are forced to take cover, and Qrow peers round to see an old Faunus Man stood there. He is shaking erratically with a thick grey beard as he stares at them with a hunting rifle in his hands. “Stay away, you goddamn monsters!” The Faunus yells out, the first civilian they have seen in  Kuo Kuana so far. The Faunus has a pair of Ox horns on his head as he stands there, keeping the rifle aimed at them.

“Check your fire! We’re Huntsmen! Huntsmen!” Qrow yells out with anger at his stupidity to shoot at them.

“Damned monsters! Get away!” He yells out with anger, but then Blake rushes out from cover and Ruby reaches out for her, but she holds her hands out. The man aims at her but she just looks at him.

“It’s okay! I promise...we’re not here to hurt you. Did you put those bombs on the pipeline?” Blake asks him, pointing at the Pipe behind them where they found yet another charge.

“Yeah! I’ve gotta stop this thing from spreading!” The old man yells, and those words strike them.

“Thing? You talking about that plague that hit Vacuo?” Jaune asks as he steps out of cover, causing Gray to roll his eyes at their inability to keep their heads down.

“How the hell should I know what it is?” The old man cries out, hands are shaking and his teeth are actually jittering. “I-It’s some kinda fever! P-People s-started burning up! Screaming! Attacking each other! Going crazy!” He yells out, and Blake looks utterly terrified.

“How come you’re not infected?” Kassius asks him.

“I don’t know! I was out in the desert hunting for food with my grandson! He was eaten alive in front of me!” The old man cries out, and Blake walks over to him with concern, and fear for what he is talking about. “I have to stop it from leaving the island! I need to find whoever has that detonator!”

“Let us help you, please.” Blake begs, but he falls over, turning round and running away from them.

“No! Get away! Leave me alone!” The old man screams as he runs away from them, and Pyrrha jogs over.

“No wait!” Pyrrha begs, staring at him with worried eyes.

“We need to find him.” Ruby says, running after the old man, and they keep sprinting and sprinting through the town where he lives.

“What the hell was he talking about?” Serena questions fearfully and Kragen shrugs his shoulders.

“I don’t know, Horridus Morbus doesn’t have those kinds of effects on people. It kills them and breaks their bodies down, but it doesn’t...turn people into...whatever the hell he just said.” Kragen explains, it is always a chilling moment when Kragen Nox – of all people – does not have the answers anymore.

“See how old that dude is? Probably hallucinated it.” Kassius shrugs off, simply trying to ease the fires of panic.

They follow the Pipeline further...

Then they find themselves at a split section. One is the Pipeline, and the other is the trail of footprints from the old man that lead into the sewers. Both of them are likely possibilities. “Great...follow the Pipeline or follow the crazy old man?” Ruby sighs.

“Leave the old dude, he’s probably going crazy. And like the Architect said, there’s no sign of Horridus Morbus in the air.” Kassius states.

“Anymore.” The Architect adds.

“What?” Kassius asks.

“There isn’t any Horridus Morbus in the air – _anymore_. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t at some point.” The Architect corrects, which sends a chill down Blake’s spine.

“We need to make a decision, the old guy could know what happened here.” Blake states.

“Then we split up.” Kragen says.

“What?” Qrow questions.

“It is our best option, I will take Gray, Vos, Serena, Ruby and Oscar with me along with a couple of my Silver Eyed Knights. The rest of you will go into the Sewers.” Kragen says, but Qrow does not seem to agree.

“No way, I am not taking that risk. Not with my semblance.” He states.

“The risk is already on the island, Qrow. We will be fine, and we can handle ourselves if we run into trouble. Find the old guy, we will follow the pipeline and hopefully find Yenna.” Kragen explains, and they all look at each other. Ruby looks at Blake and they both nod, walking over to each other and sharing a warm hug.

“Be safe.” Ruby requests.

“You too.”

 

**Penny**

The android is perched up on a desk in Glynda’s office, she is not as good at repairing cybernetics as the Architect is, but she knows how to sort out a few wiring issues. She has the plate on her arm open and uses a binding tool to connect a few remaining loose wires. “Just about...done.” Glynda assures, stepping back and letting the young girl flex her metal fingers with ease.

“Thank you, Professor.” Penny sweetly thanks with a bright smile on her face.

“You are welcome, Penny.” Glynda replies as she puts the device back down on the table. She sighs as she sits down, pressing her palm to her head as she sits there. Glynda must be exhausted, she has been unable to get any sleep for the past few weeks due to everything that has happened in recent days.

Horridus Morbus being unleashed.

The Invasion of Atlas

The Death of Sienna Khan

The Silencing of Menagerie

Things are all going wrong and Ozpin is up there in a comatose state. Penny tilts her head curiously when noticing that Glynda is stressed out. “Professor? Are you okay?” Penny inquires curiously.

“Hm?” Glynda asks, lifting her tired head up, then she shakes it off. “Yes, yes of course...just a little tired.” She sighs.

“Do you think they will find something there in Menagerie?” Penny asks her.

“I hope so, my dear...I hope so...”

Although...

Whilst they have their little talk...

They are unaware of a coming crisis happening just a corridor away from them in the Amphitheatre. Yang is asleep, Weiss is asleep...everyone is asleep right now with the Fractured Moon watching them all from above. Yang yawns as she is woken up by the sounds of somebody writhing around nearby, so she sits up and when bleary eyed...

She finds the source of the shuffling.

It is Brawnz...

He has gone into a violent seizure on his bed.

 

**Qrow**

They all walk through the stench filled sewers of Menagerie, weapons engaged as they search for the old man that ran off. His trail leading into here of all places. “Hello? We won’t hurt you!” Blake calls out, Cinder keeps her eye focused as she steps through the place, stepping in all manners of faeces on the floor. The stench is so thick that there is actually a fog that they ingest.

“Goddamn...the stench is horrific.” Pyrrha complains.

“I’ve smelled worse.” Cinder assures.

“Oh yeah?” Qrow gags.

“Ever wondered what the black stuff that Grimm are made from smells like?” Cinder asks.

“Please don’t describe.” Kassius requests, barely keeping in the urge to gag himself.

“Well...it’s is much worse than this, I can promise you that.” Cinder says, but when they turn the corner, Winter stops and she gasps with widened eyes.

“What is it?” Oobleck asks her as he walks round, then his eyes widen as well when he sees it.

The old man...

He has been killed...

Ripped open by something, his ribs have been broken open by something and his flesh has been gnawed off by something in these sewers. His head has also been smashed in by something as well. “Oh gods...” Port gasps when he sees the body.

“It’s that old man.” Pyrrha says with horror.

“No fever has done this.” Qrow states, walking onwards, until Cinder snaps her fingers to get their attention. They all look at her...

Then they listen.

They can hear a woman crying.

 

**Yang**

Her eyes widen and she sits upright. “Brawnz?” Yang whimpers with fear, and May sits up as well, seeing him seizing on the bed aggressively, body bouncing and writhing on the bed over and over again.

“Oh my gods...Brawnz!” May cries out as she vaults from her bed and goes to him, holding him by the shoulders as she looks at his face. His ears are bleeding, eyes, nose, mouth...something is ravaging his body and he is choking on his own blood. He gasps for air as he writhes, as if his mind is being eaten away by something. She lifts him up but he continues to writhe, his eyes twitching aggressively as well.

Neptune looks across and he stands up, seeing what is happening with his own eyes. “He is having a seizure...” Neptune says.

“What do we do?” May screams.

“Nothing! The body needs to go through it!” Neptune responds, speaking with truth as well. May stares at her teammate and she walks over to him, gently caressing her arms around him.

“It’s okay...” She whispers...

Until something suddenly bursts from the back of his neck and stabs into May’s fingers, making her scream with agony as blood squirts from the puncturing mark. Yang’s eyes widen with horror, seeing the claret that leaks down from the holes in the back of his neck where they came from. His head is shaking, whole body is just jolting and writhing around constantly.

“What the hell was that?” May screams out.

 

**Qrow**

They follow the faint whimpers that they can hear in the distance, moving further and further into the sewers where this young woman’s cries can be heard. “Hello?” Blake softly speaks, then they turn the corner and see a young woman hunched over facing the corner of the wall, not facing them.

Her clothes are torn up and she is in the shadows, unable to see her. Qrow looks at Winter and they are both worried, so they take caution. “Ma’am?” Qrow softly says as he walks over to the Bunny Faunus whose ears are twitching slightly. There is the sound of her vomiting as well as she stands there, and her laboured breaths as well. “Are you okay? You shouldn’t be down here...” He says as he reaches out for her.

Without warning she spins round and they all nearly have a heart attack as her glowing red eyes meet theirs.

“Horridus Morbus! It’s turned her into a Grimm!” Blake screams with the most fear that they have ever heard from her. The skin and flesh on the woman has peeled away revealing nothing but the black smoky hide that Grimm have, and her skull has become the armour with jagged sharp teeth. Burning red eyes glaring into theirs and a long pair of claws that protrude from her arm. She screeches demonically at them as black smoke trails from her skull like jaws.

 

**Yang**

Brawnz’s right arm suddenly splits open and gallons of blood erupt from the flesh and skin as a pair of huge bone like claws extend through his pinkie finger and ring finger, blood covering the huge extensions that are nearly a metre in length, growing so fast that his arm breaks and ruptures his shoulder. Blood splatters everywhere, and Yang lets out a scream of horror, they all do, which causes Penny and Glynda to turn their heads with fearful expressions.

The sudden growth in Brawnz’s body kills him instantly, his body falls from the bed and there is nothing more than the constant flat-lining drone from his heart monitor as his corpse crashes onto the floor, leaving them all trembling and May has his blood on her face from the explosive event of that claw emerging from his arm.

Blood pools out from his arm...

But now...

It is not over yet...

 

**Qrow**

The Faunus Grimm Monster screeches and sprints towards Qrow and Winter, leaping at them as it slashes her claw towards them with a demonic cry. “Just kill it!” Kassius yells, and Qrow slashes the sword across its chest, the impact launches the Grimm Faunus back and it crashes against the wall. But it gets back up and charges right back.

Winter slashes her sword across its arm and cuts it clean off, but it just keeps coming.

Winter and Qrow both yell as they swing their swords round, Qrow cuts the monsters legs off and then Winter drives her sword through its eye socket.

As soon as the blade punctures the skull, the Grimm Faunus silences and collapses to the ground...but it does not evaporate like every other Grimm, it just lays there.

 

**Yang**

Yang sits on the floor and May not far from her, then they see the unthinkable happen.

Whilst the heart monitor continues to show a flat line, they all notice Brawnz’s finger begin to twitch...and laboured breath emerges from his lungs. Then he begins to rise up to his feet slowly, his shadow cast upon them all, bringing horror into their minds. Blood drips from the bones that mutated from his right arm, the same one that he was looking at earlier. His bones create horrific crunching sounds as he moves, and his eyes are now glowing hot red like the Grimm do.

Yang’s eyes widen with fear, but not as much as May’s...

Brawnz’s eyes instantly focus onto May and he growls faintly, until a demonic bellow erupts from him as she tries to run away from him. He sprints after her and he hooks the claws onto her leg, tripping her over. He grabs her by the leg and begins to drag her back as she screeches in terror. “No!” She cries with horror as Brawnz grabs her and smashes her against the ground over and over again.

He takes his fist and begins to pound his fist against her skull over and over again, breaking her nose in the process. Brawnz then bites down onto her neck and drags her across the floor as she punches him in the head but it does nothing. “Stop! Help me!” May wails in agony as Brawnz keeps on beating her and beating her.

Until her voice chokes up as Brawnz’s teeth clamp down into her throat so hard that he rips her jugular out and blood sprays out like a fountain, silencing her. Blood covers the Grimm Brawnz, and he roars devilishly as he takes his huge claw and stabs it straight into her jaw with a horrid growl, ripping her bottom jaw clean off. Blood everywhere from the thunderous bang of her jaw bone snapping like glass.

Silence fills the room from the dread and terror of what has just transpired.

Brawnz pants like a dog above his kill, but then fear draws his eyes towards Yang as he stares at her, growling rabidly. He suddenly sprints towards her and she crawls back away from him, but he grabs her by the throat and drags her across the floor and slams her against the wall. Yang screams out in pain, swinging her fist at the monster that was once a friend, as he snaps his jaws at her over and over again, punching and stabbing at her head.

But Yang keeps moving her head out the way at the perfect times.

Blood from May’s throat splatters from his teeth and onto Yang’s face as she cries out, holding him back with her cybernetic arm.

All of a sudden three swords come flying in from out of nowhere, stabbing right into Brawnz’s body, through the temple of his skull, his right shoulder and his chest. The blades pin him to the wall and the creature’s growls slowly fade away as his glowing red eyes fade away.

Penny stands there with Glynda...

Both wide eyed...

Horridus Morbus is more terrifying than they had ever imagined.

It transforms Humans and Faunus into new Grimm Human Hybrids...

And it has already killed two people.

 

 


	48. Rats in a Trap

**Penny**

Blood has been smudged over the floor around where Penny has ripped the swords she launched into Brawnz’s head. She and Glynda both stand above the corpse of the young man who mutated into that feral monster, almost glowing metallic red blood everywhere at their feet. They both share the same look of horror on their faces for what they have just seen, the spines that protrude from his spine and the metre long claw arm that protrudes from where his fingers once were.

They are almost lost for words, as are the patients inside who witnessed the horrors first hand, Yang is completely frozen with fear. Back pressed to the wall, sat on the floor with her arms hugging her knees with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. They are all shaking with terror from what happened, not just because it was horrifying and the terrible fate that became of May...but the realisation.

They all carry that plague.

That will happen to all of them if they do not find a way to cure this thing.

Glynda crouches down beside the body of Brawnz to start her analysis of his wounds, and where the mutations began. The torn flesh and skin where his right arm mutated, it is horrific and almost putrid already. The muscle ripped open and already beginning to blacken, and the sight of the bones in his arm mutating in horrific ways is...startling. Especially for a Professor who has known how the Human and Faunus bodies work, but Horridus Morbus has taken all of those years of work and thrown it out the window.

Penny’s expression has not changed, still holding one of her blades in her hand, slightly shaking as she stands there. The door bursts open, and Ren and Nora stumble inside, their eyes widen when they see the corpses of Brawnz and May...or at least...what is left of them.  “What the hell happened?” Nora questions with consternation plaguing her vocal tones, looking at the Professor and the Android.

“I...I don’t know...” Penny stammers, but the Professor continues to examine the corpse of Brawnz, seeing the damage that has been done during that transformation.

“His shoulder blade ruptured in the mutation, chunks of bone sticking out from the skin...this is horrible.” Glynda shakily describes to herself as she looks over the arm that is covered with blood. She follows the mutation up and then sees the curved spines that look almost reptilian in nature that protrude through the flesh and skin on the back of his neck. The spines that suddenly grew outwards and stabbed May’s fingers, making her shriek.

Sticky blood covers the back of his neck where the skin has been broken open in places where these bony spines have grown from each vertebra. Almost like it developed inside his body, like some sort of foetus. Glynda turns the body of Brawnz over, to look at his face and she is shocked by what she sees. Still carrying chunks and shreds of flesh and skin, even bits of jugular hang from his teeth and blood staining his jaws.

The canines have extended and she can even see more razors pushing down his teeth in general, eventually the old ones would break away and the jaws would be replaced with those canines. But what is more horrifying is what has happened to his eyes, the irises and scleras, even the pupils have faded away into blackness, that would have a red glow like the Grimm otherwise. Glynda astutely identifies something else on his body that could be a sign of what happened to trigger this violent and sudden transformation.

Nora looks at Ren and they are both lost for answers, but when they see the fear in Glynda’s eyes they know that this is more serious than they could have possibly realised. “His veins...” Glynda stammers.

“What? What is it?” Nora asks with fear.

“They have turned black, completely discoloured, and they have all fed into his head.” Glynda explains, then she looks at Penny as a rather dark idea comes to her mind. But desperate times call for desperate measures at the end of the day. She reaches out to Penny, looking up at the nervous Android girl. “Penny, I need to borrow your sword.” Glynda requests.

“Huh?” Penny asks, still shaken from what she saw Brawnz trying to do to Yang.

“Please – just bare with me.” Glynda begs, so Penny sighs and hands her the blade she holds in her palms. “Thank you.” Glynda softly replies with a kind smile on her face, taking the blade and slowly aiming the very tip of the serrated blade towards one of these veins that she has pinpointed.

“What are you doing?” Ren asks.

“Confirming a suspicion.” Glynda answers, as she jabs the vein that she has chosen with the blade, puncturing the skin and inserting into the vein. Blood pours from the wound she has inflicted, but not red as you would normally expect. No this is jet black blood that leaks out, jet black that has some sort of thick smoky vapour trailing out from it.

The same type of black smoke that trails from the Grimm.

They all have the same reaction towards this discovery, mouths open with horror and eyes widen at the same time. The colour drains from their faces with realisation of what this means, and understanding why Brawnz suddenly attacked May in such a vicious way. “By the gods...” Nora gasps, losing her breath as she staggers backwards into Ren’s arms who is frozen in place.

Glynda slowly stands up and looks at Penny. “It’s...” Penny mutters.

“The same stuff that dropped from the Grimm Dragon at Beacon and the Volcanic Chain Isles.” Glynda states, all of them think back to the battle on that island since they all remembered seeing that huge Wyvern there that day. Glynda pushes her hands through her blonde hair as she stands there, and Nora deduces the fact as well as she looks at them.

“The Grimm are all made of that stuff, right?” Nora asks, and Glynda nods.

“So it would seem.” Glynda agrees, and then she looks at Yang and the others who cannot even look at the body of May that is just laying there. She sighs, turning to Nora and Ren who are here – she hates to ask them of this, but they need to help them calm down. “Nora, Ren – could you...” She stammers, unable to construct a full sentence at this point from what they have just discovered.

Without any argument, Nora and Ren nod. “You got it, Professor.” Nora promises, walking ahead as she deactivates Magnhild and holstering back onto her spinal magnetic plate on her outfit. Ren follows her, and they both look at May’s face and throat. Nora has to look away for a moment from disgust and disbelief of what has happened to her...

Her jaw has been completely slashed off, flesh and bone torn loose and her tongue hangs from her head with a thick pool of hot blood around her face and on the floor. The slashes cut deep into her face and her throat has been torn open from when Brawnz gnashed down onto her jugular and dragged her across the floor by her neck. They can still hear her wails and screeches of terror. “Nora...” Ren softly says to get her head back in the game, so she shakes it off and sighs, nodding as she walks over to the body on the floor.

They both crouch down and they pick her up, by the shoulders and by her legs as they carry her out of the Amphitheatre, leaving the puddles of blood on the floor and all the smudge marks too. Yang has blood covering her patient’s gown that she wears and across her face as well from when Brawnz started snapping her face over and over again. She could taste the disenchant tang of May’s blood combined with Brawnz’s blood from when he transformed in her mouth.

Glynda stands there, and Taiyang walks over to the Amphitheatre, hearing the screaming and his eyes widen when he sees what is left of May being carried off and set down on the floor outside. Ren sits down beside her, pressing his hands to his head as Nora places her hand on his shoulder affectionately. “Hey...” Nora gently whispers, taking his hand from his face to wipe May’s blood from his cheek that he accidentally smudged there.

Taiyang stares then he immediately rushes into the Amphitheatre, his thoughts immediately go to his daughter as he storms inside and looks around, and his fear is calmed when he sees her sat there in the corner. Seeing Weiss having to huddle up to Neptune and seeing Sun with his hand shaking erratically. Roy and Nolan both sat there tears in their eyes, even Roy heaves and throws up in the corner after seeing what happened to his best friends.

Then...

Taiyang sees the corpse of Brawnz by Penny and Glynda, and the savage mutations that he underwent that killed him, and the deep stab wounds that finished off the monster that he had become. And only one question comes from Taiyang’s mind, as he stares at the Professor. “What the hell happened?” Taiyang questions with a sharpened breath, wide eyed, but Glynda cannot find the answers.

“I...I’m still trying to figure that out myself...whatever it was...it was Horridus Morbus. I think it turns people into a Grimm Human Hybrid. Maybe even Faunus Hybrid as well.” Glynda softly says, trying to avoid putting the infected patients through any more torment than they have already had to endure. He immediately looks to his daughter and rushes to her side, crouching down beside her.

“Yang...baby, are you okay?” Taiyang asks her, but immediately realises that that was a really stupid question to ask her. After what she just saw and was nearly killed by, she would be shook up for a long time from that.

Despite everything they have experienced...

Even losing her arm...

Taiyang has never seen Yang like this, petrified in a state of shock that she seems to almost be as still as a statue from. “Yang?” He softly whispers, putting his arm round her and brings her close, holding his baby girl close, caressing her long blonde hair.

Then she finally speaks...

“I...I couldn’t move...” Yang stammers with tears in her eyes, remembering how she and the others were still a statue when Brawnz lunged for May, sensing her fear. As he ripped her throat out, ripped her jaw from her skull with one swing...none of them moved because of their fear. Then Taiyang realises what her eyes have been staring at the whole time, he follows the sight of her lilac coloured eyes...

Towards the crate not far from them.

Sat atop it are Ember Celica, Myrtenaster, Ruyi Jingu Bang and Trishula all sat or leant against it in their individual forms. “She was getting ripped apart right next to me...and I didn’t move...because I was so scared...” Yang begins to break down, crying into her father’s chest, and he holds her close, kissing the top of her head and he looks at Glynda and Penny.

“This isn’t good.” He mouths to her as he holds his daughter close to him, and Glynda sighs, having to brush her blonde hair from her eyes.

“What do we do now, Professor?” Penny inquires with her soft spoken yet sweet as candy voice.

Glynda sighs, exhausted as all she wants is a good night’s sleep without anymore horrors to wake her up or keep her from sleeping. “I don’t know, Penny – we can only hope that Qrow and the others can find Merlot’s lab in Menagerie and pray that he has a cure there.” Glynda states, and she softly whispers to Penny as she looks at them.

“Because otherwise that fate will befall everyone else infected with that plague....”

 

**Ruby**

Her large silver eyes stare out at the horizon of Kuo Kuana, feeling the rumbling of a coming storm headed directly for the town. A thick wall of sand that avalanched across the desert towards them, like the front of a massive army of soldiers preparing to completely sack the town with swords and spears. But in fact it is nothing more than a giant sandstorm headed their way, not powerful enough to do any damage but enough to worsen the signals here and ruin visibility.

And with the most recent discovery of Horridus Morbus’ true nature, that would make things ten times worse with the possibilities of other plagued victims. The Architect and Oscar stand next to Ruby, staring out at the storm, and Ruby gently holds her boyfriends hand as they look at it. “That’s a big sandstorm.” The Architect deduces.

“How long till it hits?” Ruby asks him.

“Half an hour, tops. After that we’ll have trouble trying to stay in close contact with the others.” The Architect explains. Ruby sighs, closing her large silver eyes as she stands there, looking down at her hand in the grasp of her beloved’s hand. Then she looks at him, since there is a reason that they walked up this high hill to look at the lay of the land. They are searching for any signs of Merlot’s facility, because all they know is that there is a large radar dish on the very top of it.

“Do you see his outpost?” Oscar asks him, and the Architect looks at him, his optics clearly zooming out. He points across the town towards the mountain – towards the desert and the huge sandstorm headed right towards them.

“Just the very tippy top.” The Architect states, they both follow the line from his finger to see the arch of the radar dish and the slight point of the centre of the antenna.

“Well, at least we know that Merlot has something here.” Oscar sighs as he stands there.

The three of them slide down from the hill towards the others; Kragen is stood there with his hands resting upon the top of his staff, looking around. Gray and Vos stand on guard with their weapons at the ready, watching the alleys with silver eyes glimmering to attack anything lurking in the shadows. “Anything?” Gray asks the trio, and the Architect begins his report of his findings.

“Our theory was right; the pipeline seems to be heading towards a Satellite Station behind that mountain on the northern side of Kuo Kuana. That’s our best bet of being Merlot’s facility.” The Architect explains.

“How do we know that?” Serena inquires.

“Using Satellite Stations is an age old tactic for secrets to spread, since it has its own connection that does not require the Cross Continental Transit System.” The Architect answers, clearly very knowledgeable of the whole system and how it all works. Then again, he is an Artificial Intelligence, an old one as well; he would know how to use stuff like that and how it all works.

“So Merlot can transmit his reports to Jacques and Ortega without it being heard by Atlas and other C.C.T Monitors?” Gray presumes, turning to look at the metal man.

“Exactly, and it has been disguised as a backup communications facility so then the Faunus do not start getting suspicious. Not that it seems to matter anymore, they all seem to have vanished, and that old man has to know something.” The Architect explains, lacking the latest discovery of what happened to the old man, and what has happened to those who have been infected with Horridus Morbus.

Kragen spins his staff through his fingers and he nods to the other Silver Eyed Warriors that have joined them on the expedition through Kuo Kuana. “Well, let’s keep following this pipeline. Hopefully we can find Yenna along the way.” Kragen mutters, Ruby has never seen the old man this motivated before. He has always had a way of motivating himself in a way that is not overly broadcasted to the others, but she has never seen him with his mind completely focused on something that is for his own happiness.

And even still – that goal still helps every single one of them.

_I hope we find Yenna; I just want him to have some happiness for his own sake._

_He’s earned that much after everything he has done and been through._

Ruby walks alongside Gray, whom towers above her with a huge muscular stature yet he is a very warm hearted individual. Clearly a people-person with a soul that regards the safety of others indefinitely. “Hey Gray...” Ruby begins, getting the older man’s attention; he looks down at the shorter and younger woman by his side.

“Yeah?” Gray responds, looking down to her curiously to see what it is that rattles around in her mind.

“I was wondering – why did you want to be a Silver Eyed Warrior?” Ruby inquires – there is still so much mystery that surrounds the Silver Eyes and the Warriors that use them, and it could not be as simple as Kragen just finding him. Everyone has their reasons for why they want to become Huntsmen or Warriors, and every single one can be a special story of its own.

“Other than wanting to help people?” Gray presumes, since that is usually the obvious reason that people decide to become heroes. Although, as Raven and Qrow explained to Weiss and Yang, not everyone becomes Huntsmen to become Heroes – some do it for power, or for wealth, or to survive. Ruby just looks at him, and that is all the answer that he needed from that question, so he gives her the answer that she seeks. “Well for me...I was just a Hunter. Looked for deer and such to feed my village, it was all going fine for twenty years...” Gray explains, when he grasps onto his necklace that is wrapped around his neck.

It has a photograph of a young man on it with short brown hair and a kind smile, he sighs as he walks alongside her. “Who’s that?” Ruby asks him, and he looks at her.

“His name was Aaron; he was my – well – boyfriend.” He reveals, and that really does surprise her, considering the fact he always acted in such a flirty way towards Serena all the time, especially when he _kidnapped_ her so then she would meet with Kragen and Ruby

“Boyfriend?” Ruby asks him.

“Yeah, a lot of people ridiculed us for it – those who did happened to get a nosebleed shortly afterwards.” Gray says to her with a smile on his face, making Ruby laugh.

“But I always thought you were into girls, from how you spoke to Serena.” Ruby presumes with confusion.

“I like to tease but that’s all games honestly.” He admits, but then one word comes to her mind that brings concern to her mind, she turns and looks at him.

“Wait – _was_?” Ruby asks with nervousness in her voice, and Gray looks at the photograph of him with a sigh. He closes his eyes with sadness striking his heart, looking down at her.

“One day I went out hunting to find some food since the town was running low...when I came back, the town was destroyed. I found his body hours later in what remained of our home. Bandits robbed everything we had, and the Grimm came soon after to finish them all off.” Gray sighs, clutching the necklace close, and Ruby closes her eyes to grieve for the poor man.

“I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have asked.” Ruby apologises and Gray chuckles.

“Oh please – ancient history now. But to answer your question, I never wanted anybody to fail like I did again, and I when I learned of my gift with my eyes...I followed the path into the mountains. I was damn near dead when I got there, starved and beaten from the perilous climb – but I had nothing left to lose.” Gray explains as they walk across the street, following that Pipeline constantly. “The doors finally opened, and the Architect saw me...basically carried me in, fed me and hydrated me. Put me in a bed and waited for me to wake up.”

Ruby looks over at the Architect, seeing him walking along, still amazes her from how alive he is despite his appearance. He looks like some sort of Atlesian MECH in a way, but clearly more advanced, an Arkhoni Robotic body used to keep him moving and essentially alive. Ironic how the two Synthetic individuals that she knows are more humane than most people she has actually met along the way. And he is definitely one of them, a robot with a heart of gold and a personality of a musician or a comedian. But then he can go straight from light hearted and funny to serious from the snap of one’s fingers.

Ruby looks back to Gray. “Is that when you first met Kragen?” She presumes.

“You guessed it, he visited me and spoke. Then we started to training, I then met Vos, and trained there for many years. I don’t regret one second of it either – my only regret is that I couldn’t bring Aaron with me.” He sighs, and Ruby pats his shoulder with a kind smile.

“It’s okay – because he is with you.” She assures. Ruby then places her hand on his heart with her smile beaming up to him. “In here.”

“You really think so?” He asks her.

“I know so – the people we love are always with us when we die. I firmly believe that.” Ruby states, then her eyes turn to Vos who is more metal than man at this point. All limbs are cybernetic and his eye is metal as well. “What about Vos? How did he get here? How did he lose his arms and legs?” Ruby inquires.

“Vos was blown up by a rocket propelled grenade whilst on patrol, he was part of the Valerian Military Police for a long time, but during the Battle of Beacon, a White Fang fired the missile at him.” Gray explains, Ruby looks at him and now his cold personality seems to make much more sense. He is so cold but that is because he was there – he saw how many people died that way, and nearly died himself. That would change anybody; it has changed all of them in different ways after all.

“Then...how did he get here?” Ruby asks him.

“I took a search party to find any survivors, just as we did to help the White Fang when the Knights of Grimm started attacking again. I found him on the ground, half dead, so I used my silver eyes to cauterize the wound and I carried him back home in my Basilisk form. We had some spare metal limbs back home, we had to make do. That is why they don’t all match.” He explains, pointing at Vos’ many replaced limbs and it is true, one of them in fact appears to be the arm of an Atlesian Knight MECH that has been modified to act as a prosthetic.

“You’ve all suffered a lot.” Ruby says.

“As have you.” Gray replies, looking at her eye patch and the faint burn scars on her cheek from when their house exploded five years ago.

Gray walks ahead of her with his swords in his hands, looking around, and she looks at Oscar, seeing him looking at her with a kind smile. “How are you feeling?” Oscar asks her, and then Ruby feels the cold hands on her shoulders as she walks.

“Yeah, Red? How are you feeling? Don’t you just want to run off and kick some ass? Why don’t you let me take charge?” Roman asks her, appearing again over her shoulder with a menacing smirk, but Ruby pushes the hallucination away before he can talk any further.

“Yeah...I’m okay...I just hope the others are as well.” She sighs.

 

**Qrow**

“Run! Get out of the sewers!” Qrow bellows, as the screeches of the Horridus Morbus Claimed Faunus echo down the tunnels that stretch out before them. Like an earthquake and a flood combined, they can hear the terrifying rumbles of a horde charging towards them, the sewage water splashing under their feet. The glowing red hue of their eyes can be seen behind them as they flee. One of the Silver Eyed Warriors behind them runs as fast as he can, struggling to move in the thick sludge that they are stuck inside of.

Suddenly one of the creatures leaps out from the shadows and tackles him, so hard that his head smashes against the algae covered stone, cracking the forehead open. They can hear his bone chilling screeches of agony as the swarm claim him. “Help me! No! Please! Ahh!” The man cries out as the shrieks of the damned drown his screeches out. The monsters pile over him, biting and ripping chunks of flesh from his body, carving him like a hunk of meet with their claws. The water fills with red blood, following them like another monster of its own.

Blake looks back with terror, seeing the Infected Faunus behind them as they pursue them in the darkness, like glowing red grins on their face and trailing black smoke from some of their bodies. “Keep moving! We need to get outside!” Qrow yells, correctly as well because these sewage tunnels are far too contained for them to defend themselves in here. They will all just get ripped apart down here.

Too many for even their auras to protect them, somehow they have all been hiding down here. All with skin peeled away and bone protruding in different places. Some are worse than others, red markings of the Grimm across their grotesque claws that have extended from their forearms. Screeching howls that almost resemble their voices, crying out for help in the demonic tones, almost like they are mimicking. Just as that one was earlier when they first saw it.

They can mimic.

One of the Silver Eyed Warriors turns round and he slashes his axe across the head of one of the creatures that leaps at him, killing it instantly. That one erupts into a cloud of black smoke, unlike the woman earlier and Brawnz, clearly the final stage is when they are completely converted, and then they turn to vapour just like other Grimm. The Silver Eyed Warrior turns round to sprint after the others, until he feels a claw stab into the back of his leg, making him scream in agony as blood sprays out, and the Morbus Walker drags him into the swarm. “Help!” The man wails until his begs are replaced with agonised screams, multiple thralls leap atop him, stabbing and slashing, gnawing chunks of flesh from his body.

Blake sprints up the steps alongside Port and Oobleck, none of them stop or look back like some of the unlucky Silver Eyed Warriors did. Qrow and Winter both throw their bodies against the door ahead, smashing it open and they are met with the glorious sunshine that grazes their skin. They all run outside, and they turn round, seeing the horde erupting from the open doors, screeching and charging towards them still. Blake yells, swinging Gambol Shroud upwards, slashing up its ribcage and causing it to let out a deafening screech. It staggers back but does not back down or even collapse, it just keeps coming.

Blake rolls out of the way, using a shadow to trick it as the Thrall swings the claw at her, snarling through torn lips at her. It lunges towards her again; their attack style is completely unpredictable unlike most Grimm, because they are pure aggression. They throw their bodies at them like they are bowling balls and they move so quickly and so erratically. The Thrall stabs at Blake, and she kicks the metre long claws aside to stab her Katana up its jaw, then she sees the Thrall erupt into black smoke before her very eyes.

She steps back, seeing that when Kassius fires Vulcan Nox at its chest over and over, it has no effect. Just seems to piss it off more and more as it attacks, black inky smoke trails from each bullet wound. Right up until Kassius drives Lash Equinox into the side of its head. “That’s it...guys! Aim for their heads! It’s their weak spot!” Blake calls out, having to use her semblance again to dodge the Thrall that attacks her from the darkness. They just keep coming, corrupted Faunus after corrupted Faunus. Every single one has been completely converted by the plague, the whole town is completely infected.

Cinder hops back and she knees one of the in the chest to make it stagger backwards, then she swings round and performs a perfect karate kick to the side of its head, knocking it to the ground. Her eyes ignite and she forms a perfect obsidian blade from her dust and fire powers, driving the sword directly through the jaws and cutting the head in half. She immediately is forced to cross both blades over each other to catch the claw of another that goes to stab her, scraping across her aura in the process. Cinder roars, slicing the claws off from the arm and immediately jumping in the air, spinning round to bring the momentum up and stabbing it down the dome of the skull. She pins its head down into the ground with all her might, teeth gritted.

Cinder’s eyes focus on Jaune and Pyrrha, the red haired invincible girl is handling herself extremely well. She throws Akuou towards one of the Thralls that charges towards her, howling constantly with blood pouring from his teeth. Clearly this one has not been completely converted yet, still with human skin and flesh, but most of it has blackened and rotten away. The Thrall staggers back, giving Pyrrha the time to spin round and stab the Thrall behind her through the eye, swinging round and striking another across the face with her shield, extending Milo into Spear Form so then it kills that one too without needing to move it. The one that she threw Akuou into rushes towards her yet again, but she performs an incredible back flip which knocks its bottom jaw clean off, then she lands and slashes its head from its shoulders.

Jaune charges towards more of them, three individual Thralls holler as they dart towards him, and he smashes his shield into all three, having to hold his ground against them. They push and stab at the shield over and over again; one of them even bites its jaws down onto the metal shield, scraping some of the paint off from the belligerent attack. He quickly pulls his shield back, kicking the middle one in the chest, and then raising the shield up to stop the one on his right to attack him. Then he drives the blade of Crocea Mors straight through its neck and then twists in one fast movement, cutting its head clean off. The Right Thrall hops back, keeping its torso close to the ground as it surrounds him with the second Thrall, snarling through cracked teeth. The Right attacks first then the left attacks soon after, both jumping at him.

Jaune bellows with rage, and something happens...

Something he does not even notice happening with Crocea Mors and his eyes, the blue irises begin to glow faintly and the many faint hieroglyphics on the blade of Crocea Mors shimmer too as he slashes both their heads from their shoulders, turning them all into black smoke. He swings his arm round, and he looks at Pyrrha, seeing her jumping over the head of one of these monsters, hooking Milo under its chin and throwing it over her head towards another one, she looks at him and nods.

They both stand back to back, fighting together once more.

The crow flutters towards five of them and it transforms as Qrow leaps at them. In a single attack he manages to cut two of their heads from their shoulders, rolling past a bunch of them and he immediately spins round and blocks the attack from one of them. It jumps at him, biting hard onto his blade, so hard its teeth actually shatter upon impact. He pushes the blade, grinding it across the jaws of the monster as he kicks its leg down hard and brings it to its knees. He thrashes the sword round with all his strength, slicing the Thrall’s head in half, black vapour erupts from the impact and he flicks the blade downwards so then the barrel of his shotgun is aimed towards one other that charges at him, firing and the shrapnel shatters its skull like glass. Fragments of bone from the Mid-Corrupted Faunus erupts outwards, claret sprays across the sky and shards of goat horns are thrown too.

A Thrall unexpectedly leaps onto Qrow’s back, biting at his aura over and over again, trying to get to his flesh, but the Huntsman grasps the infected young woman by her long black hair, throwing her down into the ground. He does not even look at her, he just stamps onto her skull with all his might, not changing a shade as he does it. Glyphs form above him as Winter darts around, zooming towards three of them as she creates a kebab of Thralls with the blade of her sword, stabbing three of them at once, having to push them off her blade as she looks back at the entrance to the sewers.

Blake stands there, looking at the darkness as more of them continue to emerge, she stands there with Oobleck and Port, the two Headmasters aim their weapons at the darkness, and Port fires a bunch of shrapnel into the head of a monster that emerges, killing it instantly. But another literally leaps from the darkness, smacking into Blake with force, nearly knocking her unconscious from how hard it hit her. More emerge and they attack the two Huntsmen, but they can handle them. Oobleck ignites the tip of his staff, smashing it into the ribs of the Thrall, sending it flying into the sky and Port manages to split the skull of another with his blunderbuss.

But the one that attacked Blake is still on her stabbing down towards her neck with the claws, but the two claws stab into the ground, choking her in its pinching grasp where each prong has a gap between. The Thralls roars as it picks the beautiful young Faunus up off the ground and slams her against a wall with force, the claw arm puncturing the wood. Blake pushes her hand against the face of the Grimm Faunus as it snaps its bony jaws at her over and over again, whilst gasping for air. She can see the rage in its face as the Thrall forces its head against her hand, growling more and more.

The Thrall lets out a terrifying roar as it pushes hard against her hand, and she can see right down its throat as the red glow emanates brighter and brighter as it goes to rip her throat out. Until suddenly a burning hand grabs the Thrall by the throat and an obsidian blade cuts the arm clean off in one swing, freeing Blake from its grasp, and she is able to catch her breath again. Her amber eyes focus on Cinder as she grabs the Thrall by the throat and lifts it off the ground, slamming it into the ground with the power of the Fall Maiden flowing through her body.

The impact splatters the skull into the ground, and the body deactivates, not turning to smoke. Cinder turns to help Blake until yet another one of the Thralls throws its body into her side, stabbing at her over and over again. She kicks it in the chest but it crawls towards her again, until Lash Equinox erupts from the open jaws of the Thrall, and they see Kassius swing the Thrall round and he throws it into the body of another. He slashes the swords and fires Vulcan Nox over and over as he jumps and spins through the air like a corkscrew, sending bullets shooting off in all directions. That attack finishes off multiple Thralls at once, then he takes Lash Equinox and he slams both their hilts together, and the metal shifts.

The plates connect together and the blades extend, into his double ended Spear that he used on the Deathstalker five years ago, he spins it through his fingers and stabs another Thrall in the head, stood between Cinder and Blake, helping them both back up after he splits the swords apart, looking around. “We need to get out of the open, listen.” Kassius says, and they focus their senses.

There is the distant howl of more from across Kuo Kuana, they are not all just in the Sewers across the town, and they are everywhere. It really does look like that every single Faunus in the town has been corrupted into these Grimm Thralls.

And they’re coming...

They heard the combat, and now they are gonna attack. They can see some of their shadows in the streets as they rush towards them, the sand in the roads kick up from their constant footsteps getting nearer and nearer. And worse, that Sandstorm is getting much, much closer.

In fact...

It is about to hit the town in a few minutes.

It has arrived here faster than they thought, and Qrow knows why...his bad luck has already gotten three poor individuals killed – the old man and those two Silver Eyed Warriors and nearly got both Blake and Cinder killed. Now the storm is about to make the whole situation worse. “You’ve gotta be kidding me...I sandstorm as well? This is so not cool!” Kassius yells with anger, Blake’s eyes turn to her estate which is the safest place to hide from the storm, and hopefully from the Thralls.

“Guys!” Blake calls, pointing at the Belladonna Estate. “It’s our best bet of surviving this!” Blake tells them, and they all agree. They have not got the time for a debate, so they all follow her towards the house. They can hear the horde behind them, and Jaune looks back, his eyes widen as he sees their many silhouettes on the horizon behind them, some sprinting across rooftops to get to them. One of them even throws its body through a door to try and kill them, just missing as the door comes flying from its hinges and the Thrall rolls across the sand.

Port sprints past it and slashes the axe head of his Blunderbuss across its face, killing it instantly. Blake runs to the doors and she kicks them open, holding them open so then everyone can get inside. And with the horde on their heels, they need to be quick, and once they are all in. Kassius and Qrow help her slam the doors shut as quickly as they can. The two strongest guys there hold their arms against the doors as the Thralls smash against them over and over again. Their screeches and grunts reverberate against the door, pounding constantly like savage animals. “Get something to block this damned door!” Qrow yells as he puts his back and arms into it as they stab the door with their claws, just missing him.

Port and Oobleck both find a large cabinet and they drag it over, using it to block the doors with it, Qrow and Kassius get out the way just in time as one of the Thralls stabs where Qrow was stood. They slam the cabinet against it and it stays there, then Cinder thinks ahead and she picks up a table, resting it against the windows. “We need to block off the windows as well.” Cinder advises, so Pyrrha and Jaune do the same with Winter using her glyphs to lock the other doors.

The house is huge after all.

As they all start securing the house, they hear the Thralls suddenly go silent, and that does understandably scare them. They did not even realise that they have all ran off now, left the area for some reason.

A glass can be heard shattering inside the house, and it gets their attention. It was not a window; it sounded more like a vase. “Did you hear that?” Jaune asks her, and Blake nods as she stands there. It is uncomfortable for her to stand here in her home, but she keeps moving, they have worse matters to worry about than just bad memories.

“You think it’s another one of those things?” Pyrrha inquires; Qrow walks with them as well, whilst the others continue to secure the house.

“I don’t think so...it would have attacked by now.” Blake presumes, though they have no idea. That woman that they saw corrupted in the sewers managed to lure them closer by acting like she was crying and mimicking the sound of her sorrow. These things are smarter than they thought, and that is more terrifying than anything.

They enter the large hall of the manner, looking around, and that is when they see a terminal, with a familiar voice speaking on it. “...Horridus Morbus...” Yenna’s voice speaks, which gets their attention towards the terminal that they approach. Blake and Pyrrha look at each other as they stand there, and Qrow has his sword still in his hand, looking around. Blake plays the message to hear what Yenna has left.

“It’s the Spring Maiden again...she was here a well.” Blake says as she looks at terminal.

“She keeps leaving messages...” Qrow mutters, then the terminal footage plays.

“The Horridus Morbus Plague has evolved from what it was back in Arkhonex, it now mutates Humans and Faunus into Grimm Hybrids. This is undoubtedly the reason why Doctor Merlot is here, it is possible he unleashed it here weeks ago in order to test it.” Yenna explains, and then they see the black haired woman this time, her violet eyes staring at the camera she has placed. Then Blake can actually see it, it is still recording live atop the terminal. “I’m heading towards the Radar Station behind the main mountain on the northern side of Kuo Kuana. I’m hoping I can find some more answers there.” Yenna concludes, but the video does not end there.

She must have some sort of Virtual Intelligence that shows the live feed only when a person enters the room. Because then they see someone very familiar walking inside, with his red sword in his hand and a cybernetic arm replacing where it was not before. “Adam...” Blake gasps with fear, realising he must have been here hours ago.

Adam stands there and turns to Mazen who is here as well, along with Fennec and Corsac Albain and a few other White Fang. But there is something more sinister, some of these White Fang are wearing outfits very different, black and gold mostly and one Faunus has folded away Bat Wings with slicked back brown hair. “Our Elite Operatives have reported that the Spring Maiden is here. Do we pursue?” Adam asks the new High Leader.

“No, she is of no interest to us. We need to stay focused on Merlot’s Lab; we need to get as much tech as we can from it.” Mazen answers.

“Very good, High Leader Ursus.” Corsac agrees, and then the feed ends there.

“Crap...the White Fang are here as well? This is just getting more complicated by the minute.” Qrow sighs.

“High Leader? I thought Adam would have been the next High Leader.” Jaune states, rather understandably as well.

“Well – looks like Mazen is in charge now. That is not gonna be good, especially for Humanity.” Blake states, given his immense hatred for humans.

“If the Spring Maiden is headed there...” Pyrrha says.

“Then hopefully we can find her there.” Qrow says.

“And the White Fang.” Jaune adds, but Blake rewinds the footage back to where Adam and the White Fang were. She waits until that Bat Faunus is in the frame, then her eyes widen with fear.

“What’s wrong?” Pyrrha asks.

“That’s impossible...” She gasps.

“What is it?” Jaune inquires.

“That’s Yuma Vespertilio...I thought he was dead.” Blake says with a shaky voice.

“Who is he?” Qrow asks her.

“You’ve heard of the White Fang Elite Forces, right?” Blake asks the Huntsman, and he nods his head.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of them. But they were wiped out weren’t they?” Qrow presumes.

“Well that’s what I thought, and he was one of them. How can he be there?” She stammers.

“Maybe the sources were wrong.” Pyrrha suggests.

“Well, no matter what the sources say. He’s stood right there, and I think you’re right. He’s wearing their gear and everything.” Qrow agrees as he stares at the image that has been paused.

“How do you know him?” Jaune asks.

“He’s a vicious psycho; my dad told me stories of when he fought with him. The guy’s insane.” Blake stammers as she stares at him. Then they hear a groaning down the hallway, then they see a young man leant against the wall with a lot of blood leaking from a stab wound from a Thrall. He is alive, and appears to be wearing White Fang armour. Something went down here; they draw their weapons and cautiously approach him.

The White Fang stares at Qrow and the others and coughs in pain. “I...I didn’t think I’d see another breathing soul – even if you are a human.” He wheezes with pain, clearly he is not going to attack them. Qrow kneels down beside him and he looks at his wound.

“Where’s the rest of your unit?” Qrow asks him and the soldier coughs with a wheezy voice.

“We got split...I don’t know if Adam and the others...it sounded bad on the comms...” The soldier rasply answers, having to cough up more blood from his ruptured organs.

“Alright son, stay put. We’ll see if we can fix you up.” Qrow assures, Blake walks around, when suddenly a much Younger Faunus White Fang soldier swings an electrified baton at Blake, but she uses her semblance to dodge it. She catches her forearm and holds her there, pulling her from the shadows.

“Got another one over here.” Blake tells them, and the young woman keeps punching Blake in her shoulder and chest, trying to free herself from her grasp. Mazen must be really messed up to use someone as young as her in the military.

“Get off me! Traitor! Monster! Murderer!” The girl screams with anger, clearly indoctrinated by the footage of Umbra disguised as Blake murdering Sienna. Clearly it did the trick and has torn the Faunus apart. Blake blocks the stabbing words from hurting her emotions, and she just tries to get through to her.

“It’s okay! I’m not gonna hurt you.” Blake assures but that does not calm her down, and Qrow looks around, worried that her screaming could lure the Thralls back to their location.

“Blake.” Qrow begins, but Blake stops him.

“I can handle this.” Blake assures, holding her by her shoulders, having to kneel down to look her in the eyes. “Stay still, and I will let you go.” Blake promises with a gentle expression.

“They’re here...”

Her words terrify Blake but it gets much worse.

Especially when Fury suddenly crashes down through the roof and lands right next to her, causing her to turn and eyes widen. Fury roars as he swings his burning axe straight at her but she ducks down, only narrowly dodging it, using her shadow she gets out the way so then the little girl can get to safety. Loss and Fear suddenly drop down from the burning hole as well, and Fury roars at them, sprinting directly towards Pyrrha. “What’s happening?” Kassius calls.

“It’s the Knights of Grimm!” Qrow roars, and Fury swings both axes straight at Pyrrha, but Jaune grabs her and throws both him and her onto the ground out of the way. The axes smash the terminal that Yenna’s message was on into a thousand pieces. Electricity sparks up from the terminal’s remains and Fear sprints straight towards Qrow and kicks him into the wall, rushing right towards that injured White Fang on the ground.

Jaune watches as Loss just walks past them, not wanting to harm them but the Curse is forcing her to do so. Then he turns and sees Fury storming towards him with gritted jagged molten teeth, snarling as his burning hand grabs him by the collar, lifting him off the floor slightly. But Jaune punches Fury across the face hard and he snarls, letting out a demonic roar into his face, the heat brushes across Jaune’s face from the deep molten breath he carries.

Blake from out of nowhere slashes Gambol Shroud’s blade and sheathe across Fury’s face, cutting deep and causing embers with smoke to bleed out from the impact. Fury rolls off Jaune and stands back up, holding both axes and bellowing at Blake as she fires her Handgun repeatedly at him, until one bullet scrapes his eye and makes him roll back again. Qrow walks with Blake and he pushes Crocea Mors back to Jaune and he picks them up.

Everyone else runs into the room, weapons at the ready and they all stare at the Knights of Grimm ahead of them. Loss has her Bow and Arrow aimed at them, and Winter stares at her ancestor, and Cinder shares her gaze with Blake on Fury, both have a rivalry with him for different reasons. Fear stands there with a menacing smirk, holding the White Fang soldier like a meat shield. The young girl White Fang soldier begins to screech with terror as Fear’s golden eyes glow and he grins, pulling the White Fang soldier round the corner. “What do we do?” Kassius asks.

“We need to go after them, come on.” Qrow orders, taking the first step towards the doorway that they entered. A much larger section of the building with the lights out and curtains completely boarded up. Blake looks at the little girl as they walk towards the large hall.

“Stay under the stairs and don’t come out until we come back.” She orders as they all walk inside. Jaune looks at Port and he nods, grabbing the sliding door and he pulls it shut.

Now...

They are in a large pitch black room.

With Fury, Fear and Loss.

This begs the question...

Where is Death?

 

**Ruby**

The Sandstorm has hit, and the Silver Eyed Warriors, the Synthetic and the Traveller are struggling to find their path. The storm is powerful, howling winds and grains of sand scrape against their faces.

They all look around with scared expressions when the whooshes of a pair of huge wings surround them, but they cannot see it. Only the shadow of something circling them constantly, like a vulture or a bird of prey preparing to attack. That’s when they look at each other. “It’s testing us, be ready.” Kragen advises, and they all wait, listening to the whooshes of feathers around them.

“Help!” A wounded Silver Eyed Warrior wails, running through the sandstorm to them with sand stuck to his bleeding wounds. His arm is hanging by the threads of veins and chunks of skin. Something powerful attacked him in the storm.

Ruby stares at him with widened eyes.

Until she saw the scorch marks on his shoulder.

Only one thing could create scorch marks like that...

Then the wings stretch out as something huge drops through the storm towards him in the silence. Powerful Isomacium boots crash down onto the Warrior, crushing him from his huge weight and Serena’s eyes widen with horror as Death charges towards them with Ferrum Arctus in his grasp. The massive Nevermore Wings fold away into his cape.

Glowing red eyes focused on Ruby.

“It’s Death!” Oscar yells.

It was a trap.

A trap to lure Ruby away...

And now they are all rats stuck in it.


	49. Ambushed

**Ruby**

Ruby lets out an audible gasp of fear when she sees the Knight of Death charging towards her through the billowing gusts of sand around them, and he is not even fazed by it in any way. The sand ricochets off the Isomacium armour plating across his body, and the long jet black cape made from smoke blows with the wind, as he slashes Ferrum Arctus directly at the group. The roar he creates echoes over the howling screams of the sandstorm, with one powerful blast of red lightning emerging from the blade as he made his attack.

Ruby is thrown back with Kragen, both of them slide across sand covered ground, and they notice that the Architect has pushed his heavy metal feet into the floor to stay still, his poncho flapping around in the storm. He draws his rifle and engages the transformation mechanism; the plates all fold and slide away, allowing the thick blade to extend outwards. The Architect spins it through his fingers as he stands before the Knight of Grimm that has just attacked. Death rises back up, staring the Architect down in the storm, his glowing red eyes staring straight into the glowing blue visor of the machine. “Get out of the way – I have no quarrel with any of you. I just want the girl.” Death states, and the Architect scoffs.

“Yeah? Why? You captured her once before, aim to do it again? That what Umbra demands?” The Architect questions, stood stridently with the storm around them, and Death remains still as well.

Visibility is nearly at zero with Death right in front of them, and Ruby can hardly even see the Architect, let alone the Knight of Grimm. Death remains silent for a couple moments before he eventually replies to the Artificial Intelligence, clearly watching the others who are standing up around him. Not that he is intimidated by them in the slightest; he can easily take them and kill every single one of them. Except for Kragen and Ruby perhaps, but the others are seriously at risk. “You misunderstand, Architect – Vir Nominis Umbra does not want her alive, he wants the Silver Eyed Warriors to perish. And unfortunately you are standing in my way.” Death states, then the Architect spins his sword through his fingers, holding it in both hands as he points the thick metal blade directly at his enemy.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” The Architect assures, stood defiantly in the sandstorm as Kragen stands back up with his Isomacium staff in his grasp, and Gray draws his swords. Ruby slams Crescent Rose against the ground, using the huge weapon as a crutch to stand back up; staring through the sand with her eye squinted to find the Knight of Death. The Spectre stares at them, and an audible sigh can be heard from him.

“Then you have accepted your own fate.” Death calmly says, holding the sword downwards and close to his chest, as he slowly and sinisterly steps backwards into the thick wall of billowing wind and sand. Serena stammers, looking around with her handgun in her grasp. She really was not ready for any of this to go down, she only came to assist in finding a cure in Merlot’s lab.

Not take part in a battle against one of the most powerful entities Remnant has ever known. Kragen listens to the wind carefully, and they all start to stand back to back, Vos ready with the blades that fold out from his cybernetic arms and the turret mounted on his shoulder examines the area. “Keep your eyes and ears open, he could be anywhere in this storm. He will strike at the opportune moment.” Kragen advises as he stands there, staff held tightly in his grasp. Ruby’s heart is pounding at a hundred beats a second, waiting for the black Knight to come leaping from the storm.

All she can remember when in combat with him is what happened the last time she failed, when she saw the arrow from that Glass Bow that he formed come flying towards her eye. Nearly killing her in the process, she can even see that moment flashing before her eyes again and again the longer she has to wait.

_An Eye for an Eye..._

A red bolt of lightning suddenly erupts through the wall of dense sand and just misses Ruby by an inch, she has to roll out of the way to avoid it. She looks around and her eyes widen when she sees the shadow growing above her head, as Death suddenly drops down from above with his massive Nevermore Wings extended outwards like the Angel of Death that he is. Ruby dashes out of the way in a burst of red rose petals, narrowly missing the impact of his boots still covered in the blood of the poor Silver Eyed Warrior that he crushed earlier. Ruby spins her huge scythe round as she yells, swinging directly at the Knight that attacks her, only for the hook to get caught onto the black blade of Ferrum Arctus.

Death twists the weapon round, sliding it from her grasp so then he can launch it across the floor and into the sandstorm, too far from her reach. Ruby’s eye widens with horror when she watches it fade away into the fog of sand, until Death spins round and kicks her right in the ribs. The impact sends her flying backwards into the storm and out of their view. Kragen suddenly strikes the Knight across the face with his staff with a heroic grunt, and the Knight staggers from that impact. Gray sprints towards the Knight from behind, leaping straight at him and stabbing one of his blades in between two plates of Isomacium. The Knight grunts as he keeps stabbing the cape that is attached to his body.

Krekras reaches back and grabs Gray by the back of his head, squeezing his skull tight in that gauntlet before throwing him straight into the ground. He spins the sword round and he goes to stab him right through the chest, so hard that the blade would have pinned him to the ground. Until he rolls out of the way and spins one of his swords round so then the blade rests against his arm. The Architect leaps and smashes his knee right into the side of Death’s head, so hard that he is forced to stumble, giving the mechanical man time to make his attack. He spins round and channels the power of his pistons into the blow, slicing across the front of his chest plate, black smoke pours out from the wound like blood would from a human being. He stumbled back but then instantly retaliates, swinging Ferrum Arctus downwards with both hands, stabbing the sword into the ground.

Red lightning ignites through the black blade and straight into the floor, creating an explosion that throws some of them into the air, he turns and sees Serena and Vos stood behind him with their firearms loaded and aimed at him. Vos’ turret mounted on his shoulder has been linked with neural cybernetic implants that allow the turret to aim with his eye, and Serena is forced to use her fully automatic firearm that she has taken from the armoury. They both open fire, and Death’s black wings fold out from his cape and the feathers shield over his body, deflecting the bullets from inflicting any harm.

Death swiftly spins round and blocks the attack from Kragen, holding him back with his sword, glowing red eyes staring into his old silver ones, towering above him in this suit of Isomacium Armour. Kragen strains, having to put all his strength into holding the huge Warrior back from him with his staff, sparks of red energy bursting from the charged blade of his sword. “What...have you become?” Kragen strains through gritted teeth, and Death stares straight back.

“A product of my many sins.” Death replies with a sternly demonic voice, scraping Ferrum Arctus downwards across Kragen’s staff. Death instantly goes to slash across him, but Kragen ducks down, just dodging it as he strikes him yet again in the back of his leg with force, channelling the magical powers of his silver eyes into the Isomacium. The magic burns the black armour and the shadows sharply recede. Due to the sandstorm blocking out the sunlight, he is stronger now than he would be at any other moment. Kragen sprints towards Death and jumps upwards, spinning round to kick him in the side of his armoured head.

Death rolls across the ground, dragging his armoured hand into the ground to slow himself down, as the Architect swings his sword towards him, charged with the energy of his rifle. Death clashes his sword into the Architects and scrapes it across it as he pushes it down, until Oscar comes charging in from out of nowhere, slashing his swords across Death’s head, making him stagger back once more. He stands tall once more, staring him down with a deep gash in the side of his head, he tightens his grip on his sword as he stares at the young boy.

Suddenly black and red lightning crackles across the blade of Ferrum Arctus, so Oscar stands there at the ready with Traveller’s Atrocity firmly held in both hands and aimed up by his eyes, blade pointed towards the Knight. The Architect holds his sword in one hand and Kragen at Oscar’s other shoulder with his Isomacium and Wooden staff held tight. Gray and Vos stand tall, whereas Serena is staying back, her fear is clear as she tries to identify any weaknesses in his armour. But the storm that continues to rage on around them is making that extremely difficult.

Death’s eyes glow bright red as he stands there, and he is ready to engage in combat, they have made their blows and he is figuring out their fighting patterns. “All I want is the girl, she is a threat to his plans.” Death states, but Oscar’s face does not even change.

“You want her? You go through us.” Oscar assures, determined to protect the girl he loves so dearly.

“As you wish.” Death agrees, and he begins to walk towards them slowly, scraping Ferrum Arctus across the floor behind him, letting sparks fly out from the contact on the rough cobblestone floor. Oscar has his feet steady, whereas Serena’s are wobbling with fear, because she has no idea if they are going to make it out of this one. She has heard stories of the Knights of Grimm, and she knows that Death is the most dangerous of them all. Because one does not become the Knight that represents that thing if he is not formidable, and clearly he is.

Any other Grimm would have been defeated from the amount of strikes they dealt to him. And the only times they have ever destroyed a Death form in the past is from the lucky help of Summer Rose five years ago and the Volcanic Eruption of the Volcanic Chain Isles. They have yet to defeat him with conventional methods or without help, meaning they still do not know how many hits it will take to destroy him.

All they know is that his weakness is light, and the Sandstorm has obscured most of it.

Before she can ponder any further, he unexpectedly lunges right for them, swinging Ferrum Arctus with vicious aggression, sending an arc of black and red energy barrelling between them, forcing them apart. Oscar holds his much smaller blade up to stop of the sword of Death’s, the impact nearly breaks his leg from how hard he struck his sword. He falls to one knee with a cry of pain, as Death pushes him downwards. Oscar stares at the face of Death and watches as the Isomacium Plates slide back from his head, held behind the location where ears would be by black smoke. The skull surrounded by flames ignites and snarls at him, lava drooling from its teeth as he stares down at him.

Oscar suddenly pauses time, the watches all pause in the single moment so then he can rush behind him to attack – but he forgot a very important difference that Death has to the other Knights.

He can move in altered time as well.

Death is not bound by time, it always exists no matter what.

Oscar leaps at him, ready to plunge the blade of his sword straight into the back of Death’s head, until Death abruptly revolves round to catch the young man by the throat with his huge metal hand. Oscar gasps for air as Death smashes the Huntsman straight into the cobblestone ground, so hard that the stones shatter like glass beneath him

Ruby – still laying on the ground after that painful kick to the chest – groans as she tries to figure out where she is. Vision impaired by the grains of sand that grate across her skin and eye, she is lost in the storm yet she can hear the combat so near to her location. Ruby pushes her hands into the floor to stand up, looking around to find Crescent Rose. She can barely see two feet in front of her face, as she staggers around searching for it. Her aura repairs her dizziness rather swiftly, but she is still lost for her weapon.

“Come on, Crescent Rose...where are you?” Ruby mutters, until she hears the sound of somebody’s aura falling into the red from something. Her eye widens as she holds her wrist up in which her scroll has been attached to a little holder on her tactical clothing. It is Oscar’s aura that has fallen into the red already, from that single attack that Death had dealt to him, it nearly broke his aura immediately from how hard he smashed him into the ground.

He is powerful, but still no match for Death at this stage.

A sense of dread fills her body when seeing that, and that the others are in similar trouble as well. “I need to find Crescent Rose...” Ruby mutters to herself, until an idea comes to her mind. For some reason, she thinks back to when she managed to lift all those boulders with the powers of her silver eyes.

_Our gift has so much potential, we can do things that could even rival the gods._

_Many people even believe that is where our gift came from, the Brother of Light, and we can lift objects with our minds if we know how to do it._

_Just picture what is in front of you, whatever you seek, and it will find you as long as you are near to it._

Ruby can hear Kragen’s words resounding in her memory, and she thinks carefully. Picturing the blueprints of Crescent Rose that she made all those years ago when she worked on it with Taiyang and her sister. The curvature of the blade, the red paintjob, the sniper rifle built inside of the scythe itself. When she opens her eye, the iris begins to shimmer with light, the energy trails like steam from her eye itself and from behind her eye patch.

The gift is not of the physical eyes, it is of their soul.

And hidden in the storm, the Scythe lying on the ground begins to get enthralled with silver light that wraps around it like a cloak. She reaches out as she runs towards where she was launched, hearing the combat. Death swings Ferrum Arctus towards Gray, until he looks forward to see Crescent Rose flying right towards him, and smashes right against the centre of his face, knocking him over. Ruby suddenly slides right past him, with her hood pulled up, and her silver eye still glowing as she glares at him, Crescent Rose back in her grasp.

Oscar groans, looking up to see her protecting him, she smiles at him lovingly and he smiles back, slowly regaining aura as he sits there on the ground. Death stands up slowly, staring straight at her as she holds the scythe behind her back and her hands grasp the structure of the handle. “You’ve grown stronger since we last fought.” Death states, noticing her greater power in her eyes.

Ruby spins Crescent Rose round, stabbing it into the ground as she aims the barrel right at him. “You hurt my boyfriend, you mess with me.” Ruby warns with a stern voice.

Death chuckles menacingly, spinning Ferrum Arctus through his fingers.

“Duly noted.” Death agrees, as his wings fold out from his cape and the feather splay outwards behind him. Ruby grits her teeth, blasting towards him in a whirlwind of red petals as she charges right at him, and Death sprints at her, leaping with the wings swinging downwards to throw him high in the air.

Ruby erupts from her ball of petals and screams with rage, Crescent Rose held behind her as she prepares to attack, flying right towards him.

 

**Blake**

With the Sandstorm now hitting Kuo Kuana, the windows have been completely blackened from the smothering of the sun. And the house was already dark to begin with, since the power has been cut completely, meaning that they are stuck inside of a large room with Fear, Loss and Fury inside with them. Fear is the one that they should be concerned with, since Fury is not one for stealth and Loss does not want to fight them.

Blake carefully steps forward slowly with Gambol Shroud in her grasp, and Pyrrha at her shoulder, hairs already stood firmly up on their arms and the back of their necks. They can still hear the chilling chortles of Fear as he walks around them, they do not even see the glowing golden eyes that float around them, as he scrapes Formido Falcem across the wooden floor. Qrow cautiously walks, making sure that every step is carefully made, and for good reason.

They know that Fear is a formidable enemy to have. “Everyone be ready, Fear could have already released his toxin and we don’t know. Don’t trust whatever it is that you see.” Qrow states, looking around as Cinder holds her bow in her hands, eye scanning the terrain around them as the Knights of Grimm toy with them.

“Fury must have extinguished his flames for now, otherwise we would have seen him.” Cinder states, knowing the things that he is capable of. They’ve no idea that Loss is stalking them from one of the higher levels, her bow trained on Cinder’s head for now. One of the surviving Silver Eyed Warriors walks with them, looking around with his Axe in his hand, looking around to find where they are.

No idea that the statue that he has just walked past, is a very still Knight of Fury, the pumice blends in with the other Knight Statues around them. His eyes widen when the flames ignite behind him and he realises that Fury has just appeared behind him. The Silver Eyed Warrior rolls out of the way as Fury roars, slamming one of his burning axes downwards into the ground with all his might, sending shards of burning wood into the air. The Silver Eyed Warrior yells with anger, channelling the power of his silver eyes into the Isomacium axe head, slashing it straight at Fury.

Until the Knight catches it with his huge burning hand, and in one sharp movement of his hand, he manages to snap the wooden handle with the heat and aggression, his eyes widen just before Fury cuts his head clean from his shoulders with the axe. The head rolls onto the ground and they all stare at him with widened eyes as he stands right before them with that scowl on his face as always.

Blake is filled with an anger she remembers very personally, seeing him butcher Kali and Ghira all over again in her memory. Kassius spins his swords through his fingers and cracks his neck as he stands beside his sister who also wants payback whenever she sees his face. Fury suddenly jumps at them with a deafening bellow, smashing both axes down into the ground at their feet, the blast from the impact throws them back and he swings round, slashing straight at Blake in the process with a roar.

Her semblance saves her from that attack, as a shadow copy of her frame shimmers from existence, and she falls from the distance of the attack, rolling across the wooden floor, as Fury lands on the ground. He catches the swing of Lash Equinox from Kassius, lifting him off the floor and throwing him through one of the pillars that holds the other levels where they are. Fury immediately starts hacking and slashing at them all, as Winter leaps towards him with her Glyph propelling her forwards, stabbing both swords into his chest. Fury grunts and staggers back, as she stabs him over and over again with her swords, before pressing her heel against his collarbone to kick herself off his huge magma coated body.

Blake throws her grappling hook and it wraps around one of the pillars which she uses to swing round and launch her body towards the Knight. She yells with anger, spiralling through the air like a propeller as she slashes both the Katana and its Scabbard across the pumice and obsidian armour that covers the Spectral Knight. He staggers until he just catches her heel and smashes her into the ground, swinging both axes towards her head with a roar. The axes crash into the ground as she shimmers away once more, stood right in front of him. Fury stands tall once more with a snarl, staring her down. “You’re gonna pay for what you did to my mom and dad!” Blake screams with anguish, jumping towards him as she swings the sword and sheathe constantly with purple trails of aura behind every single attack, and Fury just deflects every attack with his axes.

Whilst Blake battles with the murderer of her parents, Port and Oobleck turn when they feel the sensation of something right behind them, as their hairs stand on end. Port gasps with horror from what his sees emerging from the shadows. A tall unnatural creature walks towards him with mangy torn off fur covering its humanoid body with glowing golden eyes. It has short arms and a long hairless tail that flicks behind its body, the whiskers flick around and the creature stares right at Port.

Then the demonic voice emerges. “Run along, Port.” The Giant Nightmare Rat snarls, as it suddenly explodes into thousands of tiny rats that scuttle towards him. Port screams with terror as he staggers backwards at the horde of his phobia approach him. But he has no time to recover, as Fear suddenly lunges towards him from the Hallucination, slashing his Scythe straight at them both, an attack that Oobleck is hit with the full brunt of. The impact sends him crashing through one of the tables left inside, smashing it into little pieces and throwing fancy plates and silverware across the dining hall. Port – still haunted by the hallucination that Fear had just forced into his mind, takes a powerful kick to the head by the Knight, followed by a Crossbow Bolt with the Fear Toxin surrounding it shooting into his chest. Luckily his aura snaps the bolt before it could hurt him, but the toxin still finds its way into his head.

The impact also launches him back, and Fear turns, seeing Qrow sprinting towards him as he swings his sword towards him with all his might, yelling as he does it. Fear brings Formido Falcem upwards, catching Qrow’s mighty blade with the long grip of his weapon, pushing him back with a maniacal grin on his face. “Big risk coming here, ol’ Corvus, a lot of people will die because of that mistake.” Fear warns with a monstrous smirk on his face, making Qrow roar with rage, flicking a switch that folds the blade downwards and fires the shotgun into the side of Fear’s head. The shell fragments shatter a portion of his skull and the toxin leaks out like Grimm Smoke, but he staggers back and vanishes into the shadows with a smirk.

“You talk too much, Rylen.” Qrow states, calling him by his real name. Fear does not even seem fazed by the use of his real name, he just continues to use the darkness to his advantage as he quietly laughs around him.

“How many people have died now because of your bad luck? Was Summer the first? Or was she just another one to the list?” Fear asks him, as he suddenly erupts from the shadows once more, slamming his fist across the side of Qrow’s face, making him stumble, before he spins round and one of his huge rotten bat wings unravels around his body, smacking him in the chest and throwing Qrow across the room. Fear stares at where Qrow fell, until he slowly turns to see Jaune and Pyrrha stood behind him, both with their swords and shields at the ready. Fear smirks and chuckles as he walks towards them, Formido Falcem scraping through the wood as he walks. “Well, well – it seems you were not lying – you really would go as far as you would have to go to save the woman you love.” Fear states, remembering the conversation that he had with Jaune back on the Volcanic Chain Isles, on how desperate he was to free Pyrrha from the Onyx Phantom.

Jaune stands there, Crocea Mors held tight as he stares right into the glowing gold eyes of the Knight of Fear. “I never lie.” He states, making Fear chortle once more as he stares right at him.

“Oh my dear boy – you should never make a promise you can’t keep.” He states, abruptly killing the conversation by drawing his one-handed crossbow and firing one of his fear corrupted bolts towards them. Pyrrha leaps in the air, Jaune ducks down, and the Spartan manages to slice the arrow in half before it could reach anybody. She lands down beside Jaune and she immediately sprints towards him, slashing Milo across his chest before performing a graceful pirouette as she slams Akuou across the Knight’s face, making him stagger. Fear steps forward and smashes his head against hers with force, then roaring as he brings Formido Falcem above his head to slam it down on her head, until Jaune slides in front and holds his shield above their heads, causing the blade to bounce off and sparks are thrown from the impact. As soon as he lowers the shield, she launches Akuou into the decayed nose of Fear to stun him again, and Jaune slashes the Knight across one of the legs, and she jumps off his back after running onto him, leaping over him and hooking her sword around his throat. She holds the sword with both hands and pushes her foot against his spine as she holds on.

Fear blasts the Fear Toxin from his wrist into both Jaune and Pyrrha’s faces, managing to send them both into a state of hallucination. Jaune staggers around, seeing Vir Nominis Umbra there, and ironically Pyrrha sees the exact same thing. After the Charred Forest they both have learned to fear that Soothsayer, and luckily the moment is not long since Fear smashes the blunt end of Formido Falcem into Jaune’s head, nearly knocking him out. He grabs Pyrrha by her beautifully crafted red ponytail and swings her round, smashing her head into one of the pillars before throwing her into Jaune, knocking both of them onto the ground. Shotgun Shrapnel erupts from his ribs and he barely even flinches, darting out the way by using his abilities to move extremely erratically and fast.

He stands before Qrow, Jaune and Pyrrha, his weapon in his grasp and smirk on his face. “This won’t be easy.” Qrow warns.

“You don’t say.” Jaune sarcastically remarks, turning to see Port and Oobleck standing back up, Port with an angered face.

“Alright, he’s really pissed me off now.” Port growls with anger, after seeing his greatest failing formed before his very eyes in the worst way imaginable. He spins his Blunderbuss round and holds it in its Axe Form, whereas Oobleck has extended his thermos and the flamethrower at the ready, running towards the Knight as well.

Winter looks around with Cinder at her side, when suddenly an arrow comes flying down from above. It only narrowly misses Winter, wobbling in the ground where it hit, then they both look up to the level where it came from. She has to focus hard, but she can see her outline and the glowing blue eyes of Starla Schnee above them, her bow drawn as she remains perched up there from above. Winter narrows her eyes and she forms a Glyph beneath her feet, and she leaps upwards, forming more and more to bounce her way up to where Loss is firing on them. Cinder blasts into the air, using her Fall Maiden powers to carry her body up there as well.

Winter leaps straight towards Loss and the Knight immediately breaks her Bow in two and she holds each Tonfa by their grips, crossing them over to block Winter’s blades as she attacks. The impact still sends both of them falling into the room where Blake and Sun had tea with Ghira and Kali. Loss crashes into the ground, tumbling over before she lands on both feet and slides to a stop. Starla spins her Tonfas round, the curved blades pointing down her forearms and ready to fight. Her black veil still shrouds her face, and clearly she will be using her gaze if she pulls it back this time, unlike previous times when she kindly speaks to them.

Like she did with Weiss.

Of all the Knights of Grimm, she is the only one that seems to have more control over some of her powers, but cannot control the curse itself.

Starla looks up as she rises back up to her posture, sharing the proper form that the Schnees have always had, as Winter slowly floats down on her glyph towards her. Winter steps off, with her sword in her grasp and the smaller blade still inside. “Starla.” Winter greets as she stands before her, Starla looks right back at her.

“Winter.” She replies, looking right into her eyes. “You definitely inherited the looks of my sister,  Weiss seems to have adopted mine. I just hope she does not adopt my mistakes.” Starla sighs, clearly still cares for her family extremely deeply as she stands there, ready to fight her great niece. Of all the Knights, they all know that Loss is the one that truly wants all of this to stop, but she cannot stop fighting them because of her curse.

But that does not stop Winter from trying to talk her out of all of this. “Your mistakes are in the past, forget about all of that and help us stop Umbra.” Winter begs as she stands there, both of them look as they see Cinder landing right beside Winter, staring right at the Knight of Loss.

“Loss.” Cinder greets.

“Cinder Fall.” She replies, then she shows her the scarred print from Fury above her breast as she pulls the dress back slightly.

“Remember this? How you sold me out to Salem?” Cinder questions with anger, and as a Locke it seems very clear that she shares her brother’s way of looking at things. Once and enemy always an enemy.

Ironic, considering everything.

Starla stares at the print, and she can still remember the heartbreaking wails that Cinder let out when Fury burned that print onto her. The only reason why she is here and not fighting Fury is because she knows that Winter cannot take the Knight of Loss on her own. But clearly, Starla regrets selling her out like that. “I remember.” She replies, staring at the scar on her body, with grief in her eyes.

“So do I, and I plan on returning the favour.” Cinder snarls, as she forms a pair of obsidian swords from the dust in her dress and her Fall Maiden powers, fire melting them together. She blasts towards Starla and Winter notices for a split second the look of anguish on the Knight’s face.

She is sick of all the fighting.

She just wants peace.

To be with her family again.

Loss crosses her Tonfas over each other, managing to catch the two swords of Cinder’s in their path, then she twists them with force, and the obsidian shatters into tiny pieces from the action, and the Knight kicks her in the chest. Cinder rolls backwards, pushing her hand into the floor, whereas Loss paces back and forth with the Tonfas still at the ready. “I had a duty, I had to see it through. It was nothing personal, how was I to know that she would have Vex do that to you?” Starla explains, pointing at her as she stands back up, and Cinder’s eyes ignite with flames and rage.

“It felt plenty personal to me.” Cinder snarls, forming another pair of swords formed from dust and fire, and she sprints towards her once more. Cinder shrieks as she slashes one blade at her, but Starla deflects the attack with one of her Tonfas, before ducking down from the other and swiping her from her feet. She is kicking the Fall Maiden’s ass but it is all because Cinder is not thinking, she is letting the anger get to her head.

Like she always has.

“Do you think I wanted this curse, Cinder? I just wanted my family be happy, even though I betrayed my husband...I still wanted my children to have a chance in life. And that damned Soothsayer took it all from me. So you tell me, Cinder – what do you think is worse, a damned handprint or coming home to find your whole family slaughtered?” Starla yells with anguish, tears streaming down her cold drowned skin, as she instinctively goes to stab her with her Tonfa, until a Glyph stops her in her path.

Starla looks ahead to see Winter stopping her with a Glyph, before that same Glyph creates a pulse that launches her backwards and smashes against the wall behind her. The tears drop down from her chin and onto the floor as she slowly lifts her head, staring at Winter and Cinder before her eyes. Winter glances over at Cinder, and she grabs her by her forearm with one hell of a tight grip to get her attention. “Snap out of it, Cinder. Stop letting your grudge control you and focus, otherwise you’ll just get yourself killed.” Winter warns, staring her straight in the eye, and she sighs, ripping her arm from her grasp, looking back at the Knight of Loss.

Starla stands in her combat stance, both Tonfas pointed towards them, right foot forward and knees slightly bent. “Starla...it doesn’t have to go down like this. We can stop Vir Nominis Umbra together, we all can.” Winter says, almost begging her – even the other Knights as well. Starla stares at her, but her stance does not change.

“It doesn’t matter what I want, or what I believe – I have nothing left, he gave me a sense of purpose before I go. I’m sorry, but I have to pay for my sins.” Starla states, making Winter sigh with frustration, seeing how the curse really does mess with her head.

“Damn it.” Winter sighs, forming a Glyph beneath her feet, as Starla paces back and forth across the room from them with her Tonfas at the ready. Winter rushes forward, using the Glyph to send her zooming towards her, slashing her sword into her Tonfas, and Cinder does the same with flames blasting behind her.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby screams with rage as she slashes downwards across Death’s chest with Crescent Rose, landing down behind him as she and him make their landing. The Knight instantly spins round with Ferrum Arctus as he goes to make a strike, but Ruby blocks it with the long grip of her weapon. The blade clatters into the high tech weapon, Ruby stands with her back to him and holding Crescent Rose against her curved back. She instantly draws the Scythe and spins it round, hooking the Night Blade and swinging all the way round, nearly pulling the weapon from his grasp. Ruby rotates it through her fingers, disengaging it so then the scythe folds away and the rifle extends, the scope folds outwards to her eye, and she fires a powerful fire dust round into his chest.

The explosion knocks the Knight of Death backwards, with a deep grunt and he immediately roars with fury, grabbing his sword and charging the red lightning from his body and into the blade, blasting them at her, but she spins Crescent Rose round with great speed to block the red lightning from hitting her. His wings suddenly spread outwards and he spins round, launching the Fatal Feather of a Nevermore towards her, sending Ruby into a spiralling whirlwind of petals to avoid it. She zooms around him and goes for a massive attack, until he parries and perfectly deflects her attack with her scythe, but she gets away before he can deliver a counter-attack.

Ruby retreats slightly from him, moving back and forth with her silver eye watching him, until suddenly an immense storm of bullets comes shooting into the side of Death’s armoured head, merely annoying him, so he turns to see Vos with his mounted turret firing at him constantly. That’s when they all rush Death, attacking him at once, but Death stands there as he focuses his senses as a Knight, holding his sword downwards. Gray yells with rage, jumping and going to plunge his two swords into him, so Death swiftly comes round and counters his attack, smashing the blades aside with his Night Blade, before roundhouse kicking him into the ground.

He immediately catches the staff of Kragen’s, holding him there as the Architect strikes towards him, and yet is still stopped by Ferrum Arctus. He scrapes the sword across the Architect’s blade before slashing him across his armoured chassis, then he pulls Kragen forward and swipes him off his feet with his huge armoured leg. Death immediately smashes his huge armoured fist into the lower abdomen of Kragen’s, making him yelp with pain, before rolling out of the way just as he goes to stamp down on his head with his boot. Vos extends the blades from his arms but Death’s wings pinch them and he thrashes round and launches the Silver Eyed Warrior into the storm, out of view. And with Oscar still out of action for now, he has just managed to fight off every single one of them without any trouble.

And yet he is fighting in a way that is mostly defensive, he has fought offensively but he has the power and skill to take them all down.

He is resisting.

But Ruby immediately attacks again, jumping towards him with Crescent Rose held above her head to slash downwards with a powerful attack, so Death holds Ferrum Arctus up with both hands by the hilt, creating a great twang. Sparks and light burst from the impact, then he immediately brings the sword downwards, slashing across Ruby’s cape and back, but luckily her aura protects her. But her clothing took one hell of a hit, revealing some skin there in the process, but she is not fazed, the only thing affecting her is the sandstorm.

And that is why Death has the advantage, not only is he a Spectre but he also is essentially a suit of Isomacium Armour, meaning that the sand is of no hindrance to him. But also, the same can be said for the Architect. The Architect rolls aside from the blast of red lightning from Ferrum Arctus at the best possible second, and swiftly channels electrical energy into the blade from the dust magazines still loaded into its rifle form. He scrapes the blade of his sword into the back of his leg, causing him to grunt, and as he goes to stab the Architect, he immediately presses a small button in the hilt.

The blade opens, and through the middle of the sword is a collection of rails that are in the barrel of his rifle, charging the electrical energy up into a shell. He points it upwards and fires it straight up the side of Death’s head, blasting a hole through the left side of his head, making Death roar with pain and staggering back. Thick black smog trails from his eye, and the wound slowly begins to heal, slower than it would at night, since there is some light, but not enough to keep the wound there. Death snarls with anger, and instantly kicks the Architect in the head, knocking him over and cracking his visor slightly.

Before Death could drive Ferrum Arctus through his chest, Gray leaps onto his back, stabbing him in the neck over and over again with his sword, black smoke billows out from where he constantly inflicts these inconsequential wounds. “Die! Die!” Gray yells with rage as he keeps on stabbing him repeatedly, making Death reach back and grab him by the neck, throwing him onto the ground. Death stares at him, then picks him up by the throat, lifting him off the floor to stare him in the eyes, and Gray watches as the dark matter rebuilds the damage that the Architect inflicted upon him.

“You continue to fight, and for what? Another night before the next day? Where you could die then as well?” Death questions, staring him in his silver eyes as he struggles.

“Better than being a slave to a crazy merchant dude!” Gray struggles as he grabs the massive armoured arm of Death.

Death chuckles, inspired by his valour. “Your heroism is inspiring – as was the heroism of all the other Silver Eyed Warriors that came before you.” Death states, throwing him into the Architect who goes to attack him, the metal man hardly flinches which means that really would have hurt poor Gray.

Serena is still in the background, shooting her handgun at him over and over again, Death turns and stares her in the eyes. “A Scientist? You are really out of your depth here, sweetheart.” Death states, staring her straight in the eyes, and it really strikes a chord of fear in her heart. Serena begins to shake with terror when seeing the Knight of Death staring at her, until Kragen makes one hell of a good strike on Death, moving with great speed with his staff. Smashing the weapon into him over and over again, making the Knight stagger back, then his eyes begin to glow brighter and brighter. He throws his arms back, and a thick beam of bright white light suddenly erupts from his irises and into Death, he pushes his armoured shoulder into it to withstand the attack. The wings hold the blast back and some of the feathers begin to turn to stone as he is pushed all the way back from it. Death strains as the Silver Eyed Warrior continues to hold it back, until the stone begins to freeze over the Silver Eyed Warriors.

Death turns and he goes to swing his sword straight at Ruby’s face, Ruby stands there with Oscar with her, holding him close as Ferrum Arctus gets closer and closer. The stone spreads across his Isomacium Body with great speed, slowing him down, and then finally...

The blade stops right at her cheek, and he is frozen into a statue just as Ruby did to the Dragon many years ago now. Kragen nearly collapses from doing that, falling to one knee but the Architect catches him, keeping him up. “Kragen? You alright?” The Architect asks him, and Ruby is finally able to let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s the first time I have ever seen him be destroyed without some sort of miracle saving us.” Ruby giggles with relief, staring at Death frozen in stone like that. She helps Oscar up, who is still quite weak after what Death did to him when smashing him into the ground with such force. Kragen stands there, staring at Death and then he quickly looks at Ruby. He sighs, closing his eyes and he slowly turns to Gray, Vos and Serena.

“Gray, Vos, Serena – stay here for now and keep an eye out. We will scout out and find a safe place to wait out the storm.” Kragen orders, in which Serena looks at him with concern.

“But, what if he isn’t dead?” Serena stammers, fearful of the Knight of Death still being there and for good reason.

“Do not worry, I made sure of it.” Kragen promises, as he picks his staff back up and looking at Ruby. He jerks his head to the left to her and he walks ahead with the Architect at his side. Ruby helps Oscar up and looks over at Gray.

“We’ll be right back.” Ruby assures, with Oscar’s arm around her shoulder, lifting the exhausted young man up with blood trickling from a cut in his head.

“We’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Gray assures as he winks at her, swords in his grasp. Ruby turns to follow Kragen and the Architect into the storm to find somewhere to seek shelter. And before they know it, they are in the thick fog of sand that surrounds them all. The Architect begins to speak to Kragen but he is speaking so softly that Ruby cannot decipher what he is saying over the howling winds.

But she can hear what Oscar is muttering to her, something that never came to her mind when he said it at the time. They all keep running ahead, then Ruby hears him clearly say it.

“How can he be sure?” Oscar questions with confusion, causing Ruby to raise her eyebrow with curiosity at his question.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Ruby inquires.

“He said he made sure that Death was frozen...but you managed to freeze the Grimm Dragon at Beacon, and that is free now. What makes him so sure that Death can’t break free?” Oscar asks...

And then it hits her, her silver eye widens with horror.

_That thing? Whatever it is? Doesn’t seem to be dead._

_Don’t get me wrong, you did a number on it._

_But it’s not disappearing._

_It’s..._

_...kinda..._

“Frozen...” Ruby realises with a stammered breath, wide eyed when it hits her, the look she saw on Kragen’s face, the fact they have just left them behind.

He couldn’t be...

“Kragen!” Ruby calls out to him, and he slightly turns his head as he runs through the storm ahead of her. He still carries that expression on his face, one that seems to be completely emotionless, like a commander that has just made a choice that will get someone killed, but to finish the mission.

No matter the cost.

“What did you mean? How are you sure he can’t break free?” Ruby calls.

He just stares at her, with an emotion that she has seen before.

Grief.

Her eye widens with horror and disbelief.

_He didn’t, he knows..._

_Death isn’t destroyed, he is just frozen..._

_He’s gonna break out and kill all of them!_

“You son of a bitch...” Ruby softly says, and the Architect looks back at her, realising what she is planning.

“Ruby...don’t....” The Architect begs, but she shakes her head and pushes Oscar into his arms, her boyfriend’s eyes widen with fear, and he reaches out for her with fear.

“Ruby!” Oscar screams.

_They’re gonna die if I don’t warn them..._

Oscar stares at Kragen with confused eyes. “What the hell are you doing?” Oscar questions with anger.

“Ruby is the priority, no matter the cost – no matter who dies.” He coldly states, causing his eyes to widen.

All the Silver Eyed Warriors that have been killed today.

Just to protect Ruby?

Just a few feet away in this thick storm, they have absolutely no idea of what is about to happen, as Vos walks around Death, he does not even notice that the stone around the Knight is beginning to crack. It now seems most likely that Death let himself become encased in stone for this exact opportunity, and Vos is laughing away. “Death, huh? Guy’s a damn pussy.” He scoffs. Serena smiles at Vos as she holds her scroll in her hands, trying to find a signal.

An idea comes into Vos’ mind, looking at her. “Hey, Serena, take a picture of me.” Vos requests with a smirk. Serena laughs, as she switches the scroll to take a photograph of her friend.

“Alright.” She agrees.

Just as she brings up the scroll, the statue of the Knight of Death suddenly shatters like glass, chunks of stone everywhere, and Vos never even realised that he was stood right behind the path of Ferrum Arctus. The blade viciously slices straight across his neck, and crimson red blood splatters across Serena and her scroll, her eyes widen and her mouth agape with horror from what has just happened. Steam trails from the Knight of Death as he rises back up, and Gray’s eyes widen with horror from what he just witnessed.

Vos...

Vos is dead...

From one swing.

His aura was still up, and he just killed him in a single attack, red lightning crackles across both his body and the blade of Ferrum Arctus, and his eyes glow brighter than before. Serena’s hand rattles with terror as she staggers back from Death, staring at him. “Vos!” Gray screams with horror, seeing his head roll across the floor with blood trailing behind it. Serena quivers with horror, turning to flee from Death as he stares at her, and Gray looks for her, but Death already has her in his sights.

“He’s free from the stone already! How is that possible? Kragen said that he killed him!” Serena cries out, looking back over her shoulder to see Death sprinting after her with his sword held back, red eyes trailing with dark energy. “Vos! His aura was up and he killed him in one swing! How could he do that?” She cries out, terrified because that seems completely against anything they have ever known.

He did the same thing to many others, Team A.B.R.N for example were sufferers to this fate, and even Weiss was because her Aura was still up when he stabbed her years ago.

This is Death’s Ultimate Ability, to completely ignore aura in combat.

For Death is the claimer of souls, he does not play by the natural rules.

Gray pursues after her, trying to find her in the storm, able to hear her screams in the distance of the storm. “Serena! Pull yourself together!” Gray yells, not even realising that Death’s wings have just extended again, the feathers splayed out to swing downwards to give him immense height in his jump. It is like time slows down when Serena sees him directly above her, then Gray finally sees her as the sand clears.

“Serena!” Gray screams with desperation.

Serena lets out a chilling shrill of terror. “Help me!” She wails, as Death crashes down onto her spine with all his might, his huge armoured boots snap her spine like it is a twig and her blood splatters up his legs as he lands upon her.

Ruby stares at her scroll and her eye widens with horror as she sees the flat lines on both Vos and Serena now, sending chills through her body. “No!” Ruby cries out desperately.

Gray stands there with anger, his eyes ignite with silver flames as he readies his blades, stood behind Death as he stands there. Gray sprints towards Death with anger in his bones, leaping straight at him. “Die!” Gray roars, as the silver eyes erupt around him, creating the form of his Basilisk that surrounds him, the huge wings extend and he goes to attack the Knight.

Until Death spins round and slashes straight across the Basilisk, destroying its form in one attack, leaving him falling through the air. “How...how can he possibly...” Gray whimpers, before Death launches a multitude of Fatal Feathers from his Nevermore Wings, which puncture through his torso, shoulder and leg, pinning him to the ground. His voice is immediately silenced and blood pours out from his corpse on the ground.

Death stands tall, pressing Ferrum Arctus downwards into the ground as he waits for her to arrive.

Because he knows.

Death knows that Ruby is coming to try and save them.

Ruby runs through the sand, and she stops, eye wide with horror from what she sees.

The beheaded remains of Vos on the floor.

The crushed corpse of Serena on the ground.

And the impaled cadaver of Gray pinned to the cobblestone.

 Blood everywhere.

They have all died...

Because Kragen lied...

Ruby cannot even find the words as she stares at Death stood there with his back facing her. “I’m gonna...” She stammers.

“I’m gonna...”

It all builds up in her emotions, seeing them all dying before her very eyes again and again. What she did to Dew Gayl and the rest of Team N.D.G.O, what she did to Tyrian Callows...

Now what she is going to do to him.

“Rip you apart!” She bellows with savagery in her once sweet voice, and her silver eyes erupt with the rage of an erupting Volcano. Light fills the sky and scatters the storm around them for a few minutes due to the shockwave. Death turns sharply as he sees the ball of light charging towards him.

The light hardens into a thick black fur around its huge body, muscular paws smashing into the ground and a pair of eyes, one silver and one missing with a deep scar. The canines drool with saliva and the ears are pointed up, long fluffy tail as well. Ruby has transformed into a massive jet black Wolf, which leaps towards Death with its jaws open, clamping down onto his torso, smashing him into the ground and dragging him constantly. Ruby shakes him around with pure rage and animalistic aggression, throwing Ferrum Arctus from his grasp, as she throws the Knight across the battlefield.

The roars of the huge Wolf echo for miles, causing everyone, even the other Knights to stop and turn when they hear it.

The Massive Wolf stands at twenty feet in height and thirty feet in length.

Death stands up slowly, staring at the Wolf that stands not far from him with saliva constantly drooling from its jaws. The Wolf growls ferociously at him, before slamming its front right paw down onto the ground to let out a devastatingly loud roar from its lungs, one that Death does not even flinch from.

Kragen stands there...

With chills down his spine.

Oscar stares at Kragen with anger in his Hazel eyes.

“What have you done?” Oscar questions, and that is a question that the old man cannot answer.

The Big Bad Wolf barks monstrously as it charges towards Death, and he stands there, kicking Ferrum Arctus back into his grasp as she keeps on charging at him.

Her rage has been shown in its true form.

Ruby has unlocked her Spirit Animal.

She is Little Red Riding Hood.

And her inner spirit is the Big Bad Wolf.


	50. The Big Bad Wolf

**Ruby**

The Black Knight stands tall with those piercing glowing red eyes glaring straight at the Giant Black Wolf that charges straight towards him, salivating at the mouth ferociously and growling as it approaches. The ground shakes from every single step it takes, her Spirit Animal is unlike anything that anyone has ever seen, some people have taken the forms of giant animals, but nothing like this. The giants usually are naturally the size they are, this thing is abnormal, just like everything else about the Silver Eyed Wonder that is Ruby Rose of Patch.

Death slowly walks towards the titan with his sword held tight in his grasp, and he immediately slashes across the nose of the huge Wolf, making her recoil back. He charges red lightning through the huge blade to deflect her attacks, but the Big Bad Wolf clamps her huge muscular jaws down onto the black blade, scraping her teeth across the serrated edges of her weapon. Sparks burst from the contact of the metallic teeth inside of her mouth as she fights for the weapon, like a dog fighting for a toy from its owner. She shakes her head around viciously, growling savagely as she manages to pull Ferrum Arctus from Death’s grasp, throwing it across the road, far from his reach.

Death turns and is met by the swung tail of Ruby’s Wolf Form that smashes straight into his armoured chest, launching him into the dense layer of sand that blows around the two of them. Death roars as he sails through the air, until he slams both boots into the ground and spreading his huge Nevermore Wings outwards to slow his landing, turning the ground up from under him.

The Knight slowly lifts his head up towards the storm, spotting the massive shadow that bounds for him, jumping with her jaws wide open and with a bellowing roar. Death jumps and rolls out of the way, narrowly missing her, and Ruby slides across the ground, digging her claws into the cobblestone beneath her paws. The huge Wolf stands there, pacing back and forth with the grains of sand abrasing against her thick pelt of black fur. Her upper lip flicks up revealing her bright white gnashers inside covered with frothing saliva drooling from them as she paces back and forth, head held low to the ground.

Death stares straight into the Silver Eye of the Big Bad Wolf, clenching his hands into fists, and extending the Nevermore Wings from his black cape. “You would do well to remember, Ruby – I hone my skills from the Pits of Arkhonex!” Death warns, clearly speaking of the man he used to be, holding his arms out to her. But Ruby does not even seem intimidated in the slightest, the Wolf just roars with pure rage, sprinting towards him, leaping as she brings the massive jaws down towards him.

Death steps back and lifts both Isomacium Armoured arms, and with the metal gauntlets he catches her open jaws, holding her by her jaws as she pushes him across the ground. Death suddenly slams her head into the ground with a powerful punch, before he swings round and launches some Fatal Feathers into the body of the Wolf, the huge black feathers lodge into the flesh.

Ruby yelps as she staggers, whining as she looks at the wounds, but that only seems to anger her more and more. Death cannot hear her words, but inside of the Wolf she is still inside, like in some form of stasis. Her body and clothes are perfectly in good condition, literally like she was absorbed into the Wolf from the power of her aura. Her Silver Eye is closed but streams with tears. “Why? Why wasn’t I good enough? Why couldn’t I save them?” Ruby whimpers tearfully, flashes of the faces of Gray, Vos and Serena’s corpses in her memory.

The anguish and the torment of her failure to save them is like a stabbing feeling that hits her in the heart over and over again. Bringing tears to her eye and forcing her to tears of rage. “I made the wrong choice...why did I trust you, Kragen? Why did I think that you were worth following? You left them to die! They meant nothing to you!” Ruby roars with rage, and the Wolf roars as soon as she screams from within it, with tears streaming from its only eye. The Wolf charges straight for Death and the Knight sprints right for her, not even turning to retrieve his weapon.

Death slides under the huge legs of the Wolf and punches her in the gut with force, making the Wolf yelp with pain, she slides across the ground and she paces back and forth once more, growling ferociously. Ruby attacks once more, and Death launches more Fatal Feathers towards her from his angel wings, but this time the Wolf ducks down, and the feathers fly through the sandstorm behind her. Ruby barks, clamping the massive jaws down towards him, and Death catches her jaws once more, and she constantly roars at him, saliva spat across his black armour. Death remains locked in position, dwarfed by the Wolf, and yet he is still holding his own. “I never should have listened to him! I should have struck you down when we had the opportunity! I should have killed you!” Ruby screeches from within the Wolf as it roars at Death, and the Knight stares right at her, able to sense the anguish in her Wolf somehow.

But Death is unable to defend himself from what Ruby does, she forces her jaws down with all her might and there is an almighty crack from the armour where she forces the teeth into the Isomacium with every ounce of muscle in her mouth. Plates of metal inside of his arms crack and shatter from within and his arms snap, making the Knight roar with pain, black smoke pouring from the wounds. Then the teeth puncture down into his armour, and she begins to writhe him around, wagging the Knight forcefully and able to rip chunks of metal from his armour.

Then she smashes him straight into the ground with great force, creating a massive crater in the ground where he landed, dust rising from the impact point. Death groans, staring at the damaged arms and he lifts his head to the Wolf that is about to attack him once more. Death rolls aside at the perfect moment, stood beside the crushed remains of Serena. He steps into the fog and Ruby loses sight of him, snarling softly as she looks for him, panting with exhaustion with her jagged sharp canines pressed together with rage in her eye. But Ruby can figure out what he is doing, he is using the shadows to repair the damage done to his arm. “Why did this thing have to happen to me now? Why didn’t you show yourself earlier? Why did I not save them?” She questions with agony in her voice.

Then the Wolf catches onto something.

The swooping of wings in the storm, her large triangular shaped ears perk up when she senses the entity circling her in the storm. The Wolf snarls aggressively with animosity, when suddenly the Giant Nevermore emerges from the storm behind her with a roar, stabbing the talons into her back, making the Wolf yelp and roar with agony, staggering across the ground as the Nevermore pinches the back of her neck with its beak. Death is using his Nevermore Form to regenerate the damage done to his arms, since it takes longer due to the fact it is still daytime and the sunlight is only barely coming through the storm. Death’s Nevermore continuously stabs his talons into her spine and begins to rip chunks of flesh and tufts of fur from the back of Ruby’s Wolf Form’s neck. “I’m gonna tear you apart!” Ruby screeches from within, and the Wolf howls monstrously, jumping upwards and spinning round, biting down onto the legs of the Nevermore, causing it to shriek with agony.

The Big Bad Wolf thunders a roar as she smashes the Nevermore directly into the road with all of her might, creating an almighty crash. The Nevermore slides across the ground, and Ruby charges straight for the beast, leaping right for her with a deafening roar, biting down onto the neck of the Nevermore and dragging it across the ground, and launches it into one of the buildings. The wall collapses around the Nevermore, and Ruby retreats slightly, watching the rubble to see what the Nevermore does next.

Suddenly the huge black wings erupt from the collapsed building, and the giant bird rises above the Wolf, flapping its wings back and forth to hold itself above the Big Bad Wolf. The red eyes of the Grimm glare straight down at the monstrous wolf, and she growls at it monstrously. The Nevermore screeches right back, diving towards her and slashing the wolf with its talons, before taking off once more, circling her with those titanic wings casting shadows over the storm. The Wolf backs up, watching the sky as he circles her, until he suddenly appears once more after launching more Fatal Feather towards her.

The Nevermore dives towards her, but the black giant bird erupts into smoke, and the Knight launches towards the Knight, his fist pulled back and thrusting forward against the side of the head of the Big Bad Wolf. The impact is so powerful that the shockwave from his fist shockwaves through her skull and ripples across the muscles and the pelt that covers her body. The Wolf staggers back and growls with anger, spinning round to smash the clawed paws into Death, but he lifts his arm and stops her arm before he swings round and uppercuts the Wolf. Every punch that the Knight delivers is powerful enough to shatter buildings, and the Wolf backs up.

Death stares the Wolf down, stood tall with his now repaired arms, pacing back and forth, mimicking the Wolf. “You clearly have a few tricks up your sleeve, you really are full of surprises.” Death chuckles as he stares at her, and she snarls, but does not attack immediately. Ruby inside of the Wolf is staring through the silver eye of the Wolf with gritted teeth in a scowl, still streaming with tears.

“How could you?” Ruby stammers with a cracked voice, still able to see the bodies of the three that died before she could reach them.

Then Death figures it out, turning to the three Silver Eyed Souls that he cut down. Then he stares straight at her, most of their foes unlike the Knight would take this opportunity to throw trash talk at her. But Death does not, if anything he seems to sympathise with her. “They did not have to die – they fought well, it was an honour to face them. I hope they find a better place than the Charred forest in their Afterlives.” Death states, as he looks at the dead bodies on the ground.

But Ruby does not respond with sympathy in return, she screams with rage, and the Wolf does the same, charging towards him and Death raises his fists in the boxing stance. His fighting style clearly is more diverse than just using Ferrum Arctus, which makes him formidable. The Wolf goes to clamp her huge jaws upon the Knight’s torso, but Death sidesteps out of the way and returns with one powerful blow to the side of the Wolf’s head, making her stagger, but she immediately slashes her clawed paw across Death’s chest, too fast for him to avoid. He is knocked back extremely far, but he remains on his two feet, even with the Wolf making her next attack.

Death immediately swipes his fist across the face of the Big Bad Wolf, then he manages to catch her paw with his forearm before punching her straight in the throat again. The Wolf yelps, but she jumps over him and lands right behind him, clamping her jaws down at him but he spins round with a deadly roundhouse kick that makes her stumble further. The Wolf charges afterwards, biting down onto his right arm, proceeding to drag the Knight and throw him into a building. Death crashes straight through it, but he still stands back up, staring at the Wolf constantly and remaining calm the entire time.

Ruby’s Wolf turns, still sharing the same tactical skills that Ruby herself shares, and it can see the supports that are still weak above Death. She swiftly slashes her claws across the damaged Wooden support, which is enough to cause it to shatter like glass, blasting splinters of Wood everywhere around them. Death looks up as the ceiling above him cracks and collapses straight onto him, so he ducks down and his Nevermore Wings extend outwards, shielding his body from the huge lumps of Concrete that come crashing down onto his body. Hardly even affecting him, only making him stand back up and shaking the silt from his ashen black feathered appendages.

The Wolf snarls at him with furor, and Ruby stares at him through the Silver Eye of her Spirit Animal. “What will it take for you to just die?” Ruby questions, short of breath as she staggers back, slowly backing away from the Knight as he steps out of the rubble. Somehow he is hardly even affected by any of the wounds she inflicted, and even if she does he can just shift into his Nevermore Form to get away from her.

She is nearly out of options...

Until a powerful blue dust charge suddenly flies through the sandstorm, colliding against the side of Death’s head, making him flinch, he slowly turns in the direction he felt it come from. Ruby’s Wolf turns as well, and to her surprise, she sees the Architect stood there with his rifle trained on the Knight of Death. Along with Kragen Nox and Oscar, who must have been given a boost of aura to be able to fight against after last time. Oscar stares at the Big Bad Wolf with widened eyes.

“Ruby?” Oscar mutters with a soft shocked voice. Kragen looks at her, and despite the anger that Ruby has towards him right now, she can still see the anguish on his face. If there is one thing that makes him better than most people, like Thaddeus was, he feels the consequences of his actions. But that does not make it right, the Wolf growls at him but she does not attack him, since he is still their ally.

Death stares at them all and he clenches his hands into fists. “So many surprises today.” He chuckles, cracking his neck as he stands there, ready to battle if he must. Ruby’s Wolf roars with animosity and Death stares at her then at Oscar as he grits his teeth and charges as well. Death’s wings extend outwards and he sprints towards both of them, swinging his fist directly at the pair.

 

**Fear**

Qrow slams his sword straight into the curved blade of Formido Falcem, staring straight at the gritted smirk of the Knight of Fear. Rylen cackles maniacally, ripping the scythe from the presence of Qrow’s powerful weapon, immediately coming round and slamming the blunted side against his head, causing the Huntsman to stumble, before being kicked square in the chest. Fear turns as Pyrrha launches Akuou straight at his head with all her might, creating a metallic clang upon contact with his skull, making him stumble with a dazed animation, until Jaune leaps at him with Crocea Mors extended into its Greatsword Form, bringing it down towards him.

Fear takes a mighty hit but slides backwards, spiralling round on the spot, and Jaune makes a second attack with the powerful sword he has upgraded, but the Knight catches the blade with is rotten bony hand, kneeing the young man in the gut, before slashing Formido Falcem across his thick aura. Jaune retreats so then his aura can recover, at the perfect moment too, because Oobleck and Port make their attacks. Port roars, enraged from the hallucination that Fear inflicted upon him, smashing the axe head of his Blunderbuss down into the Knight’s shoulder, but Fear catches him by the throat, squeezing his neck tight. Port grapples onto the strong forearm of the Knight to free himself, but it means nothing as Fear takes him and thrusts him straight through a destroyed pillar, which sends him tumbling.

Oobleck ignites the flames from his Thermos, taking it with both hands as he smashes it into the Knight’s chest, flames engulf him as he is thrown across the room, and Rylen thrusts his wings backwards to throw himself back towards him. As Fear sails right back towards the Huntsman, he spins through the air in a corkscrew motion, punching him in the side of the head, then landing right behind him. Fear slides towards Pyrrha and begins his attacks, spinning Formido Falcem with such speed and skill, very much like Ruby Rose in fact.

The curved serrated blade slices through the ground as he moves towards her like it is made of butter, but Pyrrha displays her immensely impressive skills as she performs a cartwheel backwards to avoid the attack. She immediately transforms Milo into its Spear form and launches it straight into Fear’s chest, and the spearhead lodges clean through his ribs, a blow that would kill any other Grimm. But the Knights are not Grimm and are far more powerful and resilient than anything they have faced. Yet Pyrrha continues to show she is still the Invincible Girl once more, as she gracefully jumps in the air and smashes Akuou sideways against his head, before grabbing onto Milo still lodged between his ribs, swinging round to kick him in the head with booth heeled feet. As she twirls through the air, she catches Milo, transforming it into Rifle form whilst still in his chest, firing it three times, using the recoil to launch it from his body, and damage him at the same time.

Pyrrha lands down, her knee pressed to the ground and slowly lifting her head as she stares at him with a grin. Fear chuckles, having to twist his head back round from how hard she managed to kick his skull. “Fair play, I see you still have your skills even in Reincarnation.” Fear compliments with a laugh. Pyrrha stares right back, still carrying that polite charm that she has towards her foes.

“Thank you, you’re not so bad yourself.” She compliments kindly, which really throws Fear off, staring at her with an utterly bewildered expression.

“Did – Did you just compliment me? In a fight?” Fear questions with awe, unable to tell if that is more insulting or not.

“Why of course, why wouldn’t I?” Pyrrha inquires softly as she stands there, shield raised in case if he tries anything. Fear chuckles, scratching the back of his head, unaware that Qrow is getting back up whilst he is distracted, slowly transforming his sword into its Scythe form, gritting his teeth.

“I must admit I have never been given a compliment on the battlefield before.” Fear admits, turning as Jaune stands back up, cracking his neck.

“Yeah...well...first time for everything.” Jaune shrugs, when Qrow suddenly yells, and with both hands he crashes his Scythe across the flank of Fear, sending him flying across the room, just missing Fury who does not even react.

 

**Fury**

Fury bellows with rage, smashing his burning axes at Kassius constantly as he crawls back on the ground, reaching for Lash Equinox which has been transformed into their spear form. Blake screams as she swings across the room, landing on his back to wrap her grappling hook cable around his throat, hauling him back from Kassius, causing him to thrash around to grab her, roaring aggressively. Fury stumbles around as Blake tightens the cable around his throat, seeing flashing images of her parents being killed before her very eyes. Kassius grabs Lash Equinox and he rushes straight to Fury, driving the spear straight through his eye, leading to an utterly deafening screech from him as he grabs onto the double ended spear. Blake leapt off at the perfect moment, just avoiding the spearhead that protrudes from the back of his skull.

Embers and lava escape from the wound like blood, as he staggers around with his vision partially impaired. “Nice work, you good?” Kassius asks her, as he spins his spear through his cybernetic fingers, she exhales with exhaustion though, pressing her hands against her knees.

“Surviving.” She sighs, sweat trickling down from her brow as she stares at the Knight, grabbing Lash Equinox and ripping it from his skull, throwing the double ended spear onto the ground. His jagged molten metallic teeth grit together with furor, glaring at them and they watch the wound rebuild itself with magma and superheated ashes. “I can’t find a weak spot on him, he just recovers from every attack I make.” Blake pants, turning to her best friend’s boyfriend. They both watch as he forms new scorching berserker’s axes, holding them out by his sides.

Kassius flicks his arms downwards, and ejects the empty magazines that were loaded into Vulcan Nox, before holding the empty sockets near the magnetic mags on his belt around his waist. “We just need to push the bastard to his limits.” Kassius tells her, staring straight at the monster before them.

“And how will we do that?” Blake inquires.

“When we fought him on the Volcanic Chain Isles, his weakness was the centre of the chest.” Kassius tells her, remembering the glowing hot heart of magma within those obsidian ribs he has. And he can determine that might still be the case because his chest seems to be glowing the brightest.

“Yeah but didn’t he go berserk? He isn’t now.” Blake points out.

“I know...but it’s worth a shot.” Kassius states.

Their little planning talk shatters into a thousand pieces as Vex launches one of his newly forged axes straight at them both, and Blake vanishes into a shimmer as she rolls out of the way. “Shit!” Kassius exclaims, having to roll out of the way without an illusion helping him out. Fury forms a brand new one in that same hand, and he storms towards them with anger in his eyes. “Little bit if warning next time, Vex?” Kassius requests, as the Knight swings his axe straight at him, but the Huntsman ducks own, punching the Knight in the knee with his cybernetic augmentation.

Fury does not even respond to his request, just with a burning hot roar as he slams his axe downwards at him once more, devastating a table in the process. “You could’ve just said no!” Kassius replies, firing Vulcan Nox constantly at the back of his torso, the bullets do hardly any damage but it just makes him snarl. Blake cannot help but laugh at something that crosses her mind as she kicks Fury in the chest with both feet, rolling the landing off.

“You sound like Yang!” She states, with a smile on her face as she looks at him, remembering how she heard her saying that to a couple of Ursas in the Emerald Forest when they teamed up.

“What can I say? She has a way with words.” Kassius states, in which Blake nods.

“Indeed she does.” Blake agrees, thinking of all the cringey puns she constantly made, which were so bad she nearly rolled her eyes into the back of her head once. Fury growls as he glares at the two friends.

“You two done sharing stories?” Fury asks them both, and of course – to nobody’s surprise – Kassius replies in with a smartass comment.

“Oh I have some more bed time stories if you wanna hear them.” Kassius answers with raised brows and a cocky smile that squints his eyes. Blake stares at him with widened eyes, from shock at the fact he just said that to Fury – the one with the shortest sense of humour and fuse of any of the Knights.

“Rather not!” Fury bellows, throwing one of his burning axes towards them, so then they both dash out of the way, as Fury swings straight at Blake. The Feline Faunus shimmers away and she slides under his legs, slicing her blades across the back of his legs to bring him to his knees for a second.

“Hey, Kas? Would you mind not poking the Fury?” Blake inquires curiously as she sprints round and she slashes Gambol Shroud across the centre of his chest, making Fury growl with pain. Kassius laughs, as he sprints towards Fury, with Lash Equinox back in his hands and split back into both Swords.

“Oh come on! Poking the Fury is great fun!” Kassius replies, kneeing Death up the jaw as he drives both blades into the ribs of the Knight, as the hot flames burst out and against his aura, Kassius groans with disdain as he feels it coursing across his body. Until Fury grabs him by the face with his burning hand, slowly deteriorating his aura, staring him in his amber eyes.

“You are really annoying!” Fury roars, throwing him into Blake who shimmers away. Kassius tumbles across the ground, and as he stops, he turns as he looks at Blake stood there, holding his arms out with confusion, clearly questioning why she didn’t catch him. Blake just shrugs her shoulders at him, then Kassius looks right back at Fury, standing back up.

“What can I say? It’s part of my charm.” Kassius states, making the Knight growl, the meter of anger growing constantly. Fury charges straight for them, and Kassius fires both Vulcan Nox bracers at Fury’ chest, blasting multiple bullets directly into his weak spot, and Blake does the same thing, and the more bullets that they pump into that exact spot, deep glowing cracks begin to spread across his body from that point. Fury snarls with disdain, staring straight at Kassius.

“I’m sorry.” He sarcastically says.

 

**Loss**

 

Winter turns when she hears the muffled scream of Kassius as he gets punched by Fury again, then she turns to Cinder who crosses her swords over each other when Loss lunges directly at her, scraping across her glass swords, causing many sparks to burst out from the erosive contact of both blades. Starla slams her heeled boot into Cinder’s lower abdomen to push her away, and she spins round into a cyclone as she slashes her constantly, wearing her aura down extremely effectively.

Cinder retreats, her eyes still burning with the powers of the Fall Maiden, ready to unleash them on the Schnee Knight but waiting for the perfect time. Starla stabs one of her Tonfas into the ground, casting a Glyph behind her and their eyes widen as they see a Deathstalker form behind her with a huge barbed tail arching over its head. The massive Scorpion screeches as it charges towards them after she steps aside, challenging Winter whereas Cinder scuffles with the overgrown arachnid by herself.

Starla thrusts towards Winter but she blocks her attack with her sword, locking them both in position and Winter stares directly into her Great Aunt’s eyes, which mirror her own. “Starla! You don’t have to follow the path the damn Soothsayer laid out for you!” Winter argues, but Starla grits her teeth with anger, pushing down with force before kicking Winter in the face. She leaps straight at her, striking downwards with both of her Tonfas, only just missing when she rolls out of the way, forming a Glyph barrier between her and the Knight, catching one Tonfa in it.

“You’d never understand!” Starla argues, but she manages to cast a spell with her Semblance that shatters her niece’s glyph, forming a Black Glyph beneath her feet to throw her into the air. Starla casts one beneath her feet, using it to jump high into the air, and she forms a pair of glowing White Dove wings that fold out from her dress, white light still covering her body. The white light that surrounds her naked body appears to take the form of some kind of celestial armour, created from her Glyphs.

It seems that even Winter has a lot to learn.

Clearly the black dress is not really a dress, more so something she can cast around her body.

A disguise.

By doing so, Winter can actually see the extent of the torment this poor woman has suffered through, the scars she has been given from her time as a Vanguard. Some clawed scars across her slim curved belly and a deep stab cut above her breasts from fighting Humans and Faunus. Her wings swing fast, as she grabs Winter and smashes her down into the ground with force. The mahogany wood floor cracks and explodes beneath Winter, she groans with pain from that attack. It has not ruined her aura strength but has dealt a lot of damage, she needs time to shake the dizziness off. Loss slowly walks around her, looking more like an Angel than a Fallen Angel, but as her Wings wrap around her body, the light darkens and the feathers form the Widow’s Dress. And the white glyph armour fades away into white dust. “You are skilled but clearly a lot of our family’s secrets have been lost, I guess my sister never really did learn everything, did she?” Starla questions, crouching down beside Winter, staring at her with her Tonfas still in her grasp.

Tonfas never seemed like they were weapons that a Schnee would use, but when looking at the craftsmanship of the weapons, it is clearly made for a Schnee. Sleek and firmly forged, at least Vir Nominis Umbra has a sense of Style for the weapons that he cursed them with. “I am still learning.” Winter groans as she tries to stand back up.

“Not fast enough though, are you?” She challenges, sounding like how Winter was towards Weiss when she was learning to summon. Winter looks up at her, whenever she fights Starla, they always end up having a conversation rather than battling. But that is her way, Starla does not want to fight anymore, it is clear since she could have killed Winter right now.

But she has not taken the opportunity, letting her Summoned Deathstalker handle Cinder so they can have a chat. “Still learning a lot though, but you have only mastered the basics.” Starla states, making Winter chuckle since she has spent so long to learn her strengths.

“Really? Then enlighten me?” Winter requests, coughing as she looks up at her, so Starla obliges, as she holds her hand out to her. Winter looks confused, to realise that she is offering her hand to Winter to stand back up. Amidst all of the combat and violence around them, she is being gentle. Winter takes her hand and stands up with her, looking at her. Starla sheathes her Tonfas and she takes Winter’s hand, and her blue eyes begin to glow, and so do Winter’s.

“Schnees are unique, our Semblance is the vastest of any ever discovered. The only one to have rivalled our powers were the Arcs. But we have the ability to change things, or create things...or even destroy the things around us.” Starla explains, Winter looks at her palm and to her amazement...there is a tiny little mouse in her palm. But not one that has been summoned, it is a living mouse that was just born from the gift that Starla had placed in her hand. The mouse looks up at her curiously, squeaking.

Starla then shows her face again, not inflicting the terrible sad memories upon her since she can control that side of her curse. “The Schnees also would form clothing with our Semblance, the Schnees never bought clothes were merely created clothes around our bodies instead. Like a disguise, makes it very easy to infiltrate – and saves on money as well.” Starla admits, and Winter cannot help but laugh at that comment.

She may be a Knight of Grimm.

But deep down she is still a Schnee.

Winter crouches down and lets the Mouse run away into the wilderness before looking up at the Knight again who has ceased combat with her to have this conversation. “Why are you showing me this? Why aren’t you trying to kill me?” Winter inquires, staring at her ancestor before her very eyes, she sighs as she lowers her head, and her veil.

“I don’t want this, Winter. I never did – I just wanted to end violence, end suffering. But I let my stupid adolescent mind trick me.” Starla explains, walking away from Winter, whilst the nearby crashes and yells make them flinch, except for Starla. “I vowed to never lay with another man, but when I met Krekras...I thought I could get away with it. But the Gods watched every mistake I made, every night I shared with him whilst my husband was back in Arkhonex. I let my arrogance of being a Schnee corrupt me...and this is my consequence – my punishment.” Loss explains as she stares out the boarded window, seeing that the Sandstorm is thinning out.

Winter lowers her head sadly, it is unacceptable to cheat on your partner, but the agony in her voice shows she has paid for her sin.

Then why does she continue to suffer?

“My sister stayed loyal to her husband, had three beautiful children and led our family through the darkest of times. Lead countless others from the remnants of our Empire and started anew with the Arc and the Nikos families. I don’t blame her for striking me from the family history – I betrayed everything we stood for.” She explains, tears trickling down from her eyes and down her cheeks.

Starla turns to look at Winter, and she says something that reveals something she never expected. “You are more like my sister, Winter. But Weiss – she shares the same curiosities that I had – and I worry that the curiosity could evolve into arrogance...and she will make the same mistakes I made. I do not want that for her.” Starla explains, and it is true.

Winter looks and acts more like Starla’s sister, whereas Weiss is merely a younger looking version of Starla. “Weiss would never cheat on Neptune, she loves him with all her heart.” Winter assures.

“I loved my husband, all it takes is one stupid thought to ruin everything. I hope she is better than I was – for her own sake.” She states, clearly hoping that Weiss does not become the next Knight of Loss.

Without a single forthwith warning, a glass arrow flies directly towards Loss, and she spins round with her Tonfa, carving it clean in half with one impressive swing, they both turn to see Cinder stood there. The Summoned Deathstalker crumbling away into white ashes behind her with her Bow in her grasp. “Done chatting?” Cinder questions with furious amber eyes, her other hand clenched into a fist. Winter stares at Cinder and then at Starla as she looks right back at her.

“Sapphire...” She speaks, calling her by her old name that only Kassius names her by, but that only seems to enrage her even further.

“Do not call me that! I don’t deserve it after what I have done.” Cinder states, her voice cracking as she speaks to her enemy.

“The fact you are here now, fighting with the people you once called enemies – proves that is not the case.” Starla states, even showing that she knows that she is not on the right side.

“Then why are you fighting for Umbra?” Winter questions, since Starla has not given them a proper answer. Starla glares at Winter as she tightens her grip on the Tonfas.

“Because it is what I deserve!” Starla yells, suddenly lashing towards them both. Starla twirls round, scraping the razor sharp curved blades of her Tonfas across Cinder’s Elven Swords and her aura. The impact shatters one of the blades into a thousand different pieces, coming round to kick her down the top of her head. Starla immediately deflects the attack from Winter as she strikes, fighting once more, using the Glyphs that she knows against her, jumping off one to slash across Starla’s Aura. But Starla slams her Tonfa against her sword, knocking her out of the air. “Did you learn nothing? Think outside the box!” Starla yells, as she sprints towards her, slamming her Tonfas against her sword, knocking it from her grasp.

Winter’s eyes widen as she sees her bringing both blades down towards her with all of her might. Winter closes her eyes and tenses, raising her forearm, waiting to feel pain. Until an almighty metallic clang erupts and her eyes widen, slowly turning to see that her emotions have casted something familiar. A summoned Vambrace that looks just like Raven’s, catching her Tonfa in place. She looks at Starla, and she is not angry, shocked or anything.

She looks proud.

Winter smiles back, then she strikes, smashing the Vambrace across Starla’s face to get her away so then she can rise back to her feet. All she did was picture Raven’s Vambraces because they could do some damage, she closes her eyes and forms another one for her other arm, picking her sword back up. “Now you’re getting it, niece.” Starla compliments with a smile, stood before her.

 

**Pyrrha**

She holds Milo upwards, blocking the Scythe from Fear as he attacks her, forcing her down onto her knees, towering above the much smaller woman, her robes made from dead flesh fluttering in the wind that comes through the cracked windows. His eyes glow bright gold as he pushes her further and further onto the ground. “Tell me, Miss Nikos – how far would you go to save the one you love?” He challenges, asking the same question he asked Jaune all those years ago. She grits her teeth, wrapping her legs around his neck as she throws him off of her, rolling across the floor and back to her feet. She stands in the Phalanx Position, shield forward and weapon pointed through the gap in the shield.

“As far as it takes.” She responds, turning to see Jaune getting back up, rushing into Fear’s side with his shield, making him grunt with annoyance, stabbing the Knight in the flank with his sword. Before Fear could strike him, he rolls back and his arm is slashed immediately by Qrow’s sword, cutting deep but not enough to slice it clean off. He snarls with animosity, drooling on the spot as he stares into his eyes, spinning round as he slams his wings across Qrow’s face.

He grabs Formido Falcem, and he stands back, and a haunting howl begins to form from his mouth that stretches down at an unnatural distance, eyes glowing brighter and brighter. He unexpectedly darts forward with a screech, in a zigzag pattern, slashing everyone in his path. Pyrrha turns as she sees Blake and Kassius struggling in their fight against Fury, then seeing Loss throwing Cinder through a pillar and kicking a tired Winter from the balcony. She hops down from the balcony and lands right behind the two Huntresses.

Then...

Fear grabs Jaune by the throat and lifts him off the floor, smirking monstrously before he smashes the love of her life down through a table with force, greatly weakening his aura. She grits her teeth with anger, and slowly rises up as she aims her weapons at the Three Knights of Grimm.

Pyrrha launches Akuou directly at the back of Fear’s head, using her polarity to send it bouncing towards the other Knights of Grimm, getting their attention. She sprints straight for Fear first, sliding under Formido Falcem as he swings it directly at her, and she carves the blade of Milo clean through his leg. Fury turns and roars with furor, charging straight at her with Loss turning, to walk towards her instead of charging like her ally.

Jaune watches in awe, seeing something he saw before, but not this side.

Pyrrha Nikos back in action.

And this is putting her battle against Team C.R.D.L to shame.

Pyrrha ducks down, just dodging the attack from Fury as she rises up, swiping Milo across the Burning Knight’s knees, immediately coming round as she jumps in the air, swinging round to slash Fear across the side of his head, dealing a deep gash across his face. Rolling the landing off, she swipes her leg across the legs of Loss to knock her over, instantly twirling round on the spot, extending the sword form of Milo into Spear Form, pointing it directly at Fear as he rushes towards her, firing a few rounds through the spearhead. Fury bellows, jumping directly towards her with both fiery axes held above his head, smashing them both down into the ground where she was stood.

The impact creates an almighty explosion that throws shards of wooden splinters everywhere. Pyrrha rolls right out of the way of his attack, and as he turns round to attack, she smashes Akuou across his face to stun him, before kicking him in the head, and throwing Milo in its spear form right though his temple. Fury roars with pain, and she turns round, only using Akuou, throwing it into the snout of Fear, and then ducking down as it rebounds to her. The shield collides into Loss’ face, then she catches it in a back flip, avoiding the Fear Toxin Smothered Bolt from his Crossbow.

Using her polarity, she reaches out to Milo and pulls it from the side of Fury’s head, creating immense pain and anger for him, and she catches it whilst the spearhead is still hot, and smashes it across the chest of Loss, bringing her to one knee, dropping down to stab her in the spine with it. The Schnee Knight rolls aside and Pyrrha stabs the ground, and as if she has a sixth sense, she turns to see Fear sprinting at her, swinging Formido Falcem directly at her, but she drops to her knees and pulls her back all the way down, the curved blade only narrowly misses her chin.

Pyrrha jumps back up to her feet, spinning her spear through her fingers as she transforms it into the rifle form, holding Milo in one hand by the trigger, firing it straight into the side of Fear’s head, then raising her shield to block the attack from Loss at her left. She moves with such grace and agility, even the Knights are unable to challenge when together. Fear instantly comes for her with his huge Scythe, hacking and slashing at her, but Pyrrha still manages to use Milo in Spear Form to block every attack, spinning it so fast it creates a red ring of blurred light. She slashes Akuou across his exposed ribs then fires Milo from her hand into the same spot, sending Fear flying, until she pulls him all the way back with her Polarity.

She rips Milo from his chest and sends him flying into Loss, knocking both of them onto the ground. Fury glares at her, smoking more and more with animosity, rushing towards her as he charges the magma into the head of the axe, slamming it down at her with a roar. Fury finally lands a hit, yet still inconsequential against Pyrrha, as she holds Akuou up and the impact pushes her across the floor, but it does not even harm her aura.

Her eyes widen and she gasps, turning to see Fear roaring, swinging Formido Falcem directly at her with both hands, so she jumps in the air, spinning round as she throws Akuou into Fury’s and lets it rebound into Fear’s as she did with him and Loss before. The attack works just as perfectly, and she lands, rushing towards Fear, dashing away from his Scythe, and she runs up one of the pillars, performing a back flip that ends with her stamping down on the back of his head with all her might.

Loss yells, leaping towards her and kicking towards her, but she raises Akuou so then it does not harm her face, stepping back from the energy sent through the shield. Loss spins round, slashing her Tonfas constantly at her, and Pyrrha blocks each attack with well placed moves with both of her weapons, then kicking her in the chest, before slashing Milo across her hair. She staggers back from the impact and the Knight instantly draws her Bow after connecting the two Tonfas together, managing to fire three arrows at once. Pyrrha leaps into the air and twirls round in a graceful pirouette, cutting all three arrows out of the sky.

Pyrrha lands and she throws her shield in the air, jumping and pushing her legs off it, zooming towards Loss and slashing straight through her body, the blade protrudes out from her spine and she drags her across the ground. Immediately spinning round from the critically damaged form of Loss, to deflect the attack from the already damaged Fear. Pyrrha performs a powerful back flip that kicks him up the jaw, before spiralling round and launching Milo in its spear form straight into his skull.

The impact takes Fear’s head clean off his shoulders, his body still stood there and his head pinned to the wall, still conscious due to being a Spirit, his only eye looking down, expecting to see his body. Only to see nothing but the floor. “Oh this ain’t right.” Fear states, before his body crumbles away into dust.

Fear’s body has been destroyed, his soul sent back to the Charred Forest before he can return again.

Pyrrha reaches out as Fury comes charging towards her, more and more cracked and eroded from the punishing he has suffered from Pyrrha Nikos in her skirmish against them all. Milo comes flying off the wall from the crumbling skull of Fear and she steps aside, letting Milo come stabbing straight into Fury’s chest, running at him as she smashes Akuou directly into his head before kicking him right in the chest, sending Milo deeper into his body. Fury growls with anger, smashing his axe down at her, but she rolls across his huge arm and kicks him in the side of the head, then throwing Akuou against his head as well.

The cracks are growing and growing across his body, even small burst of flames where his form is getting more and more unstable, about to explode right now in fact. It will not take much more punishment to destroy his form, but the bigger problem is making sure the explosion will not destroy the building and everyone inside. Pyrrha turns her eyes and notices a very heavy but large piece of metal support, one that she could launch towards Fury, send him outside of the house before he explodes.

Fury roars, sprinting straight at her and swinging his axe sideways towards her head, but she rolls aside and fires a round from Milo into his back, before firing multiple more at him as he turns. But Fury spins both Axes through his fingers, deflecting them skilfully, before stamping down at where she stood, before she leaps into the air, striking her boot against his head, landing down behind him, swiping him off his feet, stabbing him down into the chest with Milo, rolling back before he could even swing at her.

The dazed and extensively weakened Knight of Fury growls as he stands back up, staring straight at her with burning eyes, the cracks spreading to that point of his face. Fury growls, not willing to back down as he charges towards her, but she continuously slashes him over and over again in the chest, kicking him up the jaw with a back flip, landing it perfectly.

Then there are sudden and loud booms that erupt from within Fury. He holds his arms out, letting out a strident and deafening roar of rage, as the explosions detonate from within Fury, slowly causing him to erupt like a Volcano. Pyrrha turns to the large rebar piece, stretching her arm out to it, holding it with her Polarity, then she throws her arm at him, launching the huge chunk of steel into his chest, impaling him and carrying him through the wall. His roars fade further away, and not a moment too soon.

They all shield their faces as Fury erupts into flames in an enormous explosion, fire and smoke both rise high into the sky, chunks of pumice and obsidian rain down from the sky, and she sighs, lowering Milo and Akuou. Sweat trickles down from her pores, she even stumbles for a second as well. Jaune stands back up slowly, walking over to her and wrapping his arms round her, surprising her. “Oop!” She yelps, wide eyed from this affectionate hug. Then she hears Jaune giggle, looking at her.

“I know I said it before – but – good to have you back.” He chuckles, after seeing Pyrrha just wipe out the Knights of Grimm in a couple minutes. Then she turns to see Kassius who looks utterly bewildered.

“Why didn’t you just do that to begin with?” Kassius asks her with confusion, making her blush.

“Didn’t want to steal the limelight.” She admits, making Jaune smile.

He always knew she was back.

But after that.

Well, Pyrrha Nikos is definitely back.

They all turn their attention to hear Starla coughing with pain, seeing her on the ground with her hand on her wound. It is strange, they are spiritual entities yet they still feel pain and bleed just as living people would. She is the closest to being alive compared to the other three, which is sad since she does not really want to be alive anymore. She laughs softly, looking at Pyrrha with an impressed smile. “I see the Nikos’ haven’t changed a bit.” She chuckles softly, and Pyrrha sheathes her weapons.

She knows that of all the Knights, Loss is the most reasonable.

Winter is the one that crouches down beside her, looking at her as she leans back against one of the pillars in the large room. “Looks like some traits do carry on.” Loss says as she looks at Pyrrha.

“I learned my skills.” Pyrrha states, but Starla shakes her head.

“Actually – I was talking about how pretty you are. You look just like your Ancestors.” Starla compliments kindly, making Pyrrha blush, looking away, gently getting close to Jaune.

“Oh...I uh...I’m sure they were prettier, I uh...” Pyrrha awkwardly yet adorably stammers, making Starla chuckle.

“And there it is – the classic humble trait your family has always carried.” Starla points out, clearly she was well acquainted with her family, and then she looks at Jaune and Pyrrha. “Wow...An  Arc and a Nikos in love...I never thought I’d see the day.” Starla states, and Blake looks confused.

“What do you mean?” Blake inquires curiously.

“I kept a watchful eye on my family, even if they struck me from the records for my betrayal to our family. To sum it up? Three Family Houses years ago banded together: The Schnee House, the Arc House and the Nikos House. Together they created a safe haven after Arkhonex fell. It was a tradition for those who carry the blood of the family to never lay, or marry another from an allied house that carries the Family Blood. Not sure why, it was a strange concept. But in the years I watched over the three houses, never saw any Blood Carriers to engage in intercourse of even kiss. Glad to see that stupid tradition is gone.” She states with a chuckle.

Poor Jaune and Pyrrha had no idea about that.

Yet Starla seems happy for them.

“I didn’t know about that.” Jaune says, then Starla looks at Crocea Mors.

“Ah...Crocea Mors...that’s the weapon you have been striking me down with over and over again.” Starla points out with a smile, and Jaune looks at the sword and then at her.

“Uh...sorry?” He apologises.

“Don’t apologise, son...that sword is an ancient relic. One that is extremely gifted, I’ll smile when you unlock it’s secret...and your own.” Starla hints with a smile, and Jaune raises a brow.

“What do you mean?” Jaune asks her with confusion, Starla winces as she leans forward.

“Dear old Vyrryk Arc held a great secret, one that will prove to be extremely powerful to you in the future, Mr Arc.” She states, but without telling him.

“What secret?” Jaune asks.

“I never knew, but he hinted at it when I knew him. He said that _we Arcs hold a gift, something so unique that could rival even your house_. I must admit, I would love to know what that secret is.” Starla states, which raises so many questions in Jaune’s head.

_Secret?_

_Rival the Schnees?_

_Is this why Vir Nominis Umbra cannot control me?_

_Could it be enough to kill him?_

Starla sighs, looking at them all. “I wish I could have known you in a different circumstance, you all seem like good people.” She states with a kind smile.

“Then help us...you don’t want to serve Umbra I know you don’t.” Winter begs, holding her cold hand, but she slowly shakes her head.

“I have committed terrible sins...sins I am being punished for. This is what I deserve...” She sighs, and they know that until they learn more about her, they will not be able to convince her hear. “Go on then...finish me off.” Starla requests, looking at Pyrrha since she is the one that took them down.

Pyrrha sighs, drawing Milo as she walks towards her slowly. Then Starla smiles. “You really do look like her, you know?” Starla asks her with a smile.

“Who?” Pyrrha asks.

“Cynthia Nikos.” She answers.

The young woman that fell in love with Oscar when he visited Arkhonex, clearly she must have been one to carry the blood. “And you share the strength of her brother. Best of both worlds if you ask me.” She says with a smile, then she closes her eyes and exhales.

Pyrrha swipes her sword, and Loss fades away into a cloud of mist, unlike the others her destruction is not violent, explosive or scary. It is peaceful, she just fades away into a ghostly mist.

Now there is only one Knight left...

 

**Ruby**

With the clocks slowed down, Oscar charges towards Death, and the Knight stares at him, unaffected by the slowed down time, swinging Ferrum Arctus directly at him as he slides underneath the blade. He slashes Traveller’s Atrocity across the back of Death’s leg, but he stamps down right behind him. Oscar dashes aside and time resumes, and he moves at the perfect moment as Ruby bites down onto Death, shaking him around like a chew toy.

Until Death uses Ferrum Arctus against her, driving the blade up the Wolf’s jaw, creating a deafening howl of agony, he rips the blade out and he jumps out, swinging the sword round and slicing the neck of the Wolf. Oscar’s eyes widen with horror as he sees the Wolf’s head come sailing from the shoulders of the Wolf with one last roar, before it collapses to the ground. Death lands, turning to a weakened Kragen and The Architect who has his sword extended. Death paces back and forth, until he turns to the body of the Wolf.

Noticing that something is wrong.

Suddenly a bright flash of white light erupts from the Wolf, and Ruby erupts from the cadaver with Crescent Rose held behind her, screaming as she makes her attack. She slashes straight across Death’s chest, moving at the speed of light. The impact has dealt a tonne of damage, leaving a white gleam in his wound. Like a poison, Deaths stumbles, unable to heal the wound. He stares at Ruby and she stares right back at him, white flames raging from her eye and behind her eye patch. She holds Crescent Rose, which holds the markings of Isomacium inside of it.

Kragen hid Isomacium inside of Crescent Rose, making it even more powerful than usual. Death stares at her, and she leaps towards him with a widened eye as she yells, gritting her teeth together. Death swings Ferrum Arctus at her, but Crescent Rose slams it aside, creating a bright flash. The Knight staggers away from the flash’s shockwave, and she spins the Scythe around with great speed and skill, delivering countless blows.

Finally, she fires the rifle behind her, and she extends the scythe into its War Scythe Form, and she slashes straight through Death’s chest.

All the damage she dealt to him in her Wolf Form was enough for her to finish him off in her human form.

The impact creates an almighty bang within his body, and a singularity forms within his armour. She watches with anger as the Isomacium cracks and crushes into itself, pulling his body into the red void that is the Charred Forest. Death lets out a deafening roar as he is pulled away into the Realm of Umbra’s, and the skull collapses as the hole collapses with it.

And just like that...

Silence...

Ruby stands there, her eyes still burning with silver energy...

Until...

Her head becomes extremely light, and everything becomes dark.

“Ruby!” Oscar screams, catching her in his arms, holding her against his shoulder. He looks at Kragen who walks over to him.

“We need to get her to shelter, wait out the storm.” Kragen tells him.

Oscar does not speak, he just nods, still unsure if they can trust him, and the Architect follows the young man.

Kragen looks back at their bodies, and the grief is clear in his eyes.

“I’m sorry...”

He whispers those words as he walks away, letting the storm take them.

The thing Ruby does not even realise...

Is that she just did what nobody else has done.

She has destroyed Death without some miracle doing it for them.

If it were not for the Big Bad Wolf...

She may not have been able to finish him off the way she did.


	51. Beyond the Storm

**Adam**

A Horridus Morbus Thrall shrieks as it leaps towards the White Fang Commander as he blocks its jaws with the red blade of Wilt and Blush. The monster gnarls on the blade, scraping its teeth across the hard sharpened blade with pure aggression in his glowing red eyes. Adam stumbles backwards, roaring with rage as he punches the creature in the side of its head with all of his might, knocking it down slightly. The Thrall snarls, blood leaking from his jaws, still partially organic in some form, with spines of white bone protruding through flesh and skin. Blood staining the entire body from how much he has mutated into a monster. The Thrall roars, and Adam slashes with speed and force, slicing the Thrall’s head from his shoulders, causing the one Lizard Faunus to collapse to the ground, dead.

His hand shakes slightly at the sounds that thing made, he may be saved from the sight of what his people have become – but he still knows that they are gone. Adam slowly sheathes his blade back into the sheath, holding the scabbard in his cybernetic arm and hand that he acquired from the Belladonna Estate. Clearly he must have grabbed it before they got to where that camera was waiting for them.

Mazen lowers his Chainsword, with bits of Corrupted Faunus remains churned up in the mechanical teeth of the blade, blood oozing from the tip of the sword. “We must keep moving.” Mazen orders, walking ahead of the others, and Adam turns, hearing them all walking ahead. Fennec is crouched down by the corpse of one of the Horridus Morbus Thralls, examining the damage done to the body and how aggressive the transformation appears to have been. Corsac stops, looking back at his younger brother with a confused expression, spiralling dagger in his grasp.

“Fennec, get moving.” Corsac orders, but Fennec raises his finger to speak otherwise.

“This plague, it is turning our people into Creatures of Grimm, could this Doctor Merlot be responsible for this tragedy?” Fennec presumes, standing back up, seeing Mazen and his Elite Forces walking beside him. Yuma being among them with his swords sheathed on his back and a rifle among them as well, his wings folded up behind his back. His swords are named Riddler’s chant, with serrated edges in them and the barrels of firearms built atop the blunt end, trigger pulled in the hilt.

“What does it matter?” Mazen questions, not seeming to even give a damn about all the poor Faunus Settlers that have been killed by the outbreak, surprising even the Albain Brothers. Adam stares at him, knowing where he is by the sound of his voice.

“What does it matter?” Adam questions, repeating his own statement as he glares at the High Leader with a clenched cybernetic fist, gritting his teeth. Yuma immediately draws his swords, gritting his teeth with a snarling voice.

“You best stand down, Taurus.” Yuma advises with a threatening voice, in which Adam just scoffs. Clearly Adam is extremely conflicted, he may have turned against Blake and Humanity, but he knows of what the real threat is. He saw it on the Volcanic Chain Isles and in Mistral and clearly this is part of that monstrous plan created by the Soothsayer.

“These are our people, Mazen. How can you just shove their deaths aside like that?” Adam questions with anger, in which Mazen just stares through his mask at him. The mask has been customized, even upgraded from the time they last saw it. This version of it is made of metal and still carries the same paintjob but now the visors are actually glowing red and seem to have targeting systems implanted into it. Not only this, but it has a pair of oxygen tanks attached to the bottom section, allowing him to breathe easily in plagued areas. Despite the fact that the plague is no longer in the air, he still wears his combat gear. His armour also has been improved with multiple plates for maximum movement, since that was where he failed before, and multiple pouches for his Handgun he has holstered on his chest.

Mazen walks towards him, placing his hand on Yuma’s shoulder to get him to stand down, still not breaking eye contact with the Commander. “They are dead, Adam. What more can we do for them?” Mazen questions, in a very cold way yet in a very intelligent way as a leader too. Adam keeps his teeth gritted, and his fists clenched tight, the two Albains both stare at him with concern, ready to intervene if they must. But the other Elite Faunus Warriors are stood there at the ready.

One of them appears to be a Spider Faunus with black markings across her arms and her neck with a Black Widow Tattoo on side of her face, her skin pale and a round head with brown eyes. Her hair is long and white, similar to the webbing, of which Spiders produce, silk like and creepy. She has a spear deactivated and slung onto the magnetic strips down her back, with electric dust charging the three barbs, making it more like a Trident than a Spear, yet the design is unlike Neptune’s Trident. She also has a pair of Tomahawks holstered on her belt around her wide waist, wearing the same tactical black Special Ops Outfit that the others are wearing.

Her name is Vera and she appears to be a Staff Sergeant by the rank on her shoulder and beneath the badge that shows her name.

Another appears to be a Rhino Faunus, with a pair of massive horns on his head and he is absolutely massive with muscles the size of Ruby’s body, standing taller than Mazen is. And Ursus is huge, and this man has countless scars across his body and a golden ring through his nose. His hair is shaven and he has a pair of massive Flaming Maces in his grasp that also have shotguns built into their lower halves. His brute strength makes him extremely dangerous, even without those enormous maces of his.

His name is Krueger and carries the rank of Captain beneath his name badge, clearly well earned from his long career.

Beside Yuma is the fourth of the Elite Faunus, and she seems to be out of her comfort zone here, and yet she still appears to be formidable. She is an Aquatic Faunus, more specifically a Barracuda Faunus, with scales across her body, and webbed fingers. And yet despite the fact she is on land, her feet can connect together into the tail of a Barracuda as soon as she gets into the water. She wields multiple knives, clearly specialising in throwing and stabbing with them, alongside a Sniper Rifle around her back which can be used underwater from the high tech customisations. Must have been stolen Atlesian Tech they got a hold of from raiding the Acolytes of Lien outposts for the past few months. She has ever so long blonde hair, and is surprisingly a very beautiful woman.

Her name is Bonnie, but clearly she prefers a different title to that, one that seems to compliment her looks.

Siren.

She is the lowest rank of all of them, only ranking as a Corporal, yet that does not mean she would be an easy enemy to challenge. She would not be a part of the Elite Faunus Forces otherwise.

The E.F.F Soldiers all stand beside their High Leader, glaring at the Former One who cannot even see them with his own eyes, yet he could still take them all on no matter what. Adam, still enraged by Mazen’s words, does not seem to hold back his anger. “We should at least show some respect for the losses of our own kind.” Adam growls, in which Bonnie looks at one of the corpses with a scoff.

“They were cowards for running from the real fight.” Bonnie states, her voice very soft yet very intimidating because of that.

“Exactly what I was gonna say, the strong survive and the weak die. I’m surprised you don’t seem to understand that, Adam.” Vera says, planting her hand on her hip with a chuckle, her voice venomous as the spider she seems to be based off.

“No, I merely know when innocents should never have to pay the price for our mistakes. We should have killed Salem at those islands but we focused on the Relics, if she were dead this may not have ever happened.” Adam explains, clearly not overly informed on the whole situation regarding how much command Salem actually has anymore over her forces. Then again, even she appears to be in the dark on that topic as much as Adam is.

“What happened in the past stays in the past, Adam. All that matters now is that we get inside of that building and we find whatever it is that Merlot is so keen of keeping from the public eye.” Mazen explains, turning to the large Radar Facility that they have managed to get to. With no other White Fang soldiers alongside them either, clearly they did not survive the charge to get there, probably being eaten by Thralls by now.

Yuma, clearly the most loyal of them all, has not backed down one bit, still ready to engage on Adam if he must to protect his High Leader. Adam stands there and he sighs, releasing his fists, and he cracks his neck, walking towards the rest of them. Fennec and Corsac both watch the Commander as he walks past them, and Fennec leans over to his older brother’s ear. “It appears that the Commander is struggling...he seems unwell.” Fennec whispers to him, and Corsac mumbles as he nods his head.

“Mm...My thoughts exactly. Let’s be sure to keep an eye on the young man.” Corsac advises, looking down at him, and Fennec chortles softly.

“Indeed we shall.” Fennec agrees, as they approach the entrance to the Laboratory.

Mazen stands before the metal doors, not glass as he was hoping, meaning they cannot just smash them down. He sighs, and he turns to his Elite Forces, and Krueger seems eager to smash it down. “Want me to break them down?” Krueger asks him, ready to sprint with his horns held forward to break it down. His skull and skin his naturally thicker than most people, meaning his can withstand a charge quite like that. But Mazen shakes his head; he is no hot headed fool.

“No, can’t risk it. Who knows how many security systems Merlot has prepared inside of that place.” Mazen states, turning to Vera who looks at him curiously. “Vera, get this door open.” He orders, and she nods.

“You got it, boss.” She assures, walking over to the panel on the side of the wall and she takes out her scroll. On the scroll a holographic display opens, in which she is able to hack her way through the dense firewall that she needs to break through stealthily. Whilst she works away, he turns to Yuma who walks up to him with his arms crossed.

“You know I’ve heard some pretty scary stories about this man, apparently he is the one responsible for what happened at Mountain Glenn.” Yuma tells him, sounding a little bit intimidated by this whole place, in which the former White Fang Lieutenant nods his head.

“I remember.” He answers.

“You were there, weren’t you? When that Torchwick guy set up operations down there?” Yuma asks him, and Mazen nods his head, remembering the many events that lead to that day.

“I was a mere Lieutenant back then, in charge of keeping our forces in line whilst he and that quirky little girlfriend of his played with the girls.” He explains, remembering the Skirmish that happened on that train rather well.

“How did you get off? You were never arrested were you? It was one hell of a crash.” Yuma states, remembering back to when he heard about it on one of his missions he was contracted with by Sienna Khan, when she was the High Leader.

And alive.

“I jumped off before the train crashed, luckily landed in the right spot. That and some help.” He explains.

“What help?” Yuma asks, and Mazen slowly looks over his shoulder when hearing the distant boom of combat down in Kuo Kuana. Must have been the end of the Battle against Death, the sound of his form collapsing into itself.

“I think you will see soon enough, Yuma.” He assures, when hearing the voice of Vera perking up.

“Gotcha! Door’s unlocked.” Vera assures, standing back up as the metal doors slide open before their very eyes. Yuma stares at Mazen with confused eyes of what he meant by that statement. But they all walk into the Merlot Industries Science Lab, looking around at the pristine condition. It looks very Atlesian, yet with a Valerian style to it. And the thing that is even more confusing and startling about the whole thing?

The power is on.

They can feel the air conditioning against their skin as they all stand there, staring at the lights all online. Strange that this is the only building that has power in the entire town of Kuo Kuana, now if it had an emergency generator that would make sense for the lock. But for everything to be working perfectly?

That is like they have their own power source, and the rest of the town was shut off by some kind of Electromagnetic Pulse.

Maybe that is why nobody cried for help.

Because they couldn’t.

But as soon as they open, they all raise their weapons when a loud musical sound effect plays from the powerful speakers that surround them all. It is such a joyous sound, yet since this man is very intimidating and unpredictable, they are not bouncing with the tone that reverberates through them all.

Then a large screen on the man wall above the desk where a receptionist would be sitting activates, showing the man sat in a seat with his hands clasped together and an ominous smirk on his face. He is an old man with one robotic, glowing red eye. He also has a robotic right arm with red inner circuits.

He has dishevelled gray hair, a matching moustache and beard, and prominent eyebrows. He wears a gray jacket with a high collar and a red shirt underneath.

They all stare up at the man with weapons ready, but do not bother engaging with a television screen, instead Mazen steps forward, staring up at him. “Greetings! And welcome to Merlot Industries, where we’re building a better tomorrow – today!” Merlot greets with his announcer voice, which some of them roll their eyes to. But Mazen just completely shuts him up before he can go any further.

“Don’t bother going into your whole Marketing Crap please.” Mazen requests, in which Merlot obliges, with a smile, sitting back in his chair as he stares down at them all.

“How exciting, White Fang – Elite Forces as well, I thought that division was wiped out a long time ago.” Merlot presumed.

“Yeah well we have made a bit of a comeback.” Yuma responds with a scoff, staring up at him with his arms crossed, beside Bonnie who has her hand on her hip.

“So it would seem.” Merlot agrees with an impressed voice, yet it still sounds rather condescending.

“I guess you know why we have come here.” Adam presumes, stepping forward as he hears his voice.

“Oh...Adam Taurus? Gone back to your old ways? I must say I am disappointed in you.” Merlot tuts, shaking his head pathetically as he stares down at him. Adam lifts his head, and despite being blind he looks like he staring right at the man, using his hearing to tell where his voice is coming from.

“Why do you care?” Adam questions.

“That such a convenient video would turn you against the people you cared for so quickly. Ever so disappointing.” He says, but then Mazen shatters that conversation before Merlot could reveal anything. Clearly the Doctor knows a lot more than people realise, perhaps he even knows that Vir Nominis Umbra was the one that killed Sienna Khan and not Blake in the first place. Adam would be lying he claimed he was questioning everything that Merlot had just said to him.

_What?_

_What does he mean?_

_Convenient?_

_No...No! Blake murdered her, I could tell it was real, she was there! I heard her voice, no software can mimic her voice that perfectly..._

“Enough of this, we are going in there are we’re taking that tech from you, Merlot.” Mazen states, staring up at him and Merlot sarcastically gasps, covering his mouth with widened eyes, chuckling.

“Oh no! I’m being robbed! Oh could some brave soul save me?” He cries out, mockingly doing the voice of a wailing woman as if she were running away. But the fake cries evolve into chilling laughter, until he stops and stares at the High Leader. “You are free to try, High Leader Ursus – but I must warn you that the things you will find in my Labs are...not for the faint of heart. And I should warn you – you are not the only people here on Menagerie, or the first person to get into this building.” He warns with a smirk, and Fennec raises a brow, stepping forward.

“What? Who is here?” Fennec questions, but Merlot is always one step ahead.

“I should stop wasting your time, please enjoy the tour. I hope the services are to your personal standards. Enjoy yourselves.” He requests with his arms stretched out to them with a smile on his face.

The feed cuts out, and they all turn to the sound of a pair of mechanical doors opening up from his authority.

“Who was he talking about?” Vera asks, but clearly he knows.

“The Spring Maiden, we bumped into her before but she got ahead of us remember? She must be after something inside of this place as well.” Mazen states, walking ahead of them all with Bonnie walking behind him immediately. The Elite Forces and the mysterious Albain brothers follow.

Adam stands there...

The last one to follow, his hand held close to Wilt and Blush.

 

**Ruby**

Ruby groans, her head throbbing and her eye stinging from the effects of her Silver Eyes being activated. The taste of a metallic tinge hangs in her mouth, she has to sit up slowly from the dizziness, noticing the bloodied tissues on the floor next to where she laid. Her nose is sore too, she must have had a nosebleed when she collapsed, and that taste of blood in her mouth is as strong as ever. But as she begins to sit up, the angered voice of Oscar can faintly be heard, yelling at Kragen.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Oscar bellows with rage, stood confronting the older Silver Eyed Warrior, staring him down. Kragen looks right back but clearly is calmer and under control compared to the boyfriend of the person he sacrificed three good people to save. “They didn’t have to die! We could have gotten away from Death in the storm!” Oscar shouts, his voice nearly breaking with the anger.

The Architect glares at him with crossed arms, speaking up to try and cool the situation off. “Calm down, Oscar – the situation was dire, you saw what Death managed.” The Architect states, in which Oscar scoffs when he turns to stare at him with widened hazel coloured eyes, unable to understand how he can take his side on this.

“Are you serious right now? Are you seriously taking his side after how he left the three of them to die? How can you possibly agree with such actions?” Oscar questions with disbelief and anger, but the Architect shakes his metal head, sighing through his computerised voice.

“I have known him all my life, he saved me when he could have left me to decay in Arkhonex. I have never known him to make a decision that was not for the greater good, and I still agree with him now.” The Architect sharply remarks, yet Oscar is having none of it, chuckling with awe at the two of them and their rather gray moral code. Whereas Kragen has yet to say a word on the matter surrounding the deaths of Gray, Vos and Serena.

“How can you say that?” Oscar questions, pressing his hands against his head as they wait out the storm inside of the building that they managed to track down. Ruby slowly sits up, hand pressed to her head as she recomposes herself.

“We needed to get her away from Death, if he killed her then we would be shit out of luck. You heard him, you, Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha are the only people we have seen so far that have been able to alter Vir Nominis Umbra’s plans. He is finding it harder and harder to control events because the four of you are not under his control.” The Architect explains, his metal hands pressed together.

Yet Oscar refuses to back down, pointing at the Architect swiftly. “That does not give you the right to just sacrifice good people like that! We all could have outrun him in the storm, we did not have to leave the three of them like bait! Serena was not even a Huntress, she was a freaking scientist!” Oscar argues, and finally Kragen speaks, lifting his head with his Isomacium Staff held close to his chest.

“They knew what they signed up for – we all did.” Kragen brings up, and Oscar stares at him with shocked eyes – mainly by how emotionlessly he said it. Oscar expected he would be pretty cold to death now since he has lived for thousands of years and watched his own people get destroyed around him. But he never expected the shock of it to hit him as hard as it did. “Everybody who came on this trip knew there was a chance of never coming home, I did not agree with every Silver Eyed Warrior that helped us and probably have died today. Most of them never held a weapon for more than a few months, yet they wanted to prove themselves.” Kragen explains, and Ruby slowly lifts her head with anger, now fully recovered, now remembering the anger she felt towards her teacher.

Kragen sighs, looking back at Oscar. “They knew the risks.” He states, just saying it like it makes their sacrifices right.

Ruby grits her teeth with a growl, suddenly springing up and dashing towards Kragen in a burst of red rose petals. She grabs him by the collar and pins him against the wall with force, and the Architect immediately aims his rifle at her. He does not want to shoot her but he will knock her out again if she tries to hurt his best friend. But Ruby is filled with rage, staring straight into his silver eyes, yet Kragen has not even flinched or reacted to her sudden lashing out.

Oscar stares at Ruby, he can understand her rage but he is worried about her as well. Because he knows her better than most people, and he can tell that the anger on her face reflects what she looked like when she cut down Dew Gayl. And he is right, because whilst she has him pinned against the wall, Roman Torchwick appears over her shoulder in her head. “Go on Ruby...kill him, show him how much of a warrior you really are.” He whispers into her ear, but Ruby continues to stare at him, until speaking.

“You abandoned them...left them to die.” She snarls with anger and heartbreak, remembering the terrible sights of their corpses on the ground. Kragen looks right into her eye, and all he does is gently touch her shoulder with his hand.

“If things were different they would still be here, but I had to make a call – Death was not going to stay in that stasis for long. I hated having to lie to them like that, but I needed to keep Death distracted.” Kragen explains, but she begins to tear up more and more, stammering as she speaks.

“B-But they never stood a chance.” She whimpers.

“I know...and I wish he never showed up, but he had the upper hand. He could have tracked us down immediately if we all left in a big group. If we went just the four of us, he would have had a harder time searching for us in the storm.” Kragen explains, then Ruby breaks down, releasing Kragen and collapsing to her knees as she tears up. Oscar walks over to her, gently touching her shoulder.

“Ruby? Can you hear me? Ruby you need to get up, we can’t stay here for too long.” Oscar gently says to her, unaware that Roman has formed once again, walking around him in her vision, patting him on the top of his head. Even though he cannot feel it since it is all in Ruby’s head and only she can see it.

“She heard you...she’s wondering how she can live with herself on her pathetic failure.” Roman states, crouching down in front of her as he stares into her eyes with a smile on his face, his cane resting on his lap.

“Ruby, the storm is about to thin out soon. We need to find the others and get to the Radar Station as fast as we can. We need to warn Glynda and the others of what Horridus Morbus can do.” Oscar explains, hoping to get through to her, but Ruby cannot get the failure out of her mind. She has always taken failures to heart, more than she gives herself credit for. Then Roman swipes his hand aside as he squats before her.

“Oh you can’t bring ‘em back, red! Why don’t you just let good ol’ Uncle Torchy take charge? No more bad memories, no more sadness...no more fear – scouts honour!” Roman assures with a big smirk on his face, raising his index and middle finger up with a smile, then Ruby lifts her head with a widened silver eye, remembering where she is and the task at hand.

“Blake...” She remembers, her voice still damaged and fragile. Oscar sighs with relief as he looks at her, and Roman walks away from Ruby’s point of view, and she takes Oscar’s hand. Oscar helps her back up to her feet and she wipes the tear from her eye. She knows that she needs to mourn them later, she cannot waste time here.

“You’re right, we need to get moving.” Ruby mutters, flicking her black and red hair back over her shoulder with a sigh. Roman walks around Ruby, staring at her as she follows Oscar, and he follows Kragen and the Architect. Their trust has been increasingly shaken in the man, he may have meant well to protect her, but they both believe that you should never sacrifice the lives of others for a single soul.

That distrust is like a catalyst of energy to Roman’s Spirit that follows her constantly, staring at her as they both walk through the building to find their way outside. “Who else do you think he will sacrifice to protect you Ruby?” Roman asks her, staring directly at the young woman with a smirk on his face, using Melodic Cudgel like a walking cane beside her, but Ruby tries her damndest to block him out.

In her head, she mutters to herself. “Go away...go away...go away...” She whispers in her own head as Torchwick follows her, now walking back and forth to each shoulder, whispering thoughts into her ear like the devil on her shoulder. The issue is, she has not found her angel yet...

“Why do you think he is protecting you? Do you think he gives a damn about _you_ or your _powers_?” Roman questions, pointing at Kragen as he walks with her, and Ruby sets her eye upon the man. And that question has truly entered her mind a couple times in the past, if he truly does care about them or if they are just tools he will use to stop the evils in the world. He may be on their side, but will he be there to protect them?

He has lived for thousands of years, watched countless people die, seen family members and friends rot away before his very eyes, and watched his Empire crumble to ashes around him.

That would be enough to make anyone cold.

And the Architect, he just feels the urge to have his back no matter what, because he feels that he owes the man a debt for taking him in. When he could have left him behind, let his A.I Code slowly crumble and fall apart, and disappear into sea of distant memory.

Ruby would be lying if she said that she never thought of these possibilities, because they are all flashing before her eyes right now. Roman chuckles menacingly as he swings his cane across his finger constantly with that deranged smile carved across his face, prancing along beside the small red hooded girl. “Perhaps your life is merely something to be forfeited to him and nothing more – like a pig that is raised for one purpose.” Roman states.

The man slowly leans down to her ear with a smirk as he utters the word to her. “Slaughter.” He concludes, and Ruby swiftly turns around.

Only to find that he is gone.

Oscar stops and turns to look at her, seeing Ruby having to press her back against the wall with her hand quivering, having to hold it in her other to calm it down slightly. With their auras connected, he can actually feel the trepidation, the anguish that plagues her soul. It is sad, because Oscar has never felt the aura of Ruby before she became this cold person due to everything she has been through.

One day...

Hopefully...

He can feel the Ruby she used to be.

Oscar approaches her and he looks at her, ever so gently stroking his hand across her cheek to move some long black and red hairs from her face to show the beauty that she has grown into. She shares the beauty of her mother, her heart shaped face and those large eyes of hers. The same Cupid ’s Bow lips that she had and the tenderly smooth skin, despite the faint burn scars that she has across her cheek and the right side of her body and her arm. They are not hugely noticeable luckily, but she can always see them, sometimes feel it. Oscar moves his fingers through her long black and red hair, which has grown to a similar length to Blake’s hair, but she tends to let it be wavy and curl over her left shoulder always. He holds her affectionately by the back of her neck, holding her hand in the other. “Hey...talk to me...” Oscar begs her with his soft voice.

Ruby’s hand is still quivering, despite having the hand of Oscar’s lovingly caressing it with his thumb. Her breath trembles as she stands there, and Oscar can tell that she seems to be having a mild panic attack, amazing that she has not suffered one of these recently, but that is Ruby. She can hold them back for a while, but eventually they will catch up with her. But he knows how to comfort her, and it is usually by delivering gentle touches to her body, such as her hands, the back of her neck, or just holding her close. The warmth of his body with hers has always been able to calm her panic attacks down slightly, so she focuses on that.

Placing her hands on his chest gently, and she rests her head against his shoulder, allowing his arms to gently caress around her, holding her close. She closes her eyes as she listens to his heartbeat, and she continues to focus her senses and her emotions to him. Her breathing begins to slow down, and she calms herself down over time, still with her eyes closed whilst in her embrace with him. Eventually, she delivers the answer he was waiting for. “I’m scared, Oscar...” She gently tells him, voice still trembling and jittery yet she is calmer than she was, the spirit of Roman in the back of her mind not helping the situation earlier.

“It’s okay...we will get through this, I promise you.” Oscar whispers to her, his voice works in a similar way to A.S.M.R for her, it always relaxes her body whenever he speaks like that, and it has always worked here in her panic attacks.

“Everything that has happened, Oscar...Atlas falling, Umbra framing Blake, Vacuo being infected, everyone back home being infected...now this?” Ruby stammers with heartbreak, remembering the past five years of peace that they had. Oscar lovingly caresses her hair whilst keeping her close to his chest, stroking the long black and red locks on her head.

“You always said that it wasn’t over...I guess we didn’t expect it all to go wrong so fast.” Oscar says, and she cannot help but understand where he is coming from. She did say those things, but she never wanted to be right, she would have always wanted it to be true that Salem died and that the Knights of Grimm fell on the Volcanic Chain Isles.

But she knew it would not be the case.

They never fell after Mistral, or before the Isles.

Why would they have fallen then?

Oscar slowly releases her, before placing his hands onto her cheeks, and he leans down, closing his eyes and he presses his lips to hers, she reaches her hand behind the back of his head and she returns the same kiss. Whenever they kiss, they feel as if they are one, like a million emotions are exploding at once within their hearts. He kissed her and the world fell away for Ruby, as it always has whenever they kiss. It is slow and soft, comforting in ways that words would never be. His hand rests below her ear, his thumb caressing her faintly scarred cheek as their breaths mingle. She runs her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest.

As they share their touching moment, Kragen looks back at the couple, and there is great regret and anguish in his eyes. He sighs, sitting down on the floor with both hands clasped onto his staff as he sits there, and the Architect approaches him, crouching down beside him, looking at the older man with his glowing blue optics. For a machine that lacks a face unlike Penny, his movements can convey so much emotion. Kragen sighs, turning to look at his old friend, and he is starting to wonder now if his decision was right. “Architect...” Kragen speaks, getting the Synthetic’s attention.

“Yes?” The Architect responds, raising one of the mechanical flaps on his head.

“Do you think I made the right decision? Give me your honest opinion.” Kragen requests, looking at him for his judgement of what he decided. The Architect ponders on his words, his arms resting on his knees.

“I’ve never known you to make a wrong decision before, your actions have always been for the greater good. But after seeing what Ruby managed to do...defeating Death the way she did...maybe it was a good decision.” The Architect states, truly surprising him. Kragen was fully expecting the Architect to call him out as Ruby and Oscar did, but even after everything he still has his back.

“Why?” Kragen asks.

“She unlocked her Spirit Animal and managed to destroy Death’s form without some miracle saving her. The last time that was accomplished was when Qrow destroyed him out of rage when he killed her mother. The others were all miracles – that Wolf she transformed into? That could deal some major damage in a big battle.” The Architect explains, but he sighs, still thinking on the poor souls that were sacrificed in order to bring about that revelation.

“But was the deaths of three good people worth that?” Kragen asks him, and the Architect offers his mechanical hand to him.

“We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?” He states, and Kragen smiles, taking his hand and he stands back up beside him.

“You’re always good for a pep-talk, old friend.” Kragen compliments.

“Any time, boss.” The Architect assures.

The moment is shattered when the screech of a Horridus Morbus Thrall erupts from the rooftop of one of the buildings. The couple still inside, break their kiss, still in each other’s embrace with widened eyes as they both turn, holding each other close. They both walk outside slowly, behind Kragen and the Architect, looking up to see the mutated Faunus stood on the building.

It was once some sort of Leopard Faunus with a long curved tail that now has bony spines protruding out from it and the skin has completely peeled off, leaving nothing than the black muscle behind. Sand covers the mutated body and the long claws that have extended out from the pinkie and ring finger, smoke trailing from its body. It is hard to tell if it used to be a woman or a man anymore from how serious its mutation has been. Ruby’s eyes widen with shock and awe when she stares at the monster stood atop the sandy building.

Suddenly more doors start to bust down, and Thralls crash down through them onto the ground, rolling across the sand covered ground left behind from the Sandstorm that has passed. One of them rises up and shrieks at them with venom in its demonic voice. Ruby stares at the monsters with horror. “What the hell are those things?” Oscar questions, drawing Traveller’s Atrocity and spinning the blades through his fingers in their dagger forms. Ruby examines their bodies and notices the Faunus Features.

The Leopard tail.

The Goat horns.

The Webbed Fingers.

She gasps when she says the words, turning to them all when realising this for the first time. “It’s the Faunus, guys...they never vanished.” Ruby states with her eye wide, drawing Crescent Rose immediately, cocking the lever and loading a fresh bullet into the Rifle in the transformed weapon. Crescent Rose ejects the empty shell cartridge immediately, and it shoots out from the side, bouncing and rolling across the floor. The Architect draws his rifle, charging the dust into the battery hidden inside and his targeting systems are at the ready, already marking the Grimm Signatures in front of him. Kragen spins his staff through his fingers, ready to battle them when he needs to.

“Horridus Morbus...its evolved, I can trace the plague on them.” The Architect confirms as he scans them, and yet the Thralls are all surrounding them with roars, their arms held out as they encroach them constantly. Until the one that they saw on the roof jumps down, landing down right in front of them with a boom, sprinting straight towards them.

Kragen makes the first strike, spinning his staff round with great speed and agility, slamming the Isomacium tip across the face of the monster, fracturing a section of its skull, causing black smoke to come pouring out from the cranium, until yet another one lunges for the elderly Silver Eyed Warrior. The Architect roars, catching that Thrall by the throat, lifting it off the ground by the neck and smashing it straight back into the floor, so hard its head shatters like glass. One of them jumps onto the Architects back and starts biting into the metal plates, making him chuckle at its stupidity. “Nice try dickhead!” The Architect trash talks, smashing his elbow into the face of the creature, spinning round to fire his rifle into its head, blasting a crater straight through the head.

Oscar roars as he dashes aside from one of the leaping Thralls that went to stab him with his claws, and it crashes into the ground, tumbling and rolling through the sand left behind. The foaming at the mouth creature rushes at him once more, but Oscar swipes his dagger across one of the ankles of the creature, bringing it down to one knee. Yet it does not even respond to pain, it still comes for him, reaching out to grab him. Oscar roars as he swings round and drives the other dagger directly into the temple of the creature, twisting the blade round and kicking it away. “Aim for the head! It does the trick!” Oscar advises, just as one of them tackles him from behind, biting away at his aura field.

Ruby’s eyes widen with horror. “Oscar!” She screams, sprinting to his aid as she leaps towards the creature. She hooks Crescent Rose around its neck and pulls it back, firing the sniper rifle into the skull of another that charges at them both. The bullet soars through the air and punctures through the cranium with ease, causing the skull to fragmentize into a hundred pieces with black smoke blasting out from the shoulders, knocking it onto the ground before disintegrating. It seem that the closer they get to the Radar Station, the more complete the corruption seems to become, less mid-transformed Thralls appearing.

The recoil from firing Crescent Rose pulls the whole weapon back, slicing the head of that Thrall that attacked Oscar from behind in one swift attack, giving a double kill to Ruby’s kill count here. She turns and she spins her scythe round with great speed, creating a red blur that knocks one of the Thralls back that lunged at her, snapping one of the claws in half. The Thrall growls, lunging forward with whatever it has left, but Ruby rolls out of the way and she kicks into the back of the creature’s knee, causing it to crumple onto one knee. Ruby draws her small knife that she has sheathed on her leg and she sticks it right up the back of its head, killing it instantly.

Before one could even strike her from behind, a glowing blue energy based shell comes flying right past Ruby’s head, from the Architect’s rifle, and into the skull of that Thrall. The Thrall’s roar fades away along with its body, and he switches the setting of the rifle to sword form, immediately turning to thrash the blade across ways to cut its head clean in half. One of them leaps straight for him and bites onto the blade of his sword, so he charges the blade up with electricity from the dust crystals hidden away inside, frying its skull to ashes, pulling blade out fast and stamping down on the skull of a downed Thrall that was getting back up. That Thrall was knocked over by the staff of Kragen, who is handling multiple Thralls at once with ease, using his vast skills against them all.

He spirals the staff round at great speed like the propeller on a plan, which knocks them all back, then he makes precise strikes with the staff, stabbing one right through the eye socket with the blunt end of his Isomacium Staff. He kicks one of them in the abdomen, before bringing the staff downwards onto the top of its head, smashing its head into ground with great force, killing it immediately. Kragen swiftly wipes two more off their feet to down them, crushing the skull of one with the staff and whacking the side of the other’s head. Finally he strikes the one behind him upwards, making it stagger, before he channels Aura into his eyes, blasting a small gaze into the Thrall, freezing it into stone. He roars as he builds the power in the attack by spinning the staff really quickly, smashing the stone to a thousand shards as soon as he makes contact.

He holds the staff with both hands, pressing it down against the ground to focus his emotions and senses. Oscar blasts through time, sprinting towards another pack that rushes towards the team, their time slowed without them even realising. He punches them all in the face at once, seeing each of their skulls slowly shattering like pottery upon contact. He slows down behind the last one and time resumes behind him as the headless Thralls crumple to the ground, killed from his formidable attack that he delivered.

Ruby keeps holding them back, performing impressive skills as she slashes them all to piece in skilled attacks, until one of them attacks her from the side, knocking her over. She shrieks, having to hold the monster back as it clamps its jaws down at her over and over again.

Until suddenly...

Gambol Shroud’s grappling hook stabs into the back of the Thrall’s head, and Blake swings round with all her might, launching it into another one of them, to knock it over. Qrow yells as he leaps in the air and stabs his huge sword straight through its skull and Oobleck rushes in. Oobleck blasts across the road in a corkscrew attack of flames as he wiped out ten Thralls in that one attack, sliding across the ground as Port beheads one and fires the Blunderbuss into another. Blake rushes to Ruby’s side, helping her back up. “Fancy seeing you here.” Ruby giggles.

“Good to see you.” Blake responds.

Kassius launches Lash Equinox straight through the skull of a Thrall and immediately pulls it out, spinning round to behead one that went to attack him from behind. They all look up with widened eyes as Cinder rises into the air with her eyes ignited into flames, and the clouds shift above their heads, thunder and lightning building up. The Thralls are wiped out by a collection of lightning bolts that the Fall Maiden summons, forks of molten light reducing them to charred remains everywhere.

The Thralls are eventually all wiped out...

And Cinder returns to solid ground slowly, her eyes extinguishing and she exhales, looking at them all. “Good to see you all made it.” Cinder says as she approaches them all, Jaune and Pyrrha catching up with Winter. Blake and Ruby embrace one another in a heart warming hug.

Kassius looks around and he catches on.

“Wait a minute...where are Gray, Serena and Vos?” Kassius asks them all with concern in his voice. They all look at Ruby, then they follow her gaze as they stare at Kragen. Kragen sighs, closing his eyes before he looks at them. When he opens the, they can see the anguish inside of them.

Kragen shakes his head. “They didn’t make it.” Kragen tells them and they all looks heartbroken by this revelation.

“Goddammit...” Qrow sighs with anger, still thinking on his Semblance, thinking he could have been responsible for all of this happening in the first place.

“What happened?” Pyrrha asks.

“Death showed up, he came to kill Ruby...things went bad.” The Architect states, and Kassius grits his teeth and clenches his hand into a fist. He may not have known the three of them very well but if they were his allies they may as well been his brothers and sister.

“We’re gonna make them pay. We’re gonna avenge them!” Kassius roars.

Kragen raises his hand to calm them down, with the Radar Station behind them.

Their destination is clear.

“They helped get us this far – so let’s finish this.” Kragen states, turning to the Radar Station.

This means one thing.

They will catch up with the Spring Maiden.

And the White Fang.


	52. Merlot Industries

**Ruby**

Ruby walks with Blake at her side, both of them shocked from what they have seen. The Horridus Morbus Thralls, the thoughts are constantly rattling around in their minds, in all of their minds.

_Yang..._

_Weiss..._

_Sun..._

_Neptune..._

_They all have the plague in them...what if that happens to them as well?_

Ruby sighs as they keep walking up the street, they are now very close to the Radar Station that the White Fang and the Spring Maiden are currently inside of. Cinder walks alongside her brother, and there is clearly something on their minds right now. “We need to warn Glynda, what happened here...those monsters...we need to tell her about what will happen.” Qrow says to them all as he stands at the tip of the spear of their group. Oobleck looks at him and he sighs, shaking his head.

“The Acolytes of Lien have shut the Cross Continental Transmit Network; scroll signals won’t be able to cut it.” Oobleck tells him.

“I know...but when we get in there, can’t we use the radar to send a message out?” Qrow asks them.

“It’s possible but there’s no telling if Merlot has shut it down already to prevent that from happening.” Port states, remembering back to the information they received from Team R.W.B.Y and Team J.N.P.R when they went after Merlot years ago. He managed to secure his island until they managed to open a secure link for them to get through. It would not be crazy to assume he has not done the same thing here.

“Well we can’t just sit on our asses and not find a way to get a message out. That damned plague could be on the edge of activating as we speak.” Qrow ushers with concern in his eyes. He already hates being here because of his Bad Luck Charm, and all of them are dying from the lack of details back home.

Because they’ve no idea that Brawnz and May are both dead, and what happened to Brawnz in the first place. Kassius walks with Cinder and his eyes slowly turn to her whilst everyone is having this discussion of how to get communications out to Beacon. She looks up at him and she has a worried expression on her face. “No...I can’t...” Cinder whispers, hinting at something that nobody has ever realised.

“Sapphire, we have to get a message out. Their right, if Glynda and Penny aren’t informed then the others will be at risk.” Kassius whispers to her, and whilst they have this mysterious dispute, Jaune’s blue eyes slowly turn to the two siblings.

“I haven’t done it in years...I doubt I can anymore.” She whispers, her voice trembling nervously.

“Just think, just...”

“...use your semblance.” He reveals.

Jaune stops and his eyes widen, turning to stare at Cinder with wide eyes from what he hears, and Pyrrha stops as well, looking at Jaune with confusion. “What?” Jaune shouts aloud, his voice echoes through the entire town and they all draw their weapons in case of any Thralls that could have heard him. Qrow walks up to him and smacks him on the back of his head to shut him up.

“Do you wanna bring every single one of those things down on us?” Qrow questions sternly, but Jaune turns to Cinder again.

“You do have a semblance?” Jaune questions, and now all eyes are on Cinder, as she looks at Kassius with angry eyes.

“It’s our best bet.” Kassius tells her.

“Hang on, what?” Pyrrha questions, her emerald eyes trained on the Fall Maiden.

“Yeah, you said you never had a semblance.” Ruby states, remembering to the times of which that Cinder has told them this much. Cinder grabs her arm nervously, her eye gazes down at the floor sadly.

“I...” Cinder is acting really nervous, biting on her tongue because she does not what to say what her semblance is, as if she is ashamed of her own semblance. To the point of lying to them of what it is, and yet now it could be extremely useful.

“Why did you never tell us? You have to trust us if you want us to trust you.” Blake questions, pointing at her and then at her own chest, showing the link there. Then Cinder seems to crack under pressure.

“Alright! Fine!” She exclaims, and Qrow looks around, hoping to the Gods that the Thralls did not hear that yell as well, in which he steps forward and points his finger to the ground.

“Can we stop shouting, please?” He whispers with gritted teeth, before listening to Cinder speak. For her to reveal what her Semblance is to them all.

And why she is so ashamed of it.

“My semblance...is the ability to communicate with people I know, across the world in some cases if they try and find me.” Cinder tells them all, and that was the last thing that they were expecting. And it could be the best thing that they could have heard of, which now begs the question...

Why was she so ashamed of her Semblance when in the grand scheme of things, it is super useful.

“W-Why did you not tell anyone? Why are you acting so ashamed?” Jaune asks her, and Cinder looks up at her older brother in which he steps back slightly and looks at the floor. Clearly he has known about her Semblance the entire time and never told them either, seems to run in the family. Since he never brought up Hyde at first either.

“Did Kassius tell you all about how he got picked up by Taiyang, how he met you and Yang?” Cinder asks them, looking straight at Ruby.

“Yeah I remember...” Jaune agrees, remembering being there in the conversation when he revealed how he got the scars on his body and how Taiyang found him. The life he and his sister had to suffer through and the near-death experience he suffered when he was very young to that Grimm Terror Bird. A horrible story, one that still seems to haunt Kassius to this very day. The feeling of the thick bony beak and the razor sharp claws that slashed his spine, the beak that nearly broke his back when it hammered its head down into his lower spine.

“When he fell and that Terror Bird came for him...I wanted to help him, I tried to help him...but I couldn’t. I was too weak, and my semblance was just to talk to people. I couldn’t help him...I had to run and listen to his screams as that thing attacked him. I have rarely used it since...only a few times when Salem commanded me to do so.” Cinder explains, having to sit down when she tells them all that.

Their expressions change...

They truly understand her reasons for not only refusing to be open about the semblance, but for why she never uses it in the first place.

“I wanted to be powerful...at first so then I could help people...but Salem messed with my head for years, and changed it into something much worse.” Cinder explains, in which Pyrrha is the one that names what it was that Salem changed her reasons to.

“Power...” Pyrrha answers, and Cinder lifts her head and nods with a soft smile on her face.

“Yeah.” She replies, sighing as she sits there. Jaune looks at her and he walks over to her, and he reluctantly pats her on the shoulder. He still does not forgive her or really trust her overly, but he can understand her on that.

Because in a way.

They are the same.

They both became warriors to become stronger, to try and help people. But Cinder went to the wrong person, and her mind was twisted because of it. “I’m...sorry.” Jaune hesitantly says to her, and Pyrrha smiles slightly at Jaune to see him trying to get along with Cinder. The Fall Maiden sniffles as she wipes a tear from her eye and stands back up.

“I never told you...not because I don’t trust any of you...but because I have been trying to forget it. But I guess I am the same liar as always, huh?” She scoffs, but Ruby shakes her head as she approaches her. The same woman that tried to kill her years ago, and that really shows how far Cinder has come in her life.

“You’re not that person anymore, Cinder. You fell into a dark hole but you managed to pull yourself out.” Ruby tells her, but Cinder is not overly convinced by her gentle words.

“Yeah...And I killed countless innocents in the process.” Cinder reminds, her eye rises to Pyrrha and the Invincible Girl cannot help but look down at the floor when she does that. She may be trying to forgive her, but there are still moments where she just sees the flashback of when she drew the bow at her chest and killed her.

Ruby looks down at the floor, and her mind goes to Dew, the way she cut her down will never leave her mind. “So have I...we’ve all made mistakes. Sure yours were bad, but here you are – trying to redeem yourself. That goes lengths to show how far you have come, Cinder.” Ruby says to her, and Kassius smiles at Ruby, appreciative of how she is handling the situation. Winter turns and looks at Kassius curiously.

“Did you know the whole time? About her Semblance?” Winter asks him.

“Yes.” Kassius answers with a nod at the same time.

“And you never told us?” She asks.

Kassius chuckles with a smirk. “She’s my sister, what kind of brother would I be if I sold her out like that. I never blamed her for running, hell I told her to run. I just wish she had more faith in herself.” Kassius says to the older Schnee Sister. Kragen nods his head as he stands there, admiring his loyalty to his sister, loyalty in itself is something that Kragen has admired about Kassius.

His issues with how much of a Hypocrite he is still are clear, but that does not outweigh the good that is in his heart.

Cinder stands there and she sighs, looking at Qrow who clearly wants her to use the Semblance in order to communicate with Glynda. To get the message out to her. “Cinder...do you think you can still do it? If you can’t I understand...but if you can...we need to tell Glynda what happened.” Qrow gently asks her, rather affectionately as well, compared to how he was going to grill her before understanding why she never showed this hidden Semblance of hers.

Cinder sighs, closing her eye as she stands there, then she thinks on the situation. And then she opens her eye, with a firm nod towards him. “I’ll give it a shot.” Cinder tells them all, stepping forward and she looks down at the floor.

“So...how will this work exactly?” Blake asks curiously, in which Cinder clarifies.

“Okay – so I am able to establish a link with a person’s aura that I know. Once the link is made, that person will see where we are, essentially feel like they are with us.” Cinder explains.

“Will she be able to see us?” The Architect asks, still with his rifle in his hands.

“Yes, and you will all be able to see and speak to her as well.” Cinder reveals, surprising them.

“Wait, really? How does that work?” Ruby asks curiously.

“Yeah...I’m a little confused.” Jaune agrees as he nods his head up and down.

“Well I can basically conjure a hologram of her, so she is basically here as well for a few moments so then we can talk to her. I’m certain she may be a bit confused when I use the Semblance and communicate with her, so we’ll have to get her to focus.” Cinder explains as she stands in the middle of them all with her shoulders bouncing up down, getting herself ready.

Cinder looks at Qrow and she sighs, nodding her head, so they all get ready and they stay silent for her to be able to do it. Then she looks at Kassius and he smiles, giving her the thumbs up, mouthing the words – _you can do it, sis_.

She smiles, and she closes her amber eye as she thinks and thinks, picturing Glynda’s face in her mind. Picturing her green eyes, the glasses she wears, the blonde hair on her head. Her stern attitude, despite her being rather mellowed down now in comparison to how she used to be years ago.

Cinder then exhales, and when her eyes open, they can all see Glynda stood there, a holographic projection formed from Cinder’s aura. Glynda looks around and she drops her scroll with confusion as she looks around, seeing the sand and the buildings that surround her. From her point of view, she was just stood there, probably with Penny, Nora and Ren...and now she is suddenly in Menagerie. “What the – ? Where am I?” Glynda questions with confusion, until she turns and sees them all stood there. “Cinder? Qrow? How?” Glynda stammers with confusion.

“Professor, don’t panic your still at Beacon. It’s my semblance, I can talk to you from far away. I can explain another time – but we need to warn you.” Cinder explains.

“O-Okay...Sorry it’s a little jarring is all.” Glynda stammers with confusion still as her eyes pan around the area. Her voice is rather ghostly, echoing constantly as she stands there, a holographic projection of aura looking around.

Qrow steps forward as he sends his message. “Glynda, we have seen what Horridus Morbus does to people. All the colonists of Kuo Kuana are dead and have been converted into these monsters – Faunus Grimm Hybrids.” Qrow explains, and it doesn’t get easier to describe them. Since nothing like this has ever been seen before.

Glynda stands there and she grabs the bridge of her nose with anguish, because now she knows her worst fear has been realised. And now she needs to tell them about what happened back home at Beacon. “Glynda? What’s wrong?” Cinder asks her.

“Guys...Brawnz and May are both dead.” She reveals with a weak voice, and their eyes widen with horror, Qrow even steps back with terror. All of them are faced with the same concerns, but none are more terrified than Kassius, Blake and Ruby who walk closer.

“What the hell happened? Is Yang alive?” Kassius asks.

“What about Sun?” Blake asks with a terrified tone of voice.

“They are okay...but...” Glynda trembles, only remembering the sight of Yang having to hold the Corrupted Body of Brawnz back with her metal arm from ripping her jugular out. “Brawnz mutated...and what you just described sounds very familiar. His arm split open and his pinkie and ring finger mutated into huge thick claws, and he became a mindless animal. He attacked May first and ripped her to shreds...then he went for Yang.” Glynda explains, and Ruby gasps and Kassius’ eyes widen with horror.

“Is she bitten?” Kassius stammers fearfully.

“No...Penny managed to kill Brawnz just in time – but not fast enough to save May. We think it had something to do with how long Team B.R.N.Z was exposed to the Plague in Vacuo. Roy and Nolan have told me that Brawnz was looking at where it detonated, meaning he took the brunt of it.” Glynda explains, and they can see the shock in her eyes. She has seen many terrible things in her life as a Huntress, but nothing has left her as shaken as seeing what Brawnz became.

Kassius steps back and he clenches his hand into a fist with anger. “Merlot better have that damn cure.” Kassius snarls.

“He must have it, he couldn’t possibly risk getting infected with it otherwise. He’s not an idiot, he wouldn’t have become a Doctor if he was.” Oobleck tells him, clearly knowledgeable on how intelligent a man should be to get a doctorate.

“We need to get to Merlot’s Lab as fast as we can.” Oscar states, walking ahead of them all. Cinder turns to Glynda and she sighs.

“We need to go now, we’ll be in touch soon, I’m sure of it.” Cinder assures.

“Okay...good luck...and I hope you start using this Semblance of yours more often Cinder. With the C.C.T down, we’re gonna need it.” Glynda states.

Cinder smiles. “I’ll be sure to remember.” Cinder assures, and she walks away.

The holographic clone of Glynda fades away into energy, and Cinder follows Ruby, Blake and her Brother up the steps to get to the Radar Station.

They need to find that cure fast.

If there is one.

 

**Raven**

The Branwen Sister sits there on a crate that she found, legs dangling off it as she scrapes her whetstone across the red razor sharp blade of her sword. Sparks burst and dance across the blade from every movement she makes across it. The screeching sound of the contact of both whetstone and blade rings through the room, but Hazel does not even seem fazed at all by it. He is just sat there, contemplating on many things that bounce around in his mind.

Raven turns her head, looking at the huge guy sat there and she sighs, having to start the conversation. “Hey, Hazel...” She begins, looking over at him curiously, and the massive man turns his head to look at her.

“Yes?” He responds, with that deep gravelly voice of his.

Raven looks up at the sky, at the sun that has risen into the sky. “Do you ever think about – what you’ll do after all this is over?” Raven asks him curiously as she looks at him. Hazel looks confused by that question, as he stares at her.

“That’s _if_ we beat Umbra and the Knights.” Hazel states, looking back down at his knees as he sits by the other crate filled with supplies. They are both not far from Glynda’s office, who still probably comprehends everything that had just happened. Raven does not seem that much more confident than Hazel, but she is at least pondering.

“I know – but say we do. Do you have anything on your mind?” She curiously asks him, taking the Whetstone from her sword and setting it down by her leg. She leans back and crossed one leg over the other, placing her hand down at her side as she sits there. Hazel sits there, thinking on that question, and only one answer comes to his mind, and Raven definitely saw it coming.

“I don’t know...” He answers, Raven rolls her eyes, disappointed in his lack of creativity. “I’ve never thought about it – all I’ve ever wanted was to get revenge on Ozpin for what happened with my daughter. I’ve never thought about what I would do afterwards.” He says with a heavy sigh, staring down at the ground with heavy eyes. The man is constantly left with so much emptiness in his life without his daughter around.

Raven looks at him, then she tells him what she wants to do. “You know what I’d love to give a go? Farming.” She reveals, and he raises an eyebrow with confusion, staring at her with disbelief.

“You?” He questions.

“What? I’d love to give it a shot some day.” Raven admits with the shrug of her shoulders.

“So what, you and Taiyang living together peacefully in a cute little cottage with your own farmland. That what you want?” Hazel asks her, and she shrugs her shoulders.

“Don’t see why not – try the simple life for once.” Raven says with a sigh, looking up at the sun, feeling the rays on her pale skin.

“Never took you for the Farmer type...you’d really leave the tribe like that?” Hazel asks her, Raven turns her head and looks at him, tilting her head slightly.

“I’m not blind – I used to want to be a part of that Tribe till the day I die. But when the Knights of Grimm showed up...and I stopped cutting myself off from my family, I started to realise how much of an idiot I was. How much time I wasted when I could have been there for my daughter...I want to atone. You know?” She asks him, a question that he can relate to very deeply, and his mind moving to Oscar and Ruby, all the way back at Salem’s Sanctum.

“Yeah...I get that.” He agrees, looking down at the floor. Then he raises his eyes to the sun as well, feeling the warmth of its rays.

Then he speaks again, an idea coming to his mind. “I want to atone...like you said. But I also want to help those who have lost everything – an orphanage for example.” Hazel says, looking at her, and Raven raises her eyebrow with a smile on her face.

“An Orphanage?” She asks him curiously.

“Yeah...I mean if we do manage to win all this, there are gonna be a lot of lonely parentless children out there...some I am sadly responsible for.” He sighs, his thoughts drifting all the way back to Sun, and Raven can tell. She can see the anguish on his face whenever that topic comes to his mind. Hazel turns and looks at the Branwen Sister sat on that crate, his arms crossed over his knee. “I want to make it right.” He says and Raven smiles, nodding her head as she looks at him.

“You’re a good man, Hazel. Don’t ever forget that.” Raven asks him with a smile, but Hazel looks down at his reflection in the metal floor, only partially seeing his face. He sighs through his nose, closing his eyes.

“Am I?” He questions. “I have killed so many innocents, helped Salem destroy countless lives.” Hazel states.

“And I abandoned my family, have destroyed plenty of villages and families as well. We’re both bad people that want to atone, Hazel. The past version of ourselves? It doesn’t matter – all that matters are the people that we aim to become.” Raven explains, rather wisely as well. And words like that coming from her mean a lot, since she is just as stubborn as her daughter, perhaps more so. “We need to learn to forgive ourselves...and others.” She says, staring at him, and Hazel looks at her.

He knows what she was hinting at there. “You’re talking about Ozpin, aren’t you?” He grills, staring straight at her. Raven just nods her head as she sits there, looking down at him. He turns away from her and he glares at the wall. “You wouldn’t understand.” He says, but Raven hops off the crate and she walks over to him, sitting right down beside the huge man. Hazel utterly dwarfs her, and she is far from a short or skinny woman, she is muscular and powerful anyway, which shows how huge Hazel is.

“I do actually.” She admits as she looks at him, Hazel turns his head and looks at her, listening to what she has to say. “When Qrow and I went to Beacon to learn how to kill Huntsmen...before we met Tai and Summer, we met Ozpin first. He knew fully well where we came from and yet he took us in anyway.” Raven explains to him, sounding very similar to what Ruby experienced when first meeting him.

“Everything was fine for a while, simple missions and such...until those four missions he gave each of us. Tai was tasked with Mountain Glenn to check out the strange things happening there. Qrow was tasked to keep an eye on Salem, Summer was sent to Kragen to learn how to use her eyes. And me? He had me searching across the world for similar things as my brother.” Raven explains, remembering the four missions that Team S.T.R.Q was tasked with.

“What went wrong?” Hazel asks, she sighs.

“What didn’t go wrong?” She sighs, her head dropping down and she closes her eyes. “The further we were split from each other, we started to become less and less close, and my own brother became a stranger after a while. Summer was different, she used to be like her daughter but after Kragen...I dunno...she was just different. And Tai...well...something shook him up, enough to leave Beacon completely and take work at Patch.” Raven explains to him, which explains why he refused to go far from Patch for a very long time.

“What did Ozpin do to you guys? Why did he split you apart?” Hazel asks her.

Raven turns to him. “Well, I found out that he was using us to search for poor souls to try and triangulate the next Maiden. I think that is how your daughter got dragged into all of this in the first place, sending Huntsmen out to locate them. But we stopped a long time ago...well Qrow never did – but Summer passed away, Tai gave up and started teaching instead after whatever it was he found at Mountain Glenn. And me? I ran away, like the coward I was.” She sighs, looking out at the Amphitheatre again.

Raven looks at Hazel and she bumps his shoulder with hers with that smile that looks just like Yang’s. “Yet here we both are, fighting his war once again. But we’re not doing it for him – we’re doing it for the people we love. I’m fighting for my family, my friends. At the end of the day, you are part of that family now, whether you like it or not. Sun will get used to it, Jaune and Pyrrha will get used to Cinder.” Raven explains, then she turns his head to look right at her, surprising him from her forwardness.

“But we cannot betray Oz – because whether or not we trust the man, we need him. Now more than ever, because I don’t care what he says, he knows something about Umbra. And when he wakes up, he’s gonna tell us.” Raven explains. “Right?” She asks him.

Hazel sighs, looking away from her, thinking what his daughter would want.

“She wouldn’t want me to be a monster...” He admits.

“Exactly – she wouldn’t have become the Fall Maiden if she didn’t accept it. She fell in love with the previous one, sure – but she could have rejected the power. Or she could have cast it away from her soul – but she didn’t.” Raven says.

She stands back up and offers her hand to him. “Come on, stop hiding in the darkness.” Raven pleads, and the massive man sighs, taking her hand. His huge palm practically swallows her hand, which looks small in comparison. He towers above her, yet she was stronger than he was to convince him.

Hazel smiles. “You’re good at the pep talks, you know?” He asks her.

“I have my moments.” Raven shrugs, walking down the steps, towards the base where the patients are sat or walking around. But they are all still shaken by the deaths of Brawnz and May.

 

**Ruby**

Finally...

The Group arrive at the doors of Merlot Industries, and the metal doors slide open, already unlocked by Vera earlier. They all walk inside, looking around when that same musical cue emerges from the speakers around them. But this time, Merlot does not appear on that massive screen, instead a holographic receptionist appears at the desk ahead of them. The woman looks just like the Atlesian V.I in the Cross Continental Transmit Tower back in Vale when Weiss contacted the Schnee Dust Company for sensitive data.

Winter stares directly at the holographic woman who looks at her, so she approaches. “Hello, welcome to Merlot Industries. We are here to help build a better tomorrow, today!” The Woman greets with her computerised voice, clearly programmed to say the line that Merlot must have come up with in the first place. Winter stares at the V.I and she speaks to it.

“Is Doctor Merlot here?” Winter immediately asks, but then the Virtual Intelligence is completely cut off, holographic matter fading away. Then the screen activates with a click above their heads, and they all step back with surprised expressions to see Merlot looking at them from the screen. His hands held together as he stares at them all, Kassius and Cinder both glaring at him, and him looking right back.

“Ah...so here are the guests I have actually been waiting for, unlike the previous ones who have entered.” Merlot chuckles, staring at them from the feed, and Qrow looks up at one of the cameras watching them. Clearly that must be how he can see them right now, and Qrow scoffs, stepping round to stare at him.

“Doctor Merlot – been a while since we’ve seen your face.” Qrow says as he steps forward, looking right at the screen where he chuckles. Ruby and Blake both look at each other, remembering all the way back to the last time they came across a Lab quite like this. In fact it is bringing back a lot of distant memories.

“Yeah, been a while indeed.” Ruby agrees, but Blake is more venomous than her friend.

“What have you done to my people?” Blake yells with rage, her fist clenched and stomping forward with gritted teeth. Merlot chuckles sinisterly as he stares at them with that smirk of his, clasping his hand and his metal hand together, his cybernetic eye glowing fiercely as he stares at them all.

“Ah...Blake Belladonna, ‘tis been a while since we have last spoken, hasn’t it my dear. My, my you have grown very beautiful, as have you all. Including you...Miss Nikos.” He greets, staring straight at her with awe, but Pyrrha just narrows her eyes.

“I remember you...back on that island, the experiments you did on the Grimm to control them all those years ago.” Pyrrha states, Jaune with his narrowed eyes staring straight at the man.

“Yeah forgot how annoying and ugly you were.” Jaune challenges with a scoff, yet Merlot just gasps with fake upset in his voice.

“Oh, must we trade insults with one another? I thought we were more civilised than that.” Merlot states, and Cinder scoffs as she stares up at the man who cannot even have the nerve to show himself in the flesh.

“Coming from the insane scientist.” Cinder states, then he stops, staring straight at her, leaning forward slightly with awe, looking right at her.

“Cinder Fall...my, my...how times have changed.” He says with amazement to see her with them now, but Cinder slowly clenches her hand into a fist as she hears his voice and his words. “Or should I call you Sapphire Locke?” He asks her, then her eye widens and she lets out a gasp of disbelief. Kassius raises a brow with confusion, since that is not even public knowledge, they were lost.

“How do you know that?” Kassius questions, and Merlot chuckles.

“I know more about you two than you realise, especially you – Kassius Locke.” He says with a smile, but Kassius does not reflect the same expression. He just furrows his brow and grits his teeth with anger, staring right back at the screen, ready to destroy it if he must. “But...let us skip the pleasantries – I know why you are here, more reasonable than the White Fang Fanatics that just entered.” Merlot states, leaning back into his brown chair before his mahogany desk with the fireplace burning behind him.

“Adam...” Blake whispers, her tender voice trembling when she says his name.

“Yes, that dear old blind lad is here as well. Seems they are after some of the tech I have been working on for the Acolytes of Lien.” He tells them curiously, chuckling when he thinks about it. “I think the White Fang should just accept when they are beat.” He states.

“Yeah – and so will you.” Qrow challenges with stern eyes.

Merlot chuckles. “Maybe...but that day is not today, old crow.” Merlot states, then they turn to see one of the doors opening to their left, into the Labs of Merlot Industries. “Please, do take the grand tour. Have a look at some of the things I have built.” Merlot requests, with a smirk on his face.

Then the feed cuts off, and they are left with silence.

Blake is still left with so many questions, the Doctor never did tell her why he chose to use Menagerie as a testing ground for Horridus Morbus. Or if he is the one responsible for the creation of the Bio-Weapon itself. Qrow and Ruby both look at the entrance to the labyrinth of secrets ahead of them, Ruby looks up at her father and she sighs, walking with him. She draws Crescent Rose to be careful as they begin to make their journey inside.

The place is silent, not a single machine is online, not a voice from any scientists. In fact there are no scientists here at all, but there are files everywhere instead. The files that have just been dropped and left behind. Kassius looks into one of the containers, seeing the prototypes of the Valerian Knights inside, the thousands of complex joints and pieces of metal where the wiring weaves through it. The cores that power the machines, and the staffs that they use, or the machine guns that they also use.

But by the looks of it...

He has been working on some more types of Valerian Knights, not just the ones that they faced on Merlot’s Islands all those years ago. Winter looks at one of the Valerian Knight sentries that have been opened up on a gurney, taken apart to be upgraded with new dust crystals to power it. She looks amazed at the complexity of these robots, turning to look at Ruby and Blake who are familiar with them. “These are the machines the four of you fought on his island seven years ago?” Winter asks them both curiously, and Ruby walks over to the disassembled robot on the table.

The red panels of metal that cover the robot, the tall machine that was always such a pain in the butt to fight because of how fast and unpredictable they were. “Yeah, nothing like what we were used to from Atlas. They were really fast and unpredictable when fighting them.” Ruby remembers, very vividly as well.

“They were on the highway in Mistral five years ago as well.” Blake remembers, all the way back on that chase they had to get to Lionheart. Only to realise it was all a ploy to not arouse any suspicions of his betrayal.

“This is really advanced stuff.” Winter says, unaware that the Architect is looking over their shoulders at the complex robot on the table. The flaps over his visor rise upwards, just as someone would raise their eyebrows with disbelief.

“That’s Arkhonex Technology...” The Architect reveals, and they turn to him with shocked eyes.

“What?” Blake questions.

“That machine...only Arkhoni Blueprints could create such an intricately designed Droid like that – similar to this chassis I am in.” The Architect explains, gesturing to his own body. “But this has been upgraded from our machines, these are slicker, designed to move quickly.” He says, impressed by it more than anything. The Architect reaches over and he picks up the spear that the Valerian Knight would use, the dust charged into the spearheads to deliver an electrical shock. “Merlot must have access to Arkhoni Files somehow...that can’t be possible though, Kragen and I took some Silver Eyed Warriors thousands of years ago when the city fell only recently to get as many as we could. They were either destroyed or could not be reached.” The Architect explains.

“So...does that mean that Merlot must have a base in Arkhonex? If it still exists?” Ruby asks him, curious of what that could mean.

“It could explain the enhanced robotics, but it would be a suicide mission going back there, and the maps are so unreliable nowadays...I don’t know how he managed to find it.” The Architect stammers.

“Do you know have any stowed away coordinates of the city?” Winter asks.

“No, I didn’t need them after all. I was stationed in Arkhonex and was given access to the network that connected the major Arkhoni Cities together. But my makers never bothered putting coordinates inside my code because I wouldn’t need it. And even if I did, I would need access to the Mainframe Complex to actually access it.” The Architect explains, setting the spear down on the gurney.

“Mainframe Complex?” Blake asks curiously.

“It’s the name of the Nexus Point where all Arkhoni Data was transmitted, similar to the C.C.T Towers, in fact. Except there were hundreds of nodes across the world.” The Architect explains, clearly the Arkhoni did not make the same mistake that they made with the C.C.T and its major flaw.

“So if we got you to one of those Nodes, you could be able to track down Arkhonex? Or maybe even Merlot’s Lab there?” Winter asks.

“Well that is if we need to go back there, I doubt there would be anything of use there. And like I said, it is suicide going there with the concentration of Grimm that live there, and how close it is to Salem’s Sanctum.” He states.

The mere mention of that place sends a chill down Ruby’s spine, she does not ever want to go back to that cold, dark and terrible place. Before they could discuss the intriguing history of Arkhonex any further, they hear the voice of Qrow calling out to them. “Guys! Keep up!” Qrow calls out, so the four of them follow after, leaving the gurney and the Valerian Knight behind.

As they keep walking through, Oscar freezes on the spot, and so does Kragen, he looks at the Last Traveller with a surprised expression. A voice coming from a terminal, one that Kragen recognises. Another message from Yenna is hidden here as well. Kragen walks towards the voice with determination, opening the door to see the terminal flickering before him.

Until a screech makes Kragen stumble, he turns and his eyes widen from what he sees. All of them catch up to see what he has found, and Blake gasps with horror, covering her mouth. “Merlot...what have you done?” Kragen questions with awe.

Inside of a stasis pod is a Thrall, but it is glowing green with the serum that Merlot created all those years ago. It screeches and growls, scraping its claws against the thick bullet proof glass over and over again, even biting at it. The Thrall viciously smashes its head against the glass to try and break out but it cannot. “He’s...using my people as test subjects...so he can control them?” Blake whimpers with horror.

A camera like device on the ceiling turns, revealing itself to actually be a projector, forming the holographic body of Merlot, walking towards them with his arms crossed, looking at the captured Thrall. “Incredible, isn’t it?” He asks them, admiring his own work, but Blake has her teeth gritted together with hatred in her eyes towards the man.

“What have you done?” Blake screams with rage, and heartbreak at the exact same time, so Merlot turns to her with a smile on his face.

“I am furthering our understanding of the Grimm, my dear.” Merlot answers with the shrug of his shoulders.

“By corrupting innocent people into monsters? Only to control them?” Kragen questions with anger, but Merlot chuckles as he looks at the Arkhoni Survivor.

“Oh, Kragen Nox...I would have thought you’d understand. I mean your people used the Grimm constantly as tools.” He reminds.

“And it was our downfall, the biggest mistake we could have made.” Kragen corrects, staring right back. He then points at the poor Faunus that has been turned into a monster, glowing green unnaturally. “That is the work of monsters that caused our destruction, no loss of life is worth that.” Kragen states with a cold voice.

Oscar looks at the man and he speaks subconsciously. _From you I find that hard to believe._

Merlot shakes his head. “Oh no...you see the issue is, Kragen – the method you used on the Grimm was like creating a robot with no firewalls. All it took was Salem coming into the world to take control...and before you knew it they were against you. But by using this Serum combined with the technology I have designed, controlling them is damn near impossible without my authorisation.” Merlot explains.

He looks at them and clears his throat. “Please, step back.” Merlot requests, as the stasis pod begins to open, air escaping from inside the vacuum. The savage monster claws its way across the pod lid as it tries to attack them, screeching and roaring. It jumps out from the pod and charges towards Kragen as he readies his staff. “Halt.” Merlot speaks with authority in his voice.

Then the Thrall stops...

Not making a sound.

It just stands there as the scientist circles the creature with his eyes staring at it and the mutations delivered into its system. They all stare with awe at the way that thing has just stopped in its tracks just by one word. “Step back three steps.” Merlot orders, and the Thrall does just that, taking three individual steps backward as it listens to his words. “Turn to your left.” He orders, and the Thrall does so.

Merlot glares at them with a smirk, and his next order sends chills down their spines. “Tear yourself apart.” He orders, and they watch with shock as the Thrall stabs itself in the chest with its claws and disembowels itself. Biting away chunks in its arm, ripping chunks out from its own body, until it eventually explodes. The serum’s detonation in the body is not large enough to cause damage, just a puff of green flames. But the fact still remains, that Merlot is right. Merlot approaches them in that Holographic form with a smirk on his face, looking straight at Kragen. “That – is control.” He states, with wisdom to his words.

Blake growls, drawing her pistol. “I’ve had enough of this.” She states.

“Enjoy the message from dear old Yenna, but I would refrain from wasting any further time.” Merlot advises, then Blake pulls the trigger, firing a bullet into the projector, sending the Doctor’s Hologram away from them. Sparks and chunks of metal erupt from where the projector once hung. Kragen is stood there, awestruck by the demonstration of what the man has accomplished.

“What has he done? Those are my people...” Blake stammers, but Ruby hugs her affectionately.

“It’s okay, we will stop him.” She assures, but Kragen turns to the terminal where he can hear the faint voice of Yenna and her recording, waiting to be played.

“The terminal is damaged, let me see if I can fix it.” The Architect suggests, crouching down at the terminal to feed the many cables back together to fix the playback. Oobleck walks around the room, staring at the Stasis Pod where the Thrall was being kept.

“White Fang are here to take technology from Merlot – maybe we can find out what it is exactly they’re looking for.” Oobleck says as he turns to them.

“But it doesn’t make sense, Kragen. We tracked Yenna for years, Cinder and Hazel with Ayla as well. They were just surviving from the looks of it, then they both ended up at Ephai, and now here. What changed?” Qrow questions, then the Architect speaks up.

“Well...hopefully we can find out.” He says, finally fixing the terminal and he stands up, playing her message for them all to hear.

“ – I’m heading to the Radar Tower to disable the Communications Scrambler. I need to get a warning out about what Kuo Kuana has become. All of the Faunus Colonists have been infected by Horridus Morbus and have turned into Thralls, and some of them have been taken by Merlot’s Valerian Knights for experiments inside of his lab. He has been leaving these Terminals in the town and in the town for constant coverage on his experiments no matter where they are. The data here all points towards Merlot working with Jacques Schnee and the Schnee Dust Company to figure out how to control both the Grimm and the Faunus for his own purposes.” Yenna explains.

Winter clenches her hand into a fist with anger, just hearing her father’s name boils her blood. “These are the same mistakes the Arkhoni made thousands of years ago, we cannot let the S.D.C and the Acolytes of Lien to repeat them. Merlot Industries must be shown for its true colours.” Yenna states.

Blake shakes her head with disgust. “Tricking Faunus Colonists wit false ideas of hope, only to turn them all into his test subjects.” She describes with anger and disgust. Kassius sighs when it hits him.

“Draw them in...and throw them in a meat grinder.” Kassius says, looking around as he says it.

“We need to find that bastard and stop him.” Cinder snarls.

“Agreed, let’s keep moving.” Kragen says, until Jaune speaks up as well.

“Kragen, wait – there’s more.” Jaune says, getting his attention.

The pictures change to an actual recording this time, showing Yenna recording herself as she speaks to the camera. In awe, Kragen stares at her face...she has not aged a day thanks to her original power. Her long raven black hair, violet eyes...it’s as if thousands of years have not even passed. And her words cut deep to his heart. “Kragen...my love...if you are seeing this...you need to get to the central chamber. I have been reading his notes and he found something from Ephai there. I think it might be a Visionary Book of some kind, but it doesn’t match the descriptions of the others...it’s...older than anything I recognise.” Yenna explains, and the words really do start to intrigue them.

But before she can continue.

A man suddenly jumps down from the ventilation shafts from above, with Wilt and Blush in his grasp, staring at her. She turns and she flees from Adam as he rushes after her, leaving the recording behind. Meaning that must be the last one for them to find. “Adam...shit...let’s hope she was ready for him.” Kragen says, spinning his staff through his fingers.

They all start walking through the place, towards what appears to be an elevator just ahead of them. They approach it and Oscar jogs ahead, and he looks at the different options available.

_Exo-Suit Enhancements_

_Weapons Developments_

_Grimm Experiments_

_Central Chamber_

Oscar’s eyes widen when he reads the final one, he even gasps. “Guys, this Elevator can take us straight to the Central Chamber!” Oscar calls, and Port sighs with relief.

“Oh finally, luck is actually on our side.” Port says.

“Please don’t jinx us, Pete – look who’s with you.” Qrow requests, hand to his own chest, but that just makes the proud Huntsman guffaw with laughter. They all jog into the Elevator, luckily it can carry them all, and Oscar hits the button to head all the way down to the Central Chamber. It must be where the Radar Dish is operated as well, strange that it is at the bottom of the complex, but perhaps that is for better security.

Pyrrha turns and looks at Kragen, now being informed about Yenna and the fact he is the Wizard that created the four Maidens in the first place. “Umm...Mr Nox?” Pyrrha speaks, but Kragen chuckles at her adorable polite nature.

“Please, you can just call me Kragen.” He requests humbly.

“Okay – Kragen – if that was the same Yenna you told us all about...how come she still looks so young? I thought the powers do not stay with the same person forever.” Pyrrha tells him, and Kragen smiles.

“Very astute, Pyrrha.” He compliments, making her smile. “You are correct in this as well, the power of the Maidens is now only given to those of young age and only throughout their youth and until they become old. But the original gift I created had a gift that was lost over time, which was the gift of infinite youth. In other words, Yenna is still the same age as I am, but she cannot age physically. Whereas I am forced to become a decrepit old git – bit unfair isn’t it?” Kragen chuckles, making her giggle.

“But didn’t you also say that her presence kept you young as well?” Ruby asks him curiously as the elevator continues to move down the facility.

“Correct, but I am certain that if I am lucky enough to be reunited with her, it will take time for the effects to return me to my younger age.” Kragen explains.

Jaune looks at him and chortles. “It’ll be weird to see you young, Kragen.” Jaune says to him.

“How do you think _I’ll_ feel? Been an old man for thousands of years, it will be odd to be young again.” Kragen admits, yet that is not why he is desperate to find her. It is because he loves her, and she is the only thing in his life he would ever be selfish for. And even that is still quite selfless in itself.

Finally the elevator comes to a stop at the bottom.

And they feast their eyes on what lies before their very eyes.

There is a pedestal in the centre of the room with what Yenna had described. It is indeed a Visionary Book, but not one that they have ever seen before. The other Visionary Books have been relatively in good condition, this one is ruined, charred and eroded. It is even slowly crumbling away like the body of the Onyx Phantom did. Ruby walks towards it slowly, hearing deformed whispers leaving its ghostly form.

Blake and Oscar both reach out to her, and Qrow looks worried for his daughter’s safety. “Wait...” Oscar begs as he holds her hand, Ruby looks back at him, feeling his concern for her. “It could be dangerous...look at it...” Oscar begs.

Ruby looks back at the Book, seeing how intimidating it looks. But before she can say anything, a distant boom rattles their nerves. “I have to...something is nearby. We may not have another chance.” Ruby tells him, and Oscar sighs, still by her side as the others spread out in the large room, ready to fight whatever it is that is coming. More and more distant explosions keep them all on edge.

Ruby approaches the Visionary Book, and the cracked thing opens before her very eyes, the burnt pages turning onto a single one where a deformed print remains. Ruby exhales, her breath shaking. She looks at Oscar with her nervous silver eye. “I’ll be right here.” He assures, and she gathers her bravery.

Slowly lifting her hand towards the page.

“Here we go...” She exhales.

Ruby presses her hand against the page, and she feels her mind being pulled into the book with a burning sensation travelling through her body at great speeds. She gasps in pain as everything shatters into ash around her. She looks around with her eye wide, seeing everybody around her turning to dust before her very eyes. “Guys?” She whimpers...

Before seeing it all before her very eyes.

Countless planets all around her, all on fire with destruction consuming them all simultaneously. All of them different yet suffering the same fate, her eyes wide with horror of what she is seeing. But then...the sky cracks open with red energy like flames pouring out from the fissure in space time. And thousands...millions...billions of unknown forms of Grimm the size of skyscrapers come pouring out from them all, smothering the planets and destroying everything that exists.

The wails of countless souls screech from each world, and one of those worlds is Remnant, the shattered moon breaking apart completely.

And then...

All the worlds fracture into thousands of pieces, the suns go supernova and consumes all life in one powerful explosion. The ashes of the destruction float away from the place of which they were once living.

And the dust forms something.

A face.

His glowing red eyes.

His round bald head.

His cunning smirk.

The face...

Is Vir Nominis Umbra.

Suddenly the Book blasts her away, the fastest experience they have ever had with one of those books, yet the most terrifying of them all. The pulse launches Ruby back into Oscar’s arms, and they both fall onto the ground. “Ruby? Are you okay? What did you see?” Oscar asks her nervously, but Ruby is stammering with fear of what she saw.

“V-V-Vir Nominis...Umbra...” Ruby stammers with terror, and the fear in her voice is enough for Oscar to understand that this was definitely different. “I saw...him destroying everything...but not just us...everything...the universe...” Ruby stammers, but before she can even try and explain.

Another explosion erupts and a Thrall is launched the one of the walls, crashing right past all of them. Qrow spins round and draws his sword, pointing it at the Thrall. It is not disappearing but it is also not fully converted. Qrow carefully pokes it, and Pyrrha keeps Milo and Akuou aimed at where it came from. They all spin round after they hear the sound of footsteps approaching. Kragen spins his staff round, ready to battle the member of the White Fang about to approach.

Ruby and Oscar both get back up to their feet, Ruby still horrified from what she had just seen...but she needs to fight. Port and Oobleck both prepare their weapons, Winter draws both blades and Kassius flicks Lash Equinox upwards. Cinder’s eyes ignite as she forms her Obsidian Swords in her grasp and Oscar draws Traveller’s Atrocity. The Architect aims through the sights of his rifle and Blake draws Gambol Shroud, ready to do battle.

They focus their sights on the hole where the Thrall was launched.

Then...

Her black leather boots step forth into the room, and Qrow’s eyes widen with disbelief.

It is not one of the White Fang Members.

She has locks of curly, raven black hair fragrant with lilac and gooseberry perfume, falling in a cascade of curls on her shapely shoulders. Her face is very pale, triangular in shape with a slightly receded chin. Her eyes are cold and sparkling with a remarkable violet penetrating gaze, in anger blazing with livid, blue-gray fire. But the flames quickly extinguish when she sees them all stood before her. Those very eyes also concealed wisdom and imperiousness. Her nose is slightly long, mouth is pale with thin and slightly crooked, soft, sweet with lipstick, proud lips. On her long and slender neck hangs a black marigold with a star made of obsidian sparkling with a multitude of tiny diamonds embedded in it.

She has pronounced cheekbones, natural, slightly irregular eyebrows trimmed by hand and emphasized with charcoal, long eyelashes, and petite hands. Even in high-heeled shoes she still is not very tall, is beautiful but threatening, having incredibly thin and slender waist and slender legs.

And as always...she wears black and white stockings designed for combat with countless potions strapped to her belt around her round waist.

It’s...

Yenna...

They all look at her with shock and disbelief, they all may have known she was here...but to actually see her stood there. After all this time...for Qrow it feels like he has finally completed his task.

But for Kragen...

He slowly walks round Qrow with wide silver eyes, and Yenna’s eyes widen as well when she sees him stood there. They both lock eye contact for nearly ten seconds, unable to believe it.

After thousands of years apart...

They are finally reunited.

And they cannot even find the words.

But all they do is smile to each other, with tears welling in their eyes.

At least Kragen can be happy again...

For once in his endless life.


	53. Chamber Skirmish

**Kragen**

“Kragen?” Yenna gasps with her trembled voice, disbelief welling in her glassy eyes, approaching the older man.

“Yenna?” He gasps, practically mimicking her, before they both wrap their arms around one another, with tears of joy streaming down their cheeks. Yenna holds him tight, closing her eyes as she sobs with joy, as he buries his head into her shoulders. Ruby cannot help but smile as she sees him there, looking at the Architect as he lowers his rifle. The mechanical man might not have a face like they all do, but they can tell by his mannerisms that he is happy for his friend. Even after everything that happened to Gray, Vos and Serena, because of Kragen...

This felt good.

And nobody wished to tear that moment away because of past mistakes. Yenna steps back, gently caressing his cheek with a smile, looking at the man he has become. “You’ve gotten old...” She giggles softly, making him chuckle as he lowers his head down shyly, still just as nervous around her like when they first met at his cottage in the field. Her firm hands gently caress the wrinkles on his cheek that have formed, along with the weathering of time itself that has kept him at this age. Yet he never died or aged any further past this point, his once black hair turned white from time.

And despite how different he looks now, she does not see him any differently. The very presence seems to change something in Kragen; he looks so much lighter and upbeat. As long as the two of them are close with each other more often now, he will slowly regenerate back to his younger form, however due to the time they have been apart, that may take longer than it would in the past.

Kragen smiles as he gently caresses her smooth cheek, looking into her eyes with a smile. “You’ve not changed a bit, my love...” He stammers with awe, seeing she literally looks no different. Still in the incredible beauty that she was when they first met, except for the fact her hair is much longer now opposed to how it looked when it first met. Yenna originally had short hair, the same length that Ruby had and it was a brownish black colour.

Yenna cannot stop smiling, then she leans closer to him, pressing her lips to his and he holds her close, as they share this touching moment together. Qrow sheathes his sword, feeling such a sense of completion now that he is actually looking at the Spring Maiden stood before him. When their kiss breaks, he looks into her eyes with teary eyes, a sight that none of them have ever seen before. “I looked everywhere for you...I never gave up on you...” He promises her.

“I know...and I searched for you as well...but...” She stammers, thinking back on it all, looking at the others that are stood there, and looking at them. Qrow with his red eyes focused on her, and she looks at him as if she recognises him in some way. “I know you – you have been searching for me, haven’t you?” She asks with curiosity.

“For around five years, yeah – a little longer maybe since Oz had me search for you as well.” Qrow answers, shrugging his shoulders as he thinks on all the times he has been searching for the Spring Maiden. All the hours, all the years, all the wounds he has collected over the years to track her down.

And there she stands...

Before his very eyes.

“Well...here I am.” She says, holding out her arms and her eyes slightly ignite with a violet blue pair of dancing flames that trail from her eyes. Before she extinguishes them swiftly with the blink of her eye lids. Qrow smiles, still coming to terms with this mission of his finally finding its conclusion, nodding his head with that kind smile.

“So you are.” He agrees, and then Yenna looks and sees the Architect stood there. She gasps; eyes wide when she spots the Mechanical Man stood there with his rifle leant against his shoulder.

“Architect?” She gasps, seeing that he is still alive and well, looking right at her. He charismatically takes his middle and index fingers to do a mini-salute to her.

“Hello again, darling.” He greets with a chuckle, as he walks over to her and gives her a hug with one arm. She turns and looks at Kragen with awe.

“You managed to get him out of Arkhonex? Put him inside of one of our old bots?” She asks him.

“Yes, wasn’t a frivolous task, I can promise you that.” Kragen assures as he walks over to her side, looking at the robot before them. The Architect chuckles as he stands there, looking at the two of them, clearly Yenna knew him as well before the fall of Arkhonex.

“That’s a major understatement.” The Architect adds, making them both laugh. Ruby smiles as she looks at the Spring Maiden, she is really different to the Fall Maiden, since she is still the original keeper of the power. Yenna looks around at each of them, until her eyes fall onto Ruby, and the violet eyes of the Maiden widen when she sees her stood there. Her one silver eye looking right at her with awe, and she slowly approaches her with disbelief. The approach of Yenna truly does make Ruby feel slightly worried as she approaches her.

“You’re...you’re the girl I have heard of.” Yenna says with disbelief, looking down at the shorter young woman, in which Ruby looks nervous.

“Um...Hi?” She awkwardly waves, and Yenna smiles gently as she looks at the young girl. She caresses her cheek with her hand as she looks at her, amazed as she examines her body, the damage the poor delicate flower has been through.

“Far prettier than I imagined.” She compliments with a smile, making Ruby blush as she stands beside Oscar. Yenna looks upon the many people here, at Pyrrha and Jaune, at Kassius...then finally at Cinder. And she can sense the Fall Maiden’s gift within her body as she stands there, and her violet eyes narrow, slowly approaching her. Cinder stands there, defiant as a tree as she stares the Spring Maiden down.

Yenna stares at Cinder with stern eyes. “You did not earn the gift...did you?” Yenna questions with a snarling voice, gritting her teeth together, in which she looks away, as if her cheek had just faced the heat of a burning pyre right next to her. She flinches from her words, shocked from the fact she knew that just by sensing the way her power was granted to her, not the intimate method that Ozpin had described, or Kragen had initially intended.

Cinder lifts her head, and stares her right back in the eyes with her single eye. “No.” She coldly replies, staring the Spring Maiden down with a similar glare, like staring into a reflection. Despite that Kassius is no match for a Spring Maiden; he still stands ready to protect his sister if he must. He made a promise and he intends to keep that promise at all costs, even if that means his own life.

But the person to defend her is actually Oscar, getting the Spring Maiden’s attention. “She has paid for her mistakes; she wants to atone for them now.” Oscar protects, looking at her, and Yenna looks at him with just the glance of her eyes, not even turning her head away from Cinder in any way. Yet she still does not look impressed by Cinder, lacking the respect and kindness that she had towards Ruby and the rest of them.

The tension builds and builds between them.

Until Qrow asks the question that was rattling around in his mind for a while now, a question that instantly defuses the situation from detonating. “Wait...what happened to the Summer Maiden? Ayla?” Qrow questions, in which all eyes fall onto Yenna as she challenges Cinder.

Then she turns still.

And almost cold as stone as she stands there, her eyes widen with shock and what even appears to be anguish. She squeezes her eyes shut, slowly turning to them as she shakes her head. “I don’t know...we both fled from Ephai before the Knights Bannermen could attack us.” She begins to explain, Qrow’s eyes widen and he looks at Cinder, since she managed to get there too with Hazel.

Yenna looks between both the Huntsman and the Fall Maiden that helped search for both of the Maidens during that time of peace. That short time that has shattered into a million pieces, looking like to never be repaired again. “We both opened portals to get here, because we saw something in a Visionary Book hidden in Ephai, a message left behind by something. Saying that Menagerie was hiding something.” Yenna explains, turning to the Visionary Book that Ruby had just experienced.

Now wishing she could unsee everything that she did.

“Then...where is she?” Blake asks nervously, glancing from the Book to Yenna as she stands there.

Yenna lets out a heavy sigh.

“We were too late, the plague was already unleashed and the civilians already turned into those Thralls. We were ambushed, and we got split up, our powers were not enough to destroy them all. She could still be out there but I don’t know, when I saw the Knights of Grimm arriving...I knew they were here for us.” Yenna explains, but Ruby shakes her head since she knows why they came here, and it was not for the two Maidens that arrived here.

“They didn’t come here for you two.” Ruby reveals, her eyes widen and she spins round to the Silver Eyed Wonder.

“What?” Yenna questions.

“They were coming for me; Vir Nominis Umbra sent them to kill me.” Ruby informs, and the mere mention of his name sends a cold chill down Yenna’s spin.

“Umbra...” She whispers, flinching when she just says the third section of his mysterious name.

“We were following your trail and it vanished inside of that City, but when Horridus Morbus was released in Vacuo...well we knew that Merlot had to be behind it.” Qrow explains to her, remembering the long journey he took with his sister and Taiyang across Remnant in tracking her down. But the way she raises her head and her eyes look almost saddened for them, it truly worries all of them.

“Merlot?” She questions with fearfulness in her voice.

“Yeah, he figured he is the one responsible for the plague that infected my niece and our friends. We were hoping he has a cure.” Qrow states, and Yenna seems to know something important from the look in her large violet eyes. The sadness she feels towards them is so strong, but before she can even speak.

His voice returns as a massive screen hidden above them in the shadows activates, the blinding light shining across the entire room. “I’m afraid this has been a wasted journey my friends.” Merlot reveals, their eyes all swivel round to see the Mad Doctor’s face on the screen above them, and they all grit their teeth in anger. Seeing that he is still not even showing his face.

Then it hits them.

“You were never here...were you?” Jaune questions as she stares up at the man. Merlot chuckles sinisterly with that smirk of his as he leans forward, staring down at them.

“Of course not, as I was never even at that facility you lot visited all those years ago.” Merlot tells them, their eyes widen with horror with this revelation. That makes sense as well of how he managed to survive and always watched from all the cameras on the island, he was never there to begin with. Must have gone into hiding afterwards to create the illusion that he was dead the entire time.

“But...the devices that were carrying the plague...” Qrow questions.

“Aye I did help build the explosives that contained Horridus Morbus, but that does not mean that the Pathogen was created by the likes of me.” Merlot states, but Qrow scowls, shaking his head as he stares up at the man.

“No...I don’t believe you.” Qrow growls, desperately hanging onto the hope that he could have been the key to saving his niece and the family that they have created from this plague. Merlot smacks his lips and pouts at him mockingly, acting like he feels sympathy for the man, even though he does not seem to carry a shred of emotion on his body other than joy from creating harm to others.

“What? You all still getting used to failing? I assumed you would have been accustomed to the feeling after the amount of failures you have surmised. The Fall of Beacon, the Fall of Mistral, Vacuo, Atlas...I could go on.” He says as he lists them all with his cybernetic digits, and Yenna clenches her hand into a fist.

“Then why the test subjects? Why wipe out all these people?” Yenna questions, making the man chuckle again.

“A lady of science, I see? Well why don’t I show you myself?” He asks them with a smile.

As he smiles, the feed that showed his face cuts away and reveals some footage of Jacques Schnee stood there in a call from Merlot himself. It seems almost definite that this meeting must be surrounding the fate of Kuo Kuana and the usage of the Horridus Morbus Plague. Winter narrows her sapphire eyes with anger, and Yenna finds the evidence that she was looking for. “It seems that the Horridus Morbus Plague is working like a charm, spread through the entire colony within seconds.” Merlot informs Jacques.

“Very good, and the properties for control?” Jacques asks.

_Control..._

_All the man is interested in..._

_Controlling all the aspects of Remnant, so then he can always win._

_He only cares about winning._

“Well that can only be determined when the Faunus wake up here, if the plague does as our superior says it will, then yes I should be able to administer my serum into their systems. Given my scientists can capture some of them for testing.” Merlot explains, in which Jacques raises an eyebrow.

“What of the Faunus you kidnapped before unleashing the plague itself on the town?” Jacques inquires curiously.

“The subjects are still unconscious, our scientists are currently administering the serum as we speak.” Merlot informs.

“Good, report back to me when you have a breakthrough.” Jacques orders.

The feed then jumps to the next call between the two, and clearly it must be exactly what the Schnee Father must be looking for. The talk of using the Faunus like test subjects is boiling Blake’s blood.

This was her home!

“The citizens of Kuo Kuana have awoken, and it seems the plague has worked exactly as he predicted it would.” Merlot informs, none of them seeing his side of the call, only seeing the face of Jacques Schnee, now looking better – must be just before he returned to Atlas after being on the run and leaving Whitley to run the Schnee Dust Company in his absence, becoming the Trinity Marshall for a while.

Yet the man is no different, since his words make them want to rip him to shreds.

“Test Subjects, Merlot. Test Subjects.” Jacques corrects, baffling the Doctor.

“Excuse me?” Merlot questions.

“One does not call a mutt a citizen, only a human can be referred to by that name.” Jacques coldly and cruelly says, shocking the Doctor, revealing a more moral side to the man. As moral as a Mad Scientist can possibly be, but he seems more decent than the Businessman is due to his hatred for the Faunus.

“Very well, the subjects have awoken, with multiple mutations. Acting like Grimm, in fact, attacking anything alive in its path.” Merlot informs, seeming to intrigue the man.

“And the alteration tests to the Plague? Have you managed to test the applications in a more – weaponised form?” Jacques inquires.

“See for yourself.” Merlot replies, as a link to a feed from one of the test subjects appears. Blake gasps with horror as she sees a young male Faunus, appears to be a Fox Faunus, trapped inside of a pod, looking around in a blind panic. There are scientists that are walking around the area, and Pyrrha turns her head away from screen to see the corpses of scientists on the ground. She slowly approaches them and Kassius notices her doing so, so he follows her.

She crouches down beside the corpse of the scientists to find something most chilling.

“Their throats...” Kassius mumbles beside her whilst they watch the terrible feed.

“They’ve been slit.” Pyrrha concludes, looking at Kassius with concerned eyes, the claret that stains the marble floor and the open jugulars that they once breathed through. Blake’s gasp gets their attention and they witness the horror of what happened to that poor Fox Faunus.

The young man wails with agony, writhing around as the administered Horridus Morbus Pathogen activates, violently attacking his body. He vomits up the jet black bile from his mouth and it seems to pour from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth constantly. His skin bubbles into the same liquid, slowly melting away before their very eyes, frightening the Scientists. Pyrrha and Kassius quickly deduce that those tests must have been done in here, which begs the question.

Why did they put such a damaged Visionary Book in the centre like that?

Jacques chuckle causes Yenna and Kragen to growl with animosity from the vile personality of the man. “Father...what have you become?” Winter mumbles with shock and awe as she stares at him, unable to even recognise him anymore from the way he is acting. Qrow looks at her and he gently taps her hand with his, getting her attention.

“You okay?” Qrow asks her supportively, and she nods softly.

“He was always a cruel man...but nothing like this.” Winter stammers, but they do not even notice the crying Blake stood beside Ruby who has her arm around her shoulders after seeing that.

“Incredible, I want those to be hidden in the most recent vaccinations for all Atlesian, Valerian and Mistraalian Troops across Remnant. We need them all on our side, hide them all inside of Dust Shipments, Whitley will make sure they all get to each Kingdom.” Jacques explains, revealing the truth behind the vast Dust Shipments that crossed across Remnant so often.

They were carrying Horridus Morbus vaccinations.

Meaning even Vale is not safe as well.

“Understood.” Merlot agrees.

The third and final call between the two comes up, showing Jacques back home in his mansion, hands held together atop his table as he looks at the hologram formed before him. “Jacques, I have great news! We’ve done it! The serum has been successfully administered to the Horridus Morbus Thralls and I can command them with my very own voice. Even soldiers with certain implants can control them with speech as well.” Merlot explains.

“That is great news, Merlot. What of controlling the Faunus?” Jacques asks, causing Blake to clench his hand into a fist.

“The bastard is relentless.” The Architect snarls with hatred.

“You mean the unaffected Faunus still captured?” Merlot asks.

“Yes.” Jacques clarifies.

“Yes, however they are not the same anymore. They are clinically brain dead now, just as mindless as the Thralls we turned the others into.” Merlot reports.

“Can they wield tools to mine Dust for my company?” Jacques asks, and they never thought the man could fall any lower than he already did. Merlot sighs with disappointment to the man, showing a kinder side to his insane personality.

“Yes.” He sighs.

“Good, I want as many vials of your serum sent to as many Faunus Safe zones as you can.” Jacques orders.

“Jacques, you cannot just control an entire race.” Merlot states.

“Why not?” Jacques asks with a chuckle, in which Merlot sighs.

“I can’t even be bothered to discuss ethics with you anymore...I have crossed lines that I never wanted to cross for you already.” Merlot growls.

“Are you claiming you want out?” Jacques questions, in which Merlot chuckles as a reply.

“Of course not, old friend. I just feel sick of always sacrificing innocent lives for the _greater good_.” Merlot tells him.

“Faunus are merely animals, this is for the greater good. Now with the serum – can these properties be delivered to the Knights of Grimm themselves?” Jacques asks, revealing his true plan...to try and control the Knights of Grimm. The Grimm and perhaps even Salem, as he always planned to.

Merlot sighs.

“That’s a much bigger challenge.” He states.

The recorded calls end there, and Merlot returns to their view, a live feed this time, and he looks at Blake, seeing the tears in her eyes. There is a shimmer of true remorse for a few moments in his glance there. “I’m sorry, Miss Belladonna. If it is any consolation – well I guess it won’t be – I never wanted to use the Faunus like this. I never wanted to waste good lives.” Merlot says, but Blake snaps right back.

“But you still did it!” Blake screams with rage, tears streaming from her eyes and dripping off her chin.

“He would have cut my funding, and once I am no longer useful, I would be cast away. I have no intention of dying yet. Not until my final promise is fulfilled.” Merlot states, in which some of them are curious to know what that means.

“You won’t get a chance!” Blake screams with rage as she draws Gambol Shroud, acting mindlessly.

Some of them try to calm her, but Ruby draws Crescent Rose as she grits her teeth. “This game of yours is over, Merlot.” Ruby snarls.

Then he smirks again with a sinister chuckle.

“On the contrary, my dear.” He says.

Merlot leans forward as he smirks.

“The game is only just beginning.” He says.

Suddenly Mazen lands down right in front of all of them, the impact  blasts some of them all back as he lands down, creating a crater beneath his feet. Dust blasts by them as he lands, lifting his head up with his hand still pressed to the ground. Mazen slowly rises back up, towering above even Qrow with his Chainsword in his grasp, staring through his customized mask.

Pyrrha gasps as she sees the wall explode, as Krueger charges straight through the wall, only just missing her as Kassius grabs her and pulls her out of the way. The huge Rhino Faunus slides to a halt, gritting his teeth into a smirk as he stares at them, fists clenched. Vera swings across the ceiling with her webs, rolling across the ground as she lands. And in the water that is in the large room, a reservoir in fact where the power comes from – is the Barracuda Faunus, named Bonnie.

Yuma glides above them with his Bat Wings extended as he lands down with his Sub Machine Guns pointed at them from above, a smirk on his face. Both Albain Brothers emerge from the shadows with their Spiral Daggers in their grasp, charging fire dust into the blades with menacing smirks.

Then Blake hears his voice from behind her.

“Blake...” Adam coldly speaks, and she slowly turns around with widened eyes.

Adam appears behind her with Wilt and Blush slowly being drawn from the Scabbard as he stares in her direction. Her eyes focus on his cybernetic arm as he holds the scabbard in his grasp.

She knows what that means.

The old Adam Taurus is back.

Merlot chuckles. “I’ll leave you all to get acquainted.” Merlot states, and the feed shuts off.

 

**Blake**

Mazen bellows as he swings his Chainsword directly towards both Ruby and Blake, only for the staff of Kragen’s to catch the hit, whereas Ruby and Blake both roll aside, directly towards Adam who yells with rage, slashing Wilt and Blush straight at them with force. Streaks of red energy blast out from each thrash he makes with the long red blade, Ruby dashes aside and Blake shimmers to his left, aiming her pistol at him but not firing.

She does not want to fight him, he has fought so hard to atone for his mistakes, he cannot come this far to go back to how he used to be.

Can he?

“Adam! Please stop!” Blake begs as she holds Gambol Shroud’s pistol towards his head, he turns to face her, knowing where she is by her voice. By the sound of her breath and the scuffs of her heels on the ground as she stands there. He scowls viciously, staring in her direction.

“You murdered Sienna...I heard your voice, Blake. I won’t let you destroy everything we have managed to achieve.” Adam growls, standing right before her with Wilt and Blush held tight in his grasp.

“I didn’t do it! I swear on my life!” She assertively pleads as she keeps the iron sights trained in on him. But he is beyond convincing now, he slowly raises the shotgun end of his scabbard and aims it at her face.

“You will.” He says, and as soon as he fires, Ruby screeches as she slashes straight across his side, landing right beside Blake, staring directly at the man as he stumbles. He roars with rage, sprinting straight towards both of them, swinging his sword straight at them both, for Blake slam the Katana Blade of Gambol Shroud against his sword, locked in position.

Mazen bellows like the mad monster that he, jumping and spiralling through the air to slash his Chainsword across Kragen’s thick aura, and his Isomacium Staff. Sparks burst out from the impact and the contact of the scraping action, only for him to strike once more, pressing both hands against the weapon as he forces it down onto the staff. Kragen holds the weapon horizontally to keep him at bay, straining, only for the Architect to fire a powerful pulse round into the side of his head. The aura protects the High Leader, but the impact pushes him across the floor.

He rises back up quickly, standing his ground as he sees the Spring Maiden stood with the two. He chuckles, smirking behind his mask and staring through the glowing red sockets that lay within his mask, identifying their weaknesses, just the Architect is doing with him. “The old versus the new.” Mazen chuckles with his deep brutish voice, staring the three of them down.

“Give up, Mazen.” The Architect attempts, transforming his rifle into sword form, electrical dust conducting through the metal constantly. Mazen cracks his neck, and he spins the Chainsword through his fingers, standing his ground.

“I don’t think so.” Mazen snarls, in which the Architect sighs as he looks at his old friends.

“I tried.” He defends with the shrug of his shoulders.

“It was worth a shot.” Kragen admits, but Yenna says nothing more as she conjures a pair of Elemental Swords from her powers and the combination of dust in her dress. Similar to what Cinder does, yet hers seem to have hints of spring and nature inside. Instead of flames, there are roots that climb across the hilt. The violet flames ignite from her eyes as she stares him down, and despite the fact that she is a Spring Maiden, he does not even seem intimidated by either of them.

Mazen sprints directly towards them, howling as he swings the Chainsword directly towards them, the engine built inside growling and roaring with him with smoke billowing out from the exhaust that rattles. Yenna slashes her swords across the Chainsword and ducks down to avoid the weapon, rolling right past him. Kragen spins his staff round at great speeds with superior agility despite his age, striking well placed hits against the massive High Leader over and over again.

But Mazen has a thick aura and can take the hits, and he immediately brings the Chainsword downwards towards Kragen’s head with both hands, only for him to miss and scrape the metal barbed teeth against the floor. The Architect jabs forward towards Mazen, but the massive Faunus sidesteps, immediately swinging his arm round and clattering the robot in the head, knocking him off his feet. As he goes to slam his fist down into his head, Yenna launches one of her swords towards him, and the impact stumbles him. She instantly rushes to the rescue, smashing her knee into his abdomen before igniting flames in one of her hands to blast it against his chest, knocking him back.

Forming another pair of swords, she immediately slashes them over and over across his aura, moving with incredible speed. She has had thousands of years to master her powers, she has unlocked abilities that Cinder probably has no idea about. However due to being underground and surrounded by concrete, she cannot summon the roots and the flora to assist her, or even the fauna. She must rely on her powers in her body, and she also cannot rely on the weather either.

She is incredibly weakened down here.

And it is possible that Mazen knows that.

But that does not mean she cannot deal some damage, as she channels both fire and lightning through her arms at once, she launches a thick beam of the elements into Mazen. The High Leader of the White Fang crosses his forearms and something unexpected happens across his arms and body.

His aura begins to solidify into a crystal like form, one that completely deflects the elements from harming him, just causing them to envelop around him but have no effect. But he cannot move when in this position as she pushes him across the ground, the booming roar of the elements fills the laboratory. Yenna relents with shocked eyes as the elemental powers fade from her eyes, seeing the man frozen in the crystallized aura, until it cracks and breaks off his body.

He rises back up and chuckles menacingly.

“His Semblance...he can solidify his aura into an invulnerable shield, but he cannot move.” Kragen determines as Mazen stands before them, pacing back and forth with the Chainsword still growling.

“Got a few tricks up your sleeve, I see?” Yenna questions.

“One or two.” Mazen answers, as he sprints towards the three of them, jumping in the air and bringing the Chainsword above his head, hammering it down with all his might.

Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck hold their weapons tight in their grasp as the two Albain Brothers approach them with their Spiral Daggers in their grasp. The hooded men have constant smirks on their faces, chuckling and chortling as they stand there. “Uh...I’m sorry did we make a joke?” Port curiously asks with his Blunderbuss in his grasp and Oobleck ignites the end of his Thermos Staff.

Fennec chortles sinisterly as he stands there, charging the spiralling blades up with red fire dust. “Not all of you will be leaving this lab alive.” Fennec warns, and Oobleck stares at him.

“It does not have to end like this, Albains.” Oobleck warns, hoping to end this peacefully, but the Albain Brothers look at each other with smirks on their faces.

“The humans want to negotiate? Shall we?” Corsac sarcastically asks him with a raised eyebrow, his deep voice almost growling as he speaks.

“I think not.” Fennec says, the two of them smirk as they prepare to battle the two Teachers.

“Fine then – you asked for it.” Port sighs, stretching his arms and cracking his neck as he spins his Blunderbuss round so then the axe heads of his weapon are ready to strike them. Fennec leaps forward first, whereas Corsac attacks second, the younger twin always has been the one to attack first. He sprints and jumps towards Oobleck, stabbing downwards with both Spiral Daggers, but Oobleck rotates round and smacks his Thermos into the Fox’s chest, knocking him out the air. Corsac jumps up and kicks Port in the chest, blasting a fire bolt into his chest that begins to weaken his aura, but Port just laughs as he smashes the axe downwards towards him.

Corsac slides backwards, immediately jumping up and kicking him in the head, ducking down as he lands to avoid the attack from Oobleck behind him. The fireballs from the Thermos fly right past his head and Corsac charges the blade up more, unleashing a storm of wind towards him that pushes the Huntsman towards Fennec.

Fennec lifts his head with a smirk, as he gets back up and sprints straight towards him from behind, leaping up and landing on his back, trying to choke him out as he pulls him back. He even starts to punch his glasses, which just infuriates the Doctor. Oobleck grabs him by his ear, causing the Faunus to screech with agony and launch him straight into his tailed brother. Both of them are knocked over from the impact, but neither are going down without a fight.

Port laughs, guffaws actually as he aims his Blunderbuss at the two Fox Faunus as they stand back up, staring them down with gritted scowls. “Wanna place a bet, Barty?” Port asks him, in which the Doctor could never refuse a challenge.

“I’m listening.” Oobleck replies with a smirk.

“How about we make a deal – whoever takes down one of these creeps first doesn’t buy drinks back home?” Port asks him with curiosity.

Oobleck chuckles.

“Sounds good to me.” Oobleck agrees, and both of them rush towards the Albain Brothers.

Qrow keeps his eyes on the ceiling, knowing that Vera is swinging around above his head right now, he can hear the sound of her webs ejecting from her wrists and sticking to the ceilings. Then the webs eventually come floating down from where they stuck in the first place.

Vera suddenly swings towards him from behind, kicking him in the spine with both feet, nearly knocking him down, but he manages to roll the attack off, holding his Scythe behind his back as he stares at her. She smirks as she draws her two pistols and starts to fire them at him over and over again, in which Qrow spins his scythe round at great speeds to deflect them. But then she launches a web that latches onto his Scythe and she pulls it from his grasp.

The weapon crashes to the ground, and she immediately takes her spear and charges the electrified spearheads and she sends it flying towards Qrow, but then he catches the spear and moves out the way at the perfect moment. His Bad Luck Charm is already in affect against Vera, as he managed to catch that spear with ease. Then he throws it onto the ground as he walks towards her. She scoffs as she stares him down, still holding her pistols. “Well played, but you don’t have your fancy scythe.” She states, smirking as she paces back and forth with her firearms aimed directly at Qrow.

Qrow scoffs, shaking his head as he stares at her, until Winter comes shooting straight towards Vera from behind, using her glyph to zoom her across the ground, smashing both her blades into Vera’s back. The impact sends her flying towards Qrow, and he immediately punches her in the face, knocking her onto her back as he walks past her. Qrow scoffs, picking up his scythe and slamming it down behind him, sending cracks through the marble that they stand on. “You talk too much.” Qrow warns as Winter stands beside him, but Vera smirks, launching a web from her hand and pulling her light body back towards her spear.

She scoops it into her hands and she spins it through her fingers, aiming it directly at the couple stood right in front of her. She is deranged with that smile on her face, her silky white hair floating behind her as she paces back and forth with that spear aimed and them, charging electricity into it. “What’s the plan, Qrow?” She asks him, but Qrow has his mind focused on his semblance right now.

He is terrified of anyone getting hurt because of his curse.

Or worse...

Killed.

“Try and stay as far from me as you can, Raven isn’t here to counter my semblance. Try and help the others, I can handle her.” Qrow advises.

“But Qrow?” Winter questions.

“Winter! Please...” He begs, and she can see the legitimate concern in his eyes. She sighs, turning to see Yuma attacking Oscar right now, diving down and stabbing both swords down where he was stood. He manages to dash out the way, but Yuma fights with an aggression that Oscar has never seen before. He fights with speed and uses his wings to his advantage, just as Vera uses her webs.

Winter looks back at Qrow and she nods, patting his shoulder as she uses her semblance to glide across the ground. Vera watches her then turns her brown eyes back to Qrow, unaware of his curse. “That was a stupid move.” Vera says, tilting her head with confusion.

“So was challenging me.” Qrow replies, and he walks back and forth, waiting for Vera to make the first move. And as he suspected, she does, she sprints straight towards him and goes to stab him with her spear, but he deflects that attack with his scythe, slashing straight across her aura, but before he can deal another hit, she launches a web from her wrist, using it like a grappling hook, swinging back up into the rafters.

Qrow transforms into his Crow form and pursues the little spider, returning to human form after he finds her, sliding across the beam that she is stood upon, shifting the Scythe back into its sword form, thrashing it directly towards her with all his might, yelling as he does it. But Vera smashes her spear against the impact, bouncing back on her toes, then she worms her way in from underneath his sword, scraping the spearhead across his back, but it has little to now effect.

His bad luck charm is doing him a lot of favours.

But for how long?

Yuma suddenly crashes down onto Oscar’s chest, pinning him down to the ground, smirking menacingly as he presses the serrated blade of his sword against his neck with a grin on his face. “Quiet now...time to go to sleep little one.” He whispers slyly, until Winter suddenly kicks him in the spine, knocking him off the Traveller who immediately gets back up, holding Traveller’s Atrocity in its sword form. He spins it round, loading a new dust shell into the revolving chamber it has inside it. Yuma swings his wings and he rises up above the two Hunters, glaring down at them with a smirk. His wings flap back and forth as he hovers above their heads. Oscar turns to Winter with a chuckle.

“What took ya so long?” He asks her, keeping his eyes on Yuma as he circles them.

“Had to pick a bad guy, sweetie!” She sarcastically replies, until Yuma screeches as he dives down towards them both. He stabs the swords into the ground, just missing Winter’s leg, but she slashes her sword across his aura, but he immediately comes round to strike her across the back as well, making her grunt. Forming a Glyph, she uses it to launch herself towards him. But Yuma rolls out of the way and he kicks her in the back of the head after using his wings to throw his body higher in the air from his jump.

Suddenly his body is launched across the room from a powerful boom, or at least that is what happened from his perspective. What actually happened is Oscar threw a paused bubble of time into him, and he fired around twenty bullets from Traveller’s Atrocity after splitting the sword into his Dagger Revolvers. The amount of bullets launched across the room, nearly took out half his aura, and he smashes against the wall, cracks spread like the plague in the process. Oscar smirks as he stands there, before he helps Winter back up to her feet.

She laughs with amazement at how he did that, but Yuma is already getting back up, looking pissed off now. “Nice move.” She says.

“I can’t keep doing it though...it eats away at my aura.” He reminds her, since that is the biggest weakness with using his Semblance during combat. It uses a lot of aura in the process, but Winter is here, so she pats his back with a smile.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.” Winter assures with a smile. His wings spread outwards and he roars, jumping straight towards them with both swords held back and slashing them both towards them.

Jaune stands in the midst of the intense combat, looking around since he knows that Bonnie is nearby. Until she suddenly leaps out of the water and tackles him into the reservoir, she grabs him by the throat and holds him under, glaring into his eyes, able to breathe through the gills in her neck. Jaune struggles intensely, trying his damndest to break free from her grasp but he cannot.

Until a hand grabs Bonnie by the throat and she gasps with pain and shock, when Jaune realises who it is...

He does not know how to feel.

Cinder launches Bonnie from the water and she smashes against the ceiling, plummeting down and crashing into the floor, water dripping from her body as she slowly stands back up. Cinder uses her abilities to fly out from the water with Jaune in her grasp, pulling him out by his hood. Jaune coughs up the water that was filling his lungs, and he looks at Cinder with surprised eyes. “Thank me later.” Cinder says as she conjures her Fall Maiden swords, seeing Bonnie standing back up with her daggers and many throwing knives on her person.

Jaune stands tall, picking Crocea Mors back up as he stares Bonnie down, glancing at Cinder, never expecting to fight alongside her. “We’ll see about that.” He replies, not comfortable with any of this, but she did save him there, so that is something.

Bonnie immediately launches one of her knives towards Jaune but he raises his shield, blocking the blades from coming anywhere near him. Some of them snap upon contact whereas some remain lodged in the metal. The ones that come flying towards Cinder she jumps in the air rather gracefully, slashing them in two with one swing before she lands on both feet. Cinder sharply lifts her head, her eye igniting as she blasts a lightning bolt towards the Barracuda Faunus.

She rolls out of the way and sprints towards them, slashing both her daggers at the Fall Maiden, and Cinder uses her many skills to deflect the attacks. Her swords clang against the blades of the Faunus over and over again, sparks bursting from each of the attacks. But Bonnie lands a hit on Cinder’s cheek, causing her to roll backwards, but Jaune immediately rushes forward. He smashes his shield into Bonnie’s chest to push her back before spinning round with Crocea Mors with a mighty yell.

He lands a lethal hit that does immense damage to her aura, causing her to stagger backwards, and then Cinder leaps forward and crosses the blades to slash in an _X_ attack movement. But Bonnie leaps away, performing a graceful cartwheel before she dives back into the water, her legs connecting together to form the tail of a Barracuda, her gills in her neck opening so then she can breathe.

Cinder watches the water intently with Jaune beside her. “Strange time to go skinny dipping, isn’t it?” Cinder questions.

She didn’t expect Jaune’s reaction to her joke.

He laughed.

She launches Milo directly towards Krueger who charges head first towards her, but the spear just bounces off the thick armour and her eyes widen with shock as he attacks. She rolls out of the way but Kassius swings round and delivers a powerful punch with his cybernetic fist, causing him to stagger slightly, and he backs up.

But his words reveal that was not enough. “I used all the strength in my fist and that bastard barely even flinched.” Kassius reports to Pyrrha as he kicks Milo over to Pyrrha who pulls it back onto her grasp with her Polarity.

“He must have a weakness – his aura and skin must be weaker somewhere, he wouldn’t be able to move like that otherwise.” Pyrrha determines, remembering the many lessons that Port had taught them back at Beacon many years ago. Then she thinks back and her eyes widen when she remembers when Weiss fought the Boarbatusk, and its weakness was its belly. “The stomach...” Pyrrha realises with widened eyes as Krueger turns to them with his huge fists clenched, reaching back to grab his Maces that he uses against them.

“Huh?” Kassius replies with confusion.

“Just like a Boarbatusk, his skin and aura must be thinner around his stomach and chest, look where he is wearing the chest rig.” Pyrrha examines, pointing at the pacing back and forth Rhinoceros Faunus before them.

She is right, the only real protective gear he is wearing is around his chest, he does not have sleeves and he is wearing cargo shorts. The rest has armour plates around his chest. “Good eyes, Pyrrha.” Kassius points out as he flicks Lash Equinox upwards and ejecting the empty mags of Vulcan Nox. The magazines eject out from the bracers and they bounce onto the ground. Now he loads his explosive shells into the firearms he has, since they will need them to take him on. “Here’s the plan, I’ll wear him down with my explosive shells and you get up close and personal.” Kassius suggests, and Pyrrha nods, trusting his plan.

Kassius turns to Krueger, roaring to get his attention. “Hey ass-wipe!” Kassius yells, and Krueger stares at him. “Yeah you, come on!” Kassius challenges, firing the explosive shells towards him over and over again. The shells detonate upon contact constantly, slowly but surely damaging his aura as he attacks.

Then Pyrrha strikes from behind with a yell, launching Akuou straight at the him.

Blake performs a perfect back flip as she attacks Adam, causing him to stagger back but he immediately swings round with Wilt and Blush, which only takes out another shadow of Blake. She slides backwards, but Ruby dashes straight at Adam, slashing across his powerful aura with all her might. The attack causes him to crumble to one knee, but when she goes to attack him again, he aims the shotgun at her and fires.

“Ruby!” Blake yells, as Ruby is launched across the room, crashing down beside Port and Oobleck.

She presses her hands against the floor as she gets back up, seeing Blake taking on Adam on her own, but before she can even try and help, she is forced to deflect a fire bolt from Corsac as quickly as she can by spinning Crescent Rose round with fantastic speed. Fennec sprints directly towards Ruby with a haunting screech with his Spiralling Dagger aimed at her neck.

She instantly spins round and fires the sniper rifle built into Crescent Rose into his chest, the impact sends Fennec flying back and he slides across the ground, groaning in pain.

Port laughs as he smashes Corsac across the face with his axe. “Nice shot, Miss Rose!” Port congratulates with a cheery voice.

They all continue to battle against the White Fang forces with great speed and impressive skill on both sides.

Fennec groans, but the pained sound evolves into anger. He stares at Ruby, Port and Oobleck with gritted teeth. He scowls and he reaches into one of the satchels on his belt and he takes out a dust crystal, ejecting the empty one from the hilt of the Dagger.

The crystal is purple.

The dust that can puncture through aura even when it is still up, somehow.

He takes the crystal and forces it into his Dagger, charging the purple dust into the Spiral Dagger.

Oobleck yells as he takes his thermos and smashes it straight against Corsac’s chest and the impact launches him back a few feet, crashing against the wall.

Port cheers with vigour.

Then...

“Die, human scum!” Fennec roars, jumping up and aiming the Dagger at Port, charging it up and firing a fire bolt directly at him.

Port gasps with shock, jolting from the impact and the purple flash, that sends him staggering back. Ruby’s eye widens with horror, and Oobleck freezes on the spot as he sees Port stood there with a shocked expression.

The bolt hit him in the heart.

Blood begins to leak from the hole in his ribs, and he lifts his head to look at the tearful Ruby Roses, and he smiles kindly with a chuckle.

“Fight well...Miss Rose...” He softly whispers.

His eyes roll back into his head as he succumbs to his wound, falling back and crashing to the ground with a thud.

And silence fills the large room.

Ruby is frozen with horror, and she collapses to her knees, beside one of the teachers she looked up to, touching his chest and feeling nothing.

He’s...

Fennec just killed Professor Port.

Ruby shrieks with anguish, silver energy bursting from her eyes as she remains beside him, Blake turns with horrified eyes from what she sees. Qrow stands there as well, terrified...

His bad luck charm has struck once more...

Ruby slowly lifts her teary face, staring at the grinning Fennec Albain stood before her, and every emotion seems to become clouded.

Except for one.

Rage.

“You killed my friend!” Ruby shrieks as white flames erupt from her eyes, and she leaps straight towards Fennec, firing Crescent Rose constantly as she tackles him through the ceiling and out of the huge room.

Leaving the body of Port behind...


	54. Silver Eyed Rage

**Ruby**

The ground shatters, chunks of concrete with ribs of rebar protruding from its structure. Plumes of thick dust and silt thrown sky high, just as Ruby and Fennec come exploding out from the Chamber.

Ruby shrieks with fury, eyes burning with silver flames, smashing Fennec into the ground with Crescent Rose, instantly spinning round to slam the blunt end of her scythe directly into his chest, firing the rifle at the same time, using the recoil to build the attack up. The impact creates a boom that blasts wind around them, and Fennec grunts as he launches away from her, only to drag his Spiral Dagger into the ground to slow himself down. Dust and rubble fall from his body as he slowly stands back up, staring straight at Ruby with a maniacal smirk on his face. Ruby stands before him, almost looking feral with the anger in her teary eyes, desperate to avenge her friend.

Fennec slowly stands back up as he draws a second Dagger from within his robes, standing his ground. “I’m guessing that human was your friend?” Fennec presumes, and Ruby snarls with rage.

“He was a mentor!” She roars, firing her sniper rifle at him, but his lightning fast reflexes help him just sidestep the bullet at the perfect time.

“Then maybe I should have made it more painful.” He scoffs, and then Ruby turns to see Corsac jumping up from where he must have climbed up the hole. He pulls his hood down, revealing the scars on his face and the short hair through the middle of his scalp and a stubby ponytail, the rest of his head is shaven down the sides. Across the right side of his head, scraping through the shaven parts of his head are three scars that he must have been given by a Grimm at some point.

“We’ll be sure to deliver your head to Blake Belladonna afterwards.” Corsac assures as he draws his daggers, but Ruby shows no fear towards the two Fox Faunus Warriors.

“This ends here for both of you!” Ruby yells with rage, lunging towards Fennec first who just smirks as he sprints towards her as well. Corsac, clearly the smarter one of the two, is the one to try and flank the young Silver Eyed Girl. Ruby spins round as she slashes Crescent Rose at Fennec, but he rolls backwards, narrowly avoiding the attack, proceeding to blast flames straight at her. Ruby twirls the huge scythe through her fingers with great agility, managing to completely deflect the fire bolt, flames rupturing across the red blur of her weapon.

Corsac suddenly jumps and kicks Ruby in the side of the head, then jabbing forward with the Spiralling Dagger at her chest, but her aura shields any possible damage. Corsac ducks down when Ruby thrashes Crescent Rose at him, and he blasts the flames at her feet to cause her to stumble. As she staggers, he performs an impressive roundhouse kick that knocks the weapon from her grasp. Assuming she is now defenceless, he smirks and he goes to deal some more damage.

But he has been out of the loop, because Ruby has learned hand-to-hand combat thanks to Yang, Sun and Kassius. When he goes for a second attack, Ruby catches his forearm and she slams her elbow down into his arm, making him bark with pain to make him release the dagger. Ruby catches the weapon in her other arm and she throws the Dagger directly at Corsac, the blade punctures through his hood that is still down. The dagger carries him across the courtyard of the Radar Station, pinning him to the wall. Corsac grunts as he smashes into the wall, trying to break free from his predicament.

Ruby turns as Fennec yells, swinging his fist at her, so she backs up but only for Fennec to counter by punching right up her jaw, knocking her back and crashing against one of the walls. Ruby falls to the ground and reaches for Crescent Rose, only for Fennec to smash his foot right into her face. Fennec scoops his hands against her throat as he throttles her against the floor with that same smirk on his face. “You humans have always pushed the Faunus down; we will crush the Humans one by one, until only the Faunus remain! We are the dominant species of Remnant!” Fennec yells with rage, only for Ruby to reach down and grab her secondary combat knife sheathed on her leg, slashing it across his aura to knock him off.

Fennec presses his palm to his cheek, feeling the wound healing but the crimson blood still leaks from the opening, staining his cheek. Ruby stands back up, picking Crescent Rose back up as she stares him down. “Neither of us are the dominant species, Umbra is.” Ruby states, even when trying to kill him she is still showing him that he is on the wrong side. But Fennec is too far gone; he has become a Zealot for the White Fang.

“Then we will crush him too.” Fennec states as he picks his Spiral Daggers back up as well, but Ruby just scoffs at his foolish statement.

“Vir Nominis Umbra could just snap his fingers and kill all of you, all of us. You won’t stand a chance against him, even if you manage to kill me.” Ruby states, since she is not even going to give Fennec the chance to redeem. There is a possibility for Corsac, but Fennec murdered Port in cold blood. Ruby hears the struggling grunts of Corsac and glances at him, seeing him just thrust forward to rip the robes from the tactical gear that he wears underneath it. Both him and his brother wear the exact same tactical suits as the rest but they just wear their signature hooded robes over them to hide their arsenals.

“Only one way to find out, little girl.” Fennec replies as he grins, charging the dust into his blades, preparing to attack. Ruby cocks the sniper rifle, ejecting an empty shell from the chamber and loading a new one in automatically.

Ruby points the barrel and the scythe behind her body as she pulls the trigger, the boom and kick of the High Impact Sniper Rifle sends her flying towards them, screeching with petals trailing behind her as she gets ready to slash. Fennec and Corsac both rush towards her, and Corsac slides under her as Fennec gets hit by the blade, the huge curved blade dealing some major damage to his aura, sending him flying all the way back. Fennec tumbles and Ruby keeps coming, only for Corsac to stab his dagger down into her cape, causing Ruby to fall from the yanking feeling she experienced.

She turns to see Corsac sprinting towards her, dodging the round that she fires at him just by stepping to the side. Corsac rushes her, smashing his knee against her head to push her away, her cape still retracting her movements. But Corsac grabs her by the hair and smashes her head into the floor with force. Ruby grits her teeth and growls with anger, she pulls with all her strength and the red fabric in the cape tears off, and she grabs the Fox Faunus by his hair and throws him off her back. She stands tall, lacking her hood and cape now, but she has grown up and does not care for style like she used to.

She now wears a more impressive tactical suit that lacks a skirt and replaced with trousers with many pouches and her knife strapped round her right thigh. She stares them both down but Fennec immediately attacks again, and he manages to kick Crescent Rose from her grasp again, but Ruby wanted him to do that. She reaches up and catches the forearm which the hand holds the dagger, holding it above their heads. With her other arm she starts to send hard blows with her fist into his lower abdomen over and over again, making Fennec grunt and squawk with pain, only for her to take her dagger and stab it straight into his ear, now making him scream with agony. Still with the Faunus in her grasp, she takes the dagger, and she throws it towards Corsac and it stabs into his furry tail.

Corsac screams with agony, trying to pull himself free from her blade, and Ruby takes the dagger from Fennec’s grasp and she throws it aside. Now she uses her skills that she has learned from her friends, smashing her knee into Fennec’s chest to make him hunch forward. Doing so, she hooks her arm round his head and throws her body down into the ground. Now atop him, she uses her legs to pin his arms down, leaning down to stare into his eyes as she grabs him with both hands by the throat.

She squeezes with all her might, slowly breaking his aura down as she grits her teeth together, trying to squeeze the life from him. But when she lets her anger out, she does not even notice that Corsac has ripped the combat knife from his tail and he stares at Ruby, sprinting towards her with a blood thirsty scream, jumping and tackling her off his brother. Fennec gasps for air, coughing on the spot as he regains his strength.

Corsac punches Ruby over and over again in the face, delivering bruises that her aura is desperately healing as fast as it can. But as Corsac continuously punches her in the face, flashes of memory come to her mind.

Port’s face...

His smile...

How she will never hear his joyous voice again, or his many great tales that he had in his younger days.

The silver energy in her eyes builds up and the flames ignite again and she screams with rage and anguish as she swings her fist into Corsac’s face. The act of doing so blasts a beam of silver light from her eyes and into Corsac, the impact launches him high in the air, before he crashes down to the ground with force. Ruby pushes her hands against the ground to get back up, staring the two brothers down with enraged expressions. She stands before them with silver flames crackling from her silver eye and behind her eye patch that she wears. Fennec draws his daggers, but is acting more cautious now.

Ruby reaches her hand out, and the silver energy wraps around Crescent Rose and it comes flying right back into her grasp. Ruby screams with the anger of a Silver Eyed Warrior, catching the weapon as she makes her next strike at him.

 

**Blake**

Adam clashes against her, the red blade of Wilt and Blush scraping across Gambol Shroud as he towers above the much shorter Feline Faunus with gritted teeth. Sparks burst from the contact of the two razor sharp blades that scrape across one another, as he pushes down and down against her. His strength trumping hers and forcing her down to one knee. “Adam! I swear to you! It wasn’t me!” Blake begs as he forces the blade closer and closer to her throat, but Adam just yells with rage.

“Liar!” He roars, nearly slashing her throat until Oobleck suddenly appears and swings his Thermos at him, but Adam ducks down and he takes his sword from Blake and he immediately swings it straight at Oobleck. He must be blocking the loss of his friend from his mind; he has to if he is to help defeat their enemies. Adam scrapes Wilt and Blush across his Thermos Staff, scraping the paint off it and he viciously slashes at Oobleck, the impact makes him fall to one knee.

Adam holds the sword with both hands over his head as he goes to behead the Doctor, until Blake leaps at him with Gambol Shroud.

“No!” She shrieks, catches the red blade and scraping it away from Oobleck, spinning round and slashing her scabbard across his face to make him stagger. The impact scrapes across the mask but he does not back down, just continues to attack over and over again. Blake keeps fighting defensively opposed to offensively because she does not want to kill Adam, she does not even want to hurt him. She just wants him to hear the truth, to know that Vir Nominis Umbra did all of it for this to happen in the first place.

Adam spins round and he slashes Wilt and Blush straight at Blake, then firing the shotgun in his Scabbard at her as well, but Blake uses her semblance to avoid it. Her hologram shimmers away as the shrapnel of the shell impacts the shadow. He growls with anger, he may not have been able to see her but he could tell from the sound her body made when it got hit. Blake backs up and crosses both the scabbard and the blade of Gambol Shroud over one another which catches the blade of Wilt and Blush, and she stares at him. “Adam! Listen to me! It was Umbra! It was all him, he can shape shift into anything he wants! He did that to turn the White Fang against us again!” Blake states, but Adam just grits his teeth with anger.

“Us?” He questions as he kicks her in the middle of the chest to push her back. “And who is _us_ , Blake?” Adam questions as he walks towards her with Wilt and Blush sheathed back into his scabbard, still with his hand held onto the hilt. His skill completely outmatches Blake considering the fact that he is blind and yet he can still battle her with formidable skill. Blake stares at him, terrified to see him returning to the Adam she once knew, spiteful and cold.

“All of us! Think about it Adam! Why would I go through all that trouble to bring us together, only to tear it all down?” Blake yells, stood right before him whilst everyone fights in around her, and Oobleck stands back up. He too is no match for Adam either, he is just too fast and able to deflect their attacks faster than their can even make them.

“Gain our trust, and then take control. That’s why you killed Sienna, I heard what you said. Even a Shape Shifter cannot mimic your voice, I would know.” Adam snarls, completely blinded by his anger, the feeling of betrayal that he feels from the death of Sienna. Adam partially draws Wilt and Blush, showing the blood red blade in his grasp. Blake stares at it with horror, flashing images of seeing Yang’s arm getting amputated back at Beacon all those years ago.

“Adam...please...it’s what he wants...” Blake begs with tears in her feline amber eyes, desperately hoping he will stop this violence. But Adam just stares her down, unable to see her face but he can picture it...once her beauty brought him comfort, but now it just brings him rage.

“I made a promise...I intend to keep it now.” Adam snarls, remarking back to that promise he made Blake when Beacon fell.

_I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love..._

Blake can hear the promise reciting in her head, and she knows now...the heartbreaking truth.

The Adam she thought returned is gone forever, now the monster within has returned. Adam suddenly rushes forward and slashes straight at Blake, only for her body to vanish and she appears behind him with teary eyes as she slashes Gambol Shroud at him with full force. Adam grunts from the feeling of the two weapons slashing across his spine. He staggers but immediately turns to swing the sword at her, and Blake blocks the attack with her Katana. She flips through the air, landing behind him and she fires her pistol at him repeatedly, but Adam cuts each bullet down with the swift movements of his wrist to guide the sword. Sparks and clangs burst from the impacts of bullets against the red blade, and he sprints at her again, sheathing the sword, only to rip it back out again, but Blake rolls backwards.

He dashes towards her and he thrusts the blade upwards at her and he fires the shotgun scabbard at her from behind, and the impact sends Blake flying back. Blake yelps as her back smashes against the wall with force, sending cracks through the marble and granite walls that make up the huge chamber. She falls to her knees with a groan, looking up with a gasp to see Adam jumping towards her with Wilt and Blush pushed down towards her.

Blake moves her head to the side, just missing Wilt and Blush as he stabs it into the wall, only just catching some of her hair, but he just pulls her head from the blade, ripping a few strands from her head. She immediately smashes her head into Adam’s face to knock him back and she rushes towards him now. She jumps and performs an impressive back flip that strikes right up Adam’s jaw, making him stagger back and she swings across ways with Gambol Shroud, slicing across his red aura. She fires herself forward by blasting the handgun, using the recoil to slam both the blade and her scabbard into his chest. She throws her grappling hook onto a vantage point and she swings around him, and kicks him with both feet in the spin.

Adam tumbles across the ground, and he senses how close he is to Wilt and Blush, since he has a spiritual connection to the weapon as his Semblance is bound to the weapon. He grabs the hilt and immediately spins round, slashing a line of red energy from the blade which knocks Blake out of the air and into the ground again. Adam runs towards her and he slashes his blade across her aura, which pushes her back onto the ground.

Adam kicks Gambol Shroud from arm’s reach and he presses his boot against her stomach, holding her down as she struggles. “It’s a real shame, Blake. You and I...we could have gone so far if you hadn’t betrayed us once...and then you betrayed me again. You turned against me before and I forgave you...but not a second time.” Adam snarls as he goes to stab her in the stomach, but Oobleck roars as he smashes his staff into Adam’s head, knocking him back. Oobleck blasts flames from the staff and he leaps towards him, blasting him in the chest to push him away from her.

“She never betrayed you!” Oobleck yells as he spins the staff through his finger and smashes Adam in the chest, but he catches the weapon with one hand and kicks the teacher in the chest. He instantly swings round with his sword to deal damage but Oobleck rolls out of the way, blasting flames towards him but Adam blocks the cloud of fire with the red blade, the impact pushes him back slightly but the constant fire damage builds up the kinetic energy in his sword and his red hair begins to glow.

Blake looks up and her eyes widen. “Doctor! Don’t! His semblance!” Blake wails, but she is too late. Adam roars with rage and he slashes Wilt and Blush at Oobleck, and the energy in his aura channels into the blade to create one almighty attack. The blade activates the Moonslice Semblance, and the red blade slashes straight through Oobleck’s Thermos, snapping it in half, causing the dust crystals inside to shatter and explode into flames. The Moonslice attack creates a powerful shockwave that shatters the crates and windows around them, and Oobleck’s semblance breaks as he is thrown back. The green flash of energy crackles across his body, and he thrown back with burns on his clothes, lucky that the attack was focused on the Thermos Staff.

Oobleck crashes to the ground with a grunt and the severed remains of his Thermos clatter against the ground. Adam rises from his Moonslice Stance, the glowing energy receding from his hair and sword and he approaches Oobleck to finish him off. “I’m sorry, Doctor.” Adam mournfully says as he holds the sword above his stomach.

“Stop!” Blake yells, lunging forward and stopping the blade with Gambol Shroud. She holds him back and looks back at Oobleck with a desperate look in her eyes. “Doctor Oobleck! Get out of here!” She begs, since he is helpless now, no weapon and his aura has been completely destroyed. Oobleck nods, and he retreats away, and she looks back at Adam, seeing him with gritted teeth, towering above her.

“You would protect humanity above those who aim to crush us?” Adam snarls, staring straight at her.

“I am not protecting Humanity! I am not protecting the Faunus! I want to save everyone from Vir Nominis Umbra! And if that means stopping you...then I will.” Blake states, now realising that she needs to stop him.

Past relationships aside.

She needs to take Adam down now.

“That’s the spirit.” He replies, as Blake leaps backwards and rushes forward to make another attack.

 

**Kragen**

The Silver Eyed Warrior spins his Isomacium Staff at the speed of a plane’s propeller, charging it up with the silver aura of his eyes that lights the many markings inside the weapon up constantly. He strikes over and over again, each attack creates powerful booms and bright flashes to make Mazen stagger from the attacks. Kragen jumps and he smashes the staff downwards towards Mazen’s head, but the huge High Leader catches the staff in his brutish hand and he pulls Kragen forward to punch him with his other fist. His Chainsword has been punched from his grasp by the Architect, yet he is still just as dangerous without it.

Mazen stamps his massive boot downwards at where the old Warrior has fallen, but Yenna blasts a fireball into his back, the explosion pushes him back but he crystallizes his aura around his fists as he rushes towards her again. He cannot open his hands but they have become impenetrable as he swipes his fist across Yenna’s cheek, nearly knocking her onto the ground, but before she can even stand back up, Mazen upper cuts her, which throws her into the air. He catches her by her ankle and with all his might he swings the Spring Maiden round and launches her into Kragen. They both grunt from the impact, knocked over by him and he turns, seeing the Architect sprinting towards him. The mechanical man jumps and kicks him in the chest to push him back, only to swing round with his sword, slashing across orangey red aura with the crackling blade. Mazen stumbles but immediately comes back round with his crystallised fist to punch the Architect in the head, making him stagger.

Mazen did not even feel anything from punching the mechanical man in the head, nothing at all from the thick crystallised aura that surrounds his fist. He immediately punches him in the gut and freezes his aura around his foot as he spins round to kick him in the head. The Architect falls to the ground, sparks leaking from some damaged circuitry inside of his head. He flinches as his optics have become slightly damaged, flickering constantly in his vision. “Crap! Vision’s impaired!” He cries out as he stumbles across the room. He smacks the side of his head and something seems to fix back into the right place because the circuits stop sparking and the vision returns.

Then he wishes he couldn’t see after he just spots a massive fist come flying towards his face, sending him flying across the room. The Architect crashes and tumbles across the room, scraping his newly polished steel coloured paint from places of his armoured body. He groans with frustration as he looks at the scratched up polish on his body. “I just got the polish just right!” He complains, and he suddenly aims his sword at Mazen, firing a round into his chest that launches him across the room as well. Mazen grunts, crashing straight into a wall so hard that he is partially lodged into the wall.

Kragen and Yenna both groan, feeling like they are both too old for this, more Kragen than her since he is physically looking and feeling older than her. But mentally...they are both carrying the mindsets of elders. The Architect jogs over to them both and he pulls them back up to their feet. “You two good?” The Architect asks them as he ejects an empty dust cartridge from his sword-rifle. Kragen cracks his neck and pushes his chest out to pop a stress in his back out.

“Yeah...just remembering how old I am.” Kragen groans, and Yenna sighs.

“Same...” She groans, which gets a raised brow from Kragen but he doesn’t say a word since she does not look a day older from when they were split from each other.

“Mazen just keeps getting back up, everything we throw at him, and his semblance just counters it.” The Architect describes as he stares at Mazen, who is slowly ripping himself free from the wall that he was blasted into. Dust and silt floats down from the crater of which he is still stuck inside of.

“I know, he has one hell of an arsenal. Even without that damn sword of his.” Yenna adds, since she feels so much weaker down here from the lack of open air and soil to use to her advantage. She forms another pair of Elemental Swords in her hands as she stares the huge man down, but Kragen is smart and he examines him. He watches as he frees himself from slowly from the crater, and he cannot help but realise something. The crystallised aura was not formed around his chest when the Architect shot him.

“He must use a lot of aura to crystallise his aura like that, must be why he couldn’t do that when you shot at him, Architect.” Kragen explains, as Mazen rips his massive arm from the marble with force.

“We just need to get his aura down. Okay...” The Architect agrees.

“We keep hitting him until he goes down, sounds like a plan.” Yenna agrees as she reignites the fire in her eyes and cracks her neck. Mazen finally breaks free with a roar that sounds very similar to that of a Grizzly Bear in fact, and he lands down from the crater with dust sitting on his huge torso. Mazen is clearly a Bear Faunus, which explains his name – _Ursus_ – much like Ursa, which is the Grimm Malformation of a Bear. Also explains his massive form and the rage that he has, that of a Bear as well.

Mazen walks towards them and he raises his fists, not even trying to go for his Chainsword. “Surprised you’re not going for your weapon.” Yenna points out as she approaches with her swords in her grasp, Kragen in the middle and the Architect to his left, her on his right. Mazen scoffs as he stares the three of them down, ready to do battle with them.

“You think I need it? I am not like most Hunters you have seen, I made sure I learned the skills outside of fighting with a weapon. So let’s see what you’ve got, old-timers.” Maze challenges, standing his ground and his eyes focused on each of them as they approach. The Architect swings his sword at Mazen but the Bear Faunus ducks down and powers his fist into his lower abdomen, even without crystallising his aura he does not even seem to flinch from punching titanium as hard as he did. He immediately kicks the mechanical man in the chest, turning to catch the staff of Kragen’s and pulling him forward.

But this time, Kragen rolls under his fist that he swings at his head, and he pulls his staff round and swipes it under his legs to trip him over. Mazen crashes to the floor with a thud, but he rolls out of the way before Yenna could stab down at him with her swords. He kicks her in the knee and brings her down to one knee, then pulls her long black hair and punches her straight in her pretty face. Kragen snarls with anger, yet he still manages to stay calm and collected.

Rage is a useful emotion, but one cannot let it overpower themselves. Kragen makes his attack with his staff, smashing it across Mazen’s head, spinning it round fast to smack it against his head another three times, before he jabs it into his lower abdomen, then spins round and smashes it against his ear. Mazen falls but rolls back onto his feet, staring straight at them, yelling through his full face mask. “You would risk you lives, and for what? An already doomed world?” Mazen questions as he stands there, and the Architect aims his rifle at him again.

“It’s only doomed when the protectors give up on it!” The Architect argues, but Mazen just laughs at that statement.

“Protectors? Look around you! The protectors of this world are fighting a losing battle! Your enemies surround you and outnumber you, the destruction is coming and we cannot escape it!” Mazen roars right back, and there is a part of them that can understand his words. No matter what they do to protect the world, the people that live around them – there will always be those who will bring destruction.

Whether it be through malice, revenge or just madness.

And some...

Through evil.

But that is why they are here, to protect the world from those who seek to hurt it. “Then why are you fighting us? You know that there is a terrible moment coming, why fight against us? Help us stop Vir Nominis Umbra!” Kragen attempts to help the man, yet he has reasons that he recognises all too well.

“Because Humanity must be punished for what they have done to my people, they hunted us and slaughtered us for game! Saw us as the animals that we carry the traits of! I will not stop until the Faunus can have the revenge that they have been seeking for so long!” Mazen argues with malice in his voice, standing his ground.

“Revenge is not the way, believe me Mazen! I once knew a man who let vengeance consume his heart and he became a monster. But I managed to save him in the end, managed to cure that poison in his heart. It is not too late for you, either!” Kragen begs, clearly talking about Wymerus – the Knight of Vengeance that he freed all those years ago after Arkhonex fell. Mazen stands his ground but he shakes his head as he stares into his eyes.

“I cannot do that, Kragen. I know there are Humans out there who are not like the others, and I have no quarrel with them. But there are plenty more than must be destroyed, you are one of the good ones – but you are in my way of helping my people.” Mazen states, revealing that he is not completely blinded by rage after all.

“Then who are you going after?” Yenna questions, curious to know his reasons now as she circles him.

“Atlas – they must be punished for what they have done to my people.” Mazen snarls.

And at that moment...

It all makes sense.

His hatred towards Weiss back on the train when they tried to stop Torchwick with Oobleck in Vale, the fact he robbed from the Schnee Dust Company Banks as well. He has been targeting Atlesian Locations opposed to anywhere else, and has been killing everyone else that stands in his way.

Whether they are human or Faunus.

“What about the other Kingdoms?” The Architect questions.

“Those who harm my people there will fall as well, but Atlas is full of traitors. And my people will be freed.” Mazen tells them with his fists held up ready to fight them.

Yenna looks at Kragen and he stares straight at the man that was once just the White Fang Lieutenant. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Mazen. We can work together, if we stop Umbra then we can all wake up from this nightmare.” Kragen states.

“And I wish you luck in that mission – but I cannot let Atlas walk away scot-free after everything they have done to my people.” Mazen states, and Kragen sighs, because he knows that there is no point in trying to talk him out of this.

He wants revenge.

He wants justice.

And he won’t stop until he gets it.

“You know we cannot let you kill thousands of innocents like this.” The Architect tells him, and Mazen just stares them down.

“Then why are we still talking?” Mazen asks, and they all sigh.

“Fine.” Yenna agrees.

“Come on! Show me how it’s done!” Mazen roars, as he rushes towards them and swings his fist straight at them.

 

**Qrow**

Vera throws one of her tomahawks directly at Qrow but the Branwen slashes the axe out of the air with his sword, but Vera presses a button on the device on her wrist. It beeps and Qrow’s eyes widen as he realises it carries explosive dust on it, and it explodes right next to him, knocking him back. Vera fires a web at his leg and she pulls him closer and she jumps, wrapping her legs around his leg and pinning him down against the ground. She smirks as she leans down to stare him in the eyes, seductively running her finger down from his lip to his neck and chest. “Shame you’re not a Faunus...I’d love to screw around with someone like you.” She whispers to him, in which he just looks disgusted.

Qrow smashes his knee into her stomach and then whacks his head into hers, pushing her off his chest, and then spinning round to build the attack in his sword all the way up. The blade collides against her aura covered body, sending her flying across the room and crashing against one of the pillars. She looks up at him, her white hair covering one of her eyes as she stares at him. “Sorry sweetheart, not attracted to spiders.” He says as he holds the sword at his side, pacing back and forth.

She suddenly draws her sword and throws it straight at him, Qrow’s eyes widen and he rolls out of the way at the perfect moment, he just dodges the spear and he immediately spins round and slashes at her, cutting the web she shot at him down before it got close. The spear stabs into a thick window made of glass across the way from them, sending some cracks across it.

Qrow sprints towards her, spinning his sword round to deflect the bullets that she fires at him from her firearms that she has on her person. Qrow jumps up and stamps both feet down into her chest, pinning her against the ground with force. He presses his blade against her neck, pinning her down constantly. “Now, quit fighting us and focus on our real enemy!” Qrow begs, but she winks at him, firing a web into the ceiling and attaching it to his ankle. She pulls the web and sends him up into the air.

Qrow struggles as he tries to cut the web, until he sees Vera slowly floating up the web to meet his eyes with a smile on her face that just drives him insane. “Hi, cutie.” She greets with an increasingly annoying voice. She then draws her other tomahawk and gently places it to his neck. “Don’t move, honey – I don’t wanna mess it up and make you suffer.” She whispers, trying to line the blade up. But when she goes to slam the tomahawk into his neck, he moves his head aside and then grabs her by the throat, squeezing tight as he pulls her forward and smashes his head against hers.

He takes his chance and he cuts the web that connected him to the ceiling. And he pulls her down with him, smashing her into the ground with all his might. He stands above her, seeing her aura is getting weaker and weaker, practically crackling right now with light blue energy. But before he can even stab her with his sword, she fires a web and pulls herself away from his view. She wings round the pillar and she kicks him in the chest with both feet, and he crashes against the glass where the spear has been imbedded.

The room inside is dark with a faint green hue in there.

He groans but Vera comes swinging straight towards him once more, and she lands her feet onto the glass around him, pinning him right there. She stares at him with a smirk and she leans closer and closer, caressing his long black hair. “Don’t worry...I’ve heard that the girl with the Silver Eyes is your little girl, right?” Vera asks, and Qrow glares at her with enraged eyes.

But she leans closer to his ear with a smirk as she whispers. “I won’t make her last too long, maybe a week as I slowly skin her. I make sure she is in agony after I finish you off.” She assures, but the words are the worst she could have possibly chosen.

Because with her head that close to the glass, she notices the green hue getting brighter and brighter.

Suddenly around ten Mutated Thralls that carry the serum that Merlot had crafted come charging towards the glass and they smash into it with all their might. The glass cracks and one of them stabs its claw straight through the glass. Qrow smirks back and he ducks down at the perfect moment as the claw shatters the glass. “No!” Vera screams with desperation, attempting to escape but one of the Thralls grabs her leg, holding her there. It pulls her back and she catches her hands onto the shattered glass around her, desperately trying to survive this attack. They keep reaching and grabbing onto her, her arms and one of them starts pulling onto her hair. They all screech and snarl viciously, and Qrow walks aside from her, staring back at her. “Please! Help me!” She cries with horror.

But Qrow glares into her brown eyes, the stare of an angered father. His words send chills of horror through her body.

“Shouldn’t have threatened my baby girl.” Qrow sternly states, and her eyes bulge from their sockets, feeling her grip on the glass loosening.

“No! Please! Stop!” She begs, as they pull her into the dark room. Her screeches echo from inside as they begin to devour her alive, stabbing her with their huge claws and gnawing away at her flesh. Blood spurts up and hits different sections of glass that remain as they rip her apart. One of them bites down into her throat as she wails, another disembowels her with its claws, ripping her insides out from her stomach. Blood pours out from her body as she wails, and Qrow just walks away, leaving her to suffer in her grizzly fate.

It takes around three minutes for her to finally die from the agony, silenced by a Thrall that chews into her scalp and rips her skull from her neck, as they continue to devour her like animals.

Vera is dead...for certain as well.

One down, many more to go.

Qrow keeps walking away from the bloodbath that is Vera’s grave as they continue to eat her, and the systems set in place in case of the glass being broken activates. The metal sheet slides down from above, covering each window in case of an outbreak. There is no retrieving whatever is left of Vera now.

Qrow looks around, finally finished up with her and he turns to see Oscar and Winter still fighting against Yuma. Even with her help, they are both struggling against her. He then turns his head to see the crater where the sun is shining through, where Ruby launched herself into Fennec and Corsac went after her.

She needs Oscar.

Qrow turns and glares at Yuma, and he sprints towards the Bat Faunus, transforming into his Crow form, flying towards the Elite Faunus. He stands above Oscar with his sword above be driven into his stomach, until Qrow transforms back into human form. He tackles Yuma and launches him straight into the wall, the Bat Faunus crashes against the wall with a grunt, falling onto his face. Qrow offers his hand to Oscar with his sword in his other hand, and Winter smiles as she sees him stood there. “Thanks, Qrow...you okay?” Oscar asks him.

“Yeah.” He agrees, not even shaken by the death of Vera, but then again.

She did threaten his daughter.

So it’s possible any emotions were blocked in that moment.

Qrow turns to Oscar, since he and Winter can handle Yuma. “Oscar, you need to go help Ruby. She’s outnumbered up there, the Albain Brothers are there with her.” Qrow advises.

“What?” He questions, immediately spinning round to see the crater.

“Go, we can handle him.” Winter assures Oscar with a nod.

Oscar nods back and he draws Traveller’s Atrocity and he dashes away from them, using his Semblance to his advantage. Qrow looks away from where Oscar was stood and he looks at Winter, noticing the different style of hair she is rocking. Like Weiss she has decided to just let her hair hang and let it curl. “By the way, that haircut looks hot on you, Ice Queen.” He compliments with a smirk to the woman he admittedly does have feelings for.

Something Weiss would hate since he is Ruby’s dad, and would become her brother in law if they ever did get together.

Although Winter is in her mid thirties now and Qrow is ten years older than her, the age difference could always be much worse.

Winter just smiles with a slight blush, but then she notices something. “Wait...what happened to that Spider Girl?” Winter asks.

“Swatted.” Qrow responds with a pun, in which Winter just rolls his eyes.

Yuma stands back up and he smirks, drawing both swords again as he stares at them. “Finally...a fair fight!” He laughs maniacally.

“We’ll see.” Qrow replies, and they both rush towards the Elite White Fang Warrior.

 

**Ruby**

The Silver Eyed Rose ducks down to avoid the stab from Corsac and she fires her sniper rifle into the ground, riding the recoil to slam into his chest, knocking him back. Ruby yells with rage as she spins round and slashes across his chest. The impact launches him all the way back but he does not back down, and that attack knocked his Spiralling Dagger from his grasp. But Corsac still can fight with his bare fists, and he swings right at Ruby, but she dashes right out of the way, red petals blowing right across his face.

He spins round to see Ruby slamming the other side of Crescent Rose into his head, so hard that it dazes him, making him stagger back. She immediately smashes her shoulder into his chest and jumps in the air, performing a graceful roundhouse kick that smacks into his head. He falls onto the ground, and she arches Crescent Rose over her back, catching the dagger which belongs to Fennec, pulling it from his grasp, and slashing him over and over again with her scythe, cutting his aura down with each well placed blow she delivers. Ruby spins Crescent Rose upwards and smashes the scythe upwards, launching Fennec into the air. She leaps into the air and then she hooks Crescent Rose onto his torso, and fires the sniper rifle to the sky. The recoil pulls her and him downwards and she crashes him into the ground with full force.

The impact breaks his aura, a flash of orange energy crackles across his body, and Fennec groans, trying to get back up, but Ruby pushes her boot down onto his chest, holding him there. She aims the sniper rifle at his head with furious eyes. “I told you, you will die for killing Port.” Ruby snarls at Fennec, but Fennec just smiles at her.

Ruby raises an eyebrow.

Ruby’s eye then widens with shock...feeling an agonizing pain through her abdomen, and she slowly lowers her eyes to see the Spiralling Dagger that belongs to Corsac protruding from her stomach. Purple dust flows through the dagger – the Shadow Dust – puncturing through her aura, red energy leaking with the blood. She then feels his hand on her shoulder, and his hand against her back that holds the blade. She collapses to one knee in agony, feeling the blood leaving the wound, her eye wide with shock. “Should have watched your back.” Corsac snarls as he holds her there.

Fennec chuckles sinisterly as he stands back up, picking up his dagger, loading a crystal of Shadow Dust into the Spiral Dagger. “You fought well...but you talk too much.” He says, until suddenly.

Oscar shoots towards him like a blur, punching Fennec in the head, knocking him to the ground and he spins round, immediately blasting a round into Corsac. His field of Aura protects him from the bullet but the impact still pushes him away from Ruby. Ruby collapses into Oscar’s arms, she whimpers with pain in his arms. “Just...hold on, baby...you’ll be okay.” He assures as he caresses her cheek.

“Osc-” She weakly warns, as Corsac suddenly grabs him by his hair and throws him away from Ruby, and she falls to the floor. She presses her hands against the floor, coughing in pain as she tries to stand back up, crawling to Crescent Rose to kill Fennec, but he is already standing back up.

Oscar blocks the punches from Corsac with his forearms, stepping back from every single punch that is made towards him. He then dashes away as he uses his Time Semblance, and he throws a powerful punch straight into Corsac’s back, bringing him to one knee. Oscar roars with rage, charging his fist up with time, slowing time down as he delivers an almighty punch into Corsac’s face.

So powerful it nearly knocks him out, the only thing that keeps him conscious is the fact his aura is still up.

Ruby’s aura flickers, confused from the Shadow Dust in her system as she crawls towards her weapon.

But Fennec kicks it away and he stands above her with a smirk. He crouches down in front of her with that sinister smirk on his face, holding the blade with Shadow Dust in it to her neck, pulling her head up with his hand grasping her beautiful long black and red hair. Ruby stares at him, still desperate to kill him.

She reaches for her knife...

But she forgot that she left it when she threw it into Corsac’s tail.

Fennec grins maniacally. “Be sure to greet that man in the after life...and if you find her, send Ilia Amitola my regards.” He requests, thrusting it towards her throat.

Oscar bellows as he suddenly appears behind Fennec, wrapping a steel cable around his throat and strangling him as he pulls him away from Ruby. The blade was just about to puncture her throat, but he saved her just in time, and Fennec is dragged away from Ruby as Oscar continues to choke him out with that cable around his neck. Fennec lets out gasps and barks as he swings the Dagger around, then he stabs it straight into Oscar’s leg, making the boy roar with pain.

Fennec smashes his elbow into Oscar’s gut and spins round to punch him in the head, since the Shadow Dust has been used on him and he will need another crystal to use it again. He rips the blade from Oscar’s leg and blood leaks from the open wound, but Corsac grabs onto him and throws him onto the ground, somehow still fighting. He begins to pound his fists against Oscar’s face over and over again, and Ruby reaches out for the man she loves. “Oscar!” She cries out, voice still weak like she has been winded by the dagger that stabbed her.

Fennec stands there, still with the cable wrapped around his throat and he slowly walks towards Ruby again, picking up the dagger that Corsac was using that is still drenched in Ruby’s blood. Dropped when Oscar pulled him back from Ruby.

Ruby cannot help but realise she is feeling light headed now, seeing the amount of blood that leaks down from her stomach and down her leg and into the concrete she pulls herself across. Fennec gets closer and closer to her with that Spiral Dagger in his grasp, but then he kicks her in the side where the wound is.

Like she has just been electrocuted, the pain shocks right through her body, and Ruby lets out a heart-wrenching scream. The pain is bringing back memories as she lays there, hearing the distant cackles of Tyrian in the laugh of Fennec as he pushes her onto her back with his foot. He stands above her and he holds the dagger with both hands and plunges it towards her ribs.

Ruby raises both hands, catching his forearms and holding the blade there, but his strength continues to trump hers as he forces it closer and closer towards her heart. Oscar continues to battle against Corsac, back up now as he catches Corsac’s fist and smashes it into his own face with force, knocking him back.

Ruby stares up at Fennec with her silver eye wide as she stares at the deranged Fox Faunus as he pushes the blade closer and closer to her chest. She then begins to carefully move his arms towards her shoulder without him even noticing, because she knows that she cannot fight against him like this.

When the blade is above her shoulder...

She releases, and feels the agonizing feeling of the corkscrew shaped blade stabbing straight through her shoulder, and more blood begins to pour out from her wound. Fennec pushes the blade all the way down until the cold metal hilt presses against her skin, smirking with insanity in his eyes. Ruby lets out a shriek of agony from the feeling.

Time stops...

And Oscar turns his head slowly with rage in his hazel coloured eyes when he sees Fennec stabbing his girlfriend. He spins round and upper cuts Corsac in paused time and he sprints straight towards Fennec, feeling time running out for her. He throws one powerful punch into Fennec’s face, and time resumes. Fennec staggers back from that punch, and Corsac is thrown onto the ground from his punch that happened at the same time. Oscar punches and punches him over and over again in the chest, pushing him closer to the edge of the building.

And finally, Oscar roars with rage, smashing his fist right into the centre of his chest, and that punch throws Fennec off the roof of the building. Fennec screams with desperation as he grabs onto the cable still wrapped around his neck, seeing the winch it is still attached to. Time running out to free himself, cable running out as well.

Fennec screeches as he reaches up at Oscar who watches him fall.

Then...

Bang!

The winch violently buckles, bending the steel and snapping the joints inside of it, but the cable remains attached. The cable tightens suddenly and sharply, and there is a hideous sky shattering crunch from Fennec’s neck.

The Spiralling Dagger stabs down into the soil beneath where he was falling, the blade deactivating from the lack of a hand holding it.

The sunlight reveals the shadow...

Of Fennec’s body hanging from the cable that tightened around his neck.

Killing him instantly.

Oscar stands above the point of which Fennec fell, and he knows what has happened here.

That was the first every time he has killed someone out of rage.

And he feels no remorse, only concern as he turns to Ruby, pressing his hand to her stomach to try and stop the bleeding. “Did...Did ya get him?” Ruby asks him with a weak voice, and Oscar smiles.

“I got him...” He assures.

Ruby smiles, knowing that they have avenged Port. “Good...”

“Come on, hold on honey...I’m gonna patch you up.” He assures.

He turns to see that Corsac is gone.

Now there is only one brother left...


	55. Beauty and the Beast

**Kassius**

Pyrrha yells as she smashes Akuou into the face of Krueger but the gigantic Rhino Faunus does not even stagger when he charges towards her, but she uses her polarity to pull the shield right back as she runs right at him. He raises one fist above his head with a booming bellow as he pounds his clenched hand towards her. Pyrrha jumps and rolls right out of the way at the perfect time, spinning round to slash him across his side and he stumbles, managing to take off some of his Aura. But then he grabs her by the Ponytail, creating a yelp of pain from her as he lifts her off the ground.

Suddenly Kassius comes flying in, punching the Rhino across the face with his Cybernetic Arm, the shockwave ripples through the thick armoured skin of the man, making him stagger back. He immediately spins round and slashes Lash Equinox up his wrist, dealing some immense damage to his aura. The impact losses his grip on her hair, and she pushes her heels against his arm, throwing herself from him, and landing right next to him. She lifts her shield up, protectively pacing back and forth as she waits for him to make his next attack. “He just doesn’t give in.” Pyrrha states, but Kassius cracks his neck as she stares the beast down.

“Hey, Hyde – wanna have a crack at the big guy?” Kassius asks, then the amber eyes ignite and the cracks spread from his eyes and across his cheek bones, embers trailing out from the fissures. He grins with gritted teeth as he glares at the Rhino, his voice changing into the familiar voice of Hyde, gravelly and almost snarling at the same time. Hyde chuckles as he stares Krueger down as he prepares to charge at him once more.

“It’d be a goddamn pleasure.” Hyde replies, as he sprints straight towards the Elite White Fang Soldier, and the Rhino goes to pound him into the ground. But Hyde catches his fist with Kassius’ cybernetic hand, far stronger than he was before. Channelling his aura into his muscles and senses to become more powerful but only when Hyde is controlling his body. Krueger’s eyes widen with confusion and shock, staring at Hyde as he grins back, kicking him in the chest. Hyde roars, spinning round to deliver a powerful attack, spiralling through the air with both swords extended outwards and firing both Vulcan Nox bracers constantly. The bullets fly everywhere, and Pyrrha has to use Akuou to deflect a rogue bullet from him.

“Hey, watch it!” Pyrrha calls out, running to aid Hyde, since he is not as strategic as his host is. He just attacks and attacks, almost blindly, running on rage and bloodlust. However there is no rage here, since he can actually tell who is friend and who is foe. That attack was completely focused on his chest, the weakest section of his body, they have determined. And that attack that he performed – also known as the Cyclone Attack – was very successful, shredded Krueger’s Aura down to the minimum. But as Hyde goes to stab downwards with Lash Equinox combined into its Spear Form, Krueger grabs him by the throat and smashes him down into the ground. “Human filth!” Krueger roars as he punches downwards, only for Pyrrha to launch towards him and slam Milo into his chest, the impact creates an almighty crack that throws him back, smashing against the wall. He grumbles with frustration as he pulls himself from the rubble.

Pyrrha looks down and she offers her hand to Hyde, and he accepts with Kassius’ human hand, using her help to stand back up. “Are you okay?” Pyrrha asks him curiously.

“Yeah...I’m loving this!” Hyde chuckles, bouncing on the spot as he kicks Lash Equinox upwards and into his hand, disconnecting the two swords to deactivate the Spear Form. Pyrrha has never witnessed an individual to get up with such excitement to fight something stronger than them like that before...

...well...maybe Nora is the exception in that regard.

“Well whatever it was that you did, it seemed to do some damage. We just need to keep wearing his aura down so then we can knock him down.” Pyrrha explains, her shield still in her grasp as she stares the huge man down. He finally breaks free from the wall, landing before them with his weight creating a quake through their feet.

“Now!” Hyde orders, and they both rush towards Krueger, and Hyde smashes his fist against his head, whereas Pyrrha slides under his legs and she slashes across his back, since the torso is still the weakest place. She jumps up and kicks her body off the wall with her leg and she lands on his back as Hyde pounds his fists over and over again into his chest. Until Krueger just punches him square in the chest which throws him back. Pyrrha now hooks Milo under his chin and she pulls him back, pushing her feet against his back as she pulls her spear back with all her might, gritting her teeth as she does it. Krueger roars with rage, reaching up as he tries to grapple onto the young woman.

Hyde stands back up and sprints right at Krueger once more, firing Vulcan Nox into his chest with every single attack that he makes, blasting shells into his aura. Flashes of dark purple aura burst from every single punch made into him. Krueger snarls, reaching back and grabbing Pyrrha by the leg. He swings round and smashes her back straight into a Pillar, making her shriek in agony, falling to the ground with her aura considerably weakened from the process.

Jaune spins around with widened eyes when he sees her hit the floor, then sees Hyde pressing both hands to the horns that protrude from the man’s head. He holds the charging monster back, but his eyes are focused on Pyrrha at all times. “Go! Help her!” Cinder orders, as she spins round to cross her swords over to stop the attack from Bonnie as she lunges out at her from the water. Jaune nods, turning to sprint towards Krueger, to assist her brother as well.

Or perhaps her _brothers_.

Jaune draws Crocea Mors as he rushes towards Krueger as he smashes Hyde out of the way, and he reaches to his back and he draws his burning mace, swinging it straight at Jaune with all his might. The young Arc Huntsman deflects the attack of the mace, sparks and bursts of fire erupting out from the attack made against him, pushing him back, but Jaune is smart so he slowly walks out and he kicks a door open behind him, and they both end up walking across a stone bridge that moves between a deep chasm of dust beneath them. Glowing red, green and blue Dust Crystals protrude out from the stone walls of the chasm where the wind howls into them from beneath.

Clearly this must have been a resource that the Schnee Dust Company would have wanted to utilize if it were not for the Political Issues of mining here. Not like it matters anymore, though – the S.D.C is not what it used to be. Jaune continues to back up from Krueger as he aggressively swings that Mace at him over and over again, shattering the stone bridge that they fight atop of. Smashing the cobblestones apart from every swing, he then takes the mace and slams it down towards Jaune.

He lifts Crocea Mors and stops the huge mace with both hands, being brought down to one knee. Krueger grits his teeth together venomously as he pushes him down with that mace. Until Hyde leaps it from out of nowhere, tackling the Rhinoceros Faunus off the edge of the bridge, and they both crash against the many other bridges in here, clearly used for mining. Krueger tumbles across the stone and Hyde reaches out, grabbing onto the edge to swing himself back onto it. Krueger’s eyes widen as he sees his Mace plummet off the edge of the bridge, consumed by the dark haze beneath them.

He sighs with anger, his head hitting the stone, pushing his body back up slowly as Hyde stands before him, and Jaune jumps down behind him, sheathing Crocea Mors into the scabbard. “There doesn’t need to be anymore bloodshed – just give up.” Jaune orders, unaware of what happened between Fennec and Ruby above. Krueger chuckles menacingly as he turns and looks at both of them, Hyde not as willing to let him walk away.

But Hyde trusts Jaune’s instincts, so he does not say a word, but is ready to engage if Krueger tries anything.

“After everything? You think I’m gonna let you Humans walk away?” Krueger questions with a deep snarling voice. Hyde raises his fists as he stares him down, stern burning eyes glaring at him.

“That’d be the wise thing to do.” Hyde states, but Krueger chuckles as he pounds his fisted hands together, looking between the two of them.

“Cute little buggers, aren’t ya?” Krueger says, as he suddenly rushes towards Hyde with his horns pointed right at him as he sprints straight at him. Hyde catches his horns with his hands, the impact of the gigantic man creates a boom, and the force of the Rhino pushes him across the ground. Hyde roars, slamming his elbow down onto the top of his head, kneeing him in his lower abdomen, before giving him a lethal uppercut that knocks him back.

And directly into Jaune’s swing, the Greatsword slashes straight across his purple aura, and makes him stagger, but he immediately returns the favour with a punch to Jaune’s chest. Hyde instantly jumps up and powers a punch all the way down into the side of his head.

Each strike made seems to make the stone bridge crack slightly as they fight, but Krueger does not even seem to care. In fact, he starts to launch rocks at Jaune, and the Huntsman backs up, using his sword to cut the rocks down before they can even hit him. Krueger sprints straight at him and he grabs the young man by the head, lifting him off the floor and smashing him head first into the support of the upper bridge.

Jaune groans in pain, practically seeing stars from that one, and in his blurry vision, he can see Hyde grabbing Krueger by his horn and yanking him backwards, punching him over and over again in the face. He backs up, ejecting the empty magazines from Vulcan Nox, firing more and more bullets into his aura. But Krueger charges at him, so Hyde jumps and he catches onto one of the rungs, swinging round and throwing his body up onto the next bridge above them. Krueger roars, jumping and smashing his fists into the stone walls, climbing up them that way. He jumps off and lands right in front of him, delivering a powerful punch towards him, that Hyde catches with both fists.

Krueger pushes them both back across the bridge as he does that, stones and dust thrown from their bridge in the process. Hyde snarls with anger, pulling his fist closer and moving out the way at the perfect moment, just missing his muscular body from slamming into him. Hyde draws Lash Equinox, standing his ground on the bridge as Krueger turns to stare at him, and he sprints, smashing both fists down at him from above.

Cracks spread through that bridge that he stands upon, and he turns as it begins to collapse, ready to send both Kassius and Hyde to a dark grave. But Hyde can see opportunities that Kassius would not, and somehow manages to defy gravity. He sprints and manages to place his feet on each individual stone, pushing his body off each of them, to jump and smash his body into Krueger’s.

He rolls across his back and he slides to a stop, aiming both Vulcan Nox cannons at him. “Bet ya didn’t see that one coming did ya?” Hyde challenges with a smirk, firing an explosive round that explodes against his chest, making him stagger and cause his ears to ring. Hyde roars, jumping up and he smashes his knee into Krueger’s jaw, making him stagger back, flicking Lash Equinox up with his wrist, spinning round to slash across his chest, dealing more damage. Jaune vaults over Kassius’ shoulder and kicks Krueger in the head with force, then smashing his shield across his head with all his might. The metallic bang from the impact of the Arc Crest against his horn creates a dance of sparks, and he goes to smash him in the chest with the pointed end of the shield.

But Krueger grabs onto the shield and twists Jaune’s arm round, throwing his boot into his chest, before smashing both fists down at where he was, more cracks spread across the bridge. Hyde spins through the air as he jumps to build up the momentum in the next punch that dazes the man. Krueger grabs Hyde by the neck and pins him against the wall, before he stamps down onto Jaune’s chest, pinning both of them down. “Now what, heroes?” Krueger questions.

Akuou suddenly clatters against the side of his head, making him stagger, and he turns to see Pyrrha pulling her shield back into his grasp, landing down behind him as she rushes straight at him with Milo in her other hand. Her aura has already recharged somehow, unlike the last time when she fought Cinder.

Jaune looks at her with awe...

_How is that possible?_

 She screams with anger, spinning on the spot with the spear of Milo scraping across his aura, rotating round and firing Milo in its rifle form into his chest. The attack staggers him back and Jaune stands back up, smacking his shield across his head as he slashes his sword over and over again across the aura that covers his chest. Hyde blasts him over and over again with rounds from Vulcan Nox.

Finally Jaune takes Crocea Mors and with both hands he connects the Sword and Shield together to form his Greatsword, and he roars as he slams the sword into his chest. The impact shatters his aura, finally, and Krueger is thrown off the edge of the bridge. They hear him roar as he crashes through the cobblestone bridge beneath them, screaming as he fades away into the shadowy abyss.

With Krueger down...

That means that there is only Bonnie, Yuma, Mazen and Adam left now. Pyrrha turns to Jaune who looks at her with heavy breaths. “Are you okay?” Pyrrha asks him with concern, it may not be his first kill but it does not get any easier as it goes on. Kassius stands there, and the flames recede on his face, leaving the scars of which are left behind for a while after Hyde takes over. He falls to one knee from exhaustion.

“Damn...that guy was tough.” Kassius sighs as he slowly recovers from that bout against him. Jaune clearly still looks torn; he did not want to kill Krueger, even if he had no other choice.

“I didn’t want to kill him.” Jaune sighs as he stands there, getting both of their attentions. Kassius pats him on the shoulder as he rises back up after wiping the sweat from his brow.

“It’s alright man, it was only gonna end one way for him...and I think he knew that as well.” Kassius says, Pyrrha was going to try and comfort Jaune, but Kassius is better at that kind of comfort than her. At the end of the day, he is used to killing people, as is his sister. It is the major difference between him and the others.

Jaune exhales, standing tall again as he turns to Kassius and Pyrrha, and he smiles, patting Kassius on the chest. “Good work, Hyde.” He compliments, making Kassius chuckle.

“You’re very welcome my dear.” Hyde sarcastically says in Kassius’ head, his form in his head most likely bowing as he says that.

“Come on, we need to go help the others.” Jaune says as he walks towards the open door of which they both entered through.

 

**Blake**

Adam swings Wilt and Blush directly at Blake, narrowly missing her face and as she brings Gambol Shroud up he bats it aside with his Shotgun Scabbard, and as he smacks her weapon, he fires it as well. The shotgun shells impact her chest, knocking her back and she groans, looking at the scroll attached to her wrist to see her aura is falling into the orange. Her amber eyes focus onto Adam as he approaches her with Wilt and Blush scraping across the floor, leaving a deep scar in the marble floor. “I’m sorry, my love. But you must be punished for your betrayal.” He states, holding his sword above his head.

Until Milo suddenly strike across the side of his head, making him grunt as he spins around, realising that Pyrrha stood behind him. He may not be able to see her due to the damage done to his eyes when he was younger, but the sound of her Polarity pulling her shield back into her grasp is enough for him to know. “The Invincible Girl...you were on those Islands.” Adam remembers, keeping his shotgun pointed at Blake and aiming his sword at her. Pyrrha steps down, with Jaune at her side and Crocea Mors in her grasp. Blake looks over and sees Kassius rushing to help his sister fight Bonnie who is currently using the water to her advantage.

“Adam Taurus, I might not know you very well but I do know that you are not a monster.” Pyrrha attempts as she approaches Adam. He listens to her words formulated in her gentle regal voice, and he fights the temptation to be swayed.

“You’re right, I am not a monster.” Adam states, before he slowly looks at Blake, finger on the trigger of the shotgun. “But she is.” He states, pulling the trigger and blasting a cloud of shotgun shell fragments into her head, but she vanishes into a blur, revealing to be stood up at the ready to fight. He just smirks as he realises he was tricked yet again, looking over at where he can hear her breath now.

“Please...stop this.” Blake begs with desperation, but Adam glares right at her.

“No.” Adam replies, firing once again, spinning round to deflect Pyrrha’s attack she tried to make against him, sparks flying everywhere from every single attack made against one another. Adam scrapes Wilt and Blush across Milo and he goes to fire the shotgun at her, but using her Polarity she pushes the weapon out of the way, and goes to swipe her leg under his own. Using his enhanced hearing capabilities, he jumps and kicks Pyrrha in the face, and turns when hearing Blake rushing towards him. Using Wilt and Blush as if it is like an artist who wields his paintbrush, he manages to deflect every single attack that she makes. But every single time he thinks he lands a hit, her shadow fades away, and she kicks at him. Adam backs up from her many attacks, this time striking her face with the scabbard, stamping down on the back of the leg to bring her to one knee.

Adam roars, swinging the red blade of Wilt and Blush towards her delicate neck, only for Pyrrha to launch Akuou towards him which hits him in the side of the head, bouncing right back into her hand. She throws the shield up into the air and jumps off it, flying towards him as she slams Milo across his aura, pulling Akuou towards her hand that hits him in the side, bringing him down to one knee. She takes Milo, transforming it into its sword form and she carves his aura with the serrated blade and bashes Akuou with every single rotation that she makes. Adam takes a few hits yet is still able to block the attacks with his sword, sparks flying from every single attack.

It is incredible that Adam is able to give the Invincible Girl a run for her money when in combat, when considering the fact that he is blind. If he had his sight he could be their most formidable enemy, yet his lack of sight is his weakness. Still strengthened by his heightened hearing though, that he uses to his advantage.

Adam slams Wilt and Blush towards Pyrrha, but she holds Akuou upwards to stop the sword as she kicks him in the lower abdomen, taking the chance to retreat from him. He stands tall afterwards, sheathing the sword yet keeping his hand close, like a true warrior would. “You’re an impressive warrior, if only you were a Faunus we could be friends.” Adam states, Pyrrha looks at him and she shakes her head.

“It’s not too late.” Pyrrha begs.

“It is for me.” Adam replies, drawing the sword once again to stop Blake’s attack as she shoots towards him like an arrow, in which she spins through the air and attacks like a saw blade, striking both with her scabbard and the Katana. He manages to deflect all of them with Wilt and Blush, sparks clanging from each impact, and he sheathes the sword, swiftly drawing it over and over again to blast streaks of red energy towards them. Blake’s shadow clone diminishes as one of the arcs hits her, whereas Pyrrha uses Akuou to block that attack from doing any damage to her aura.

Pyrrha and Blake both strike at the same time, since he can only manage one of them at a time, hopefully they can dwindle his aura to the point of which they can knock him out and capture him. Help him see the light once more, since they do not want everything he fought to be for nothing. Pyrrha jumps as she jabs Milo towards him, and bashes Akuou across his face as she twirls round, Blake runs and she knees him right into his mask with force. He staggers back from the attack but still smashes the shotgun scabbard across her cheek, then spinning round to slash upwards, across Pyrrha’s chest plate. Sparks and bursts of aura float out from her body, yet not enough to shatter the field that surrounds her.

Although she apparently could regenerate her aura faster than she ever could beforehand. Perhaps there is a good reason for that.

Pyrrha sticks the landing after being thrown into the air by that attack, firing Milo behind her, riding the recoil as she smashes her shoulder into Adam’s chest, to knock him back. She immediately starts firing Milo repeatedly at him, but he spins Wilt and Blush through his fingers. Every bullet gets cut down and causes both his hair and sword to glow brighter. “Be careful! He could use his semblance again, it has already put Oobleck out of commission!” Blake warns, seeing what remains of his Thermos Staff on the ground as she holds him back with her Scabbard. She throws her Grappling Hook and she pulls herself away from him, swinging round to kick him in the chest with both feet, knocking him over.

They both slide across the ground and Blake pins him down by the neck with her legs resting against his chest, holding him down. “Please Adam! We do not want to go down this road! Just come back to Beacon with us! I can explain everything!” Blake begs, tears streaming down her cheeks as she holds him down, but he continues to struggle. Pyrrha watches his hand, he cannot reach his sword since she has his arm held down.

“I am done listening to your lies! You abandoned me when I needed you on that train! You started aiding the humans! Gained my trust again, and betrayed me again!” Adam screams with anguish in his voice.

“I didn’t betray you Adam! It was Vir Nominis Umbra! I might have betrayed you before on the S.D.C Train but I never betrayed you after!” Blake yells back, using all her strength to keep him held down.

Adam stares at her, and he feels his arm starting to loosen, and he can feel her breath on his face, knowing how far her face is from his own. “It doesn’t matter anymore...” Adam snarls, he suddenly smashes his head into hers and he grabs the sword and sheathe. He grabs Blake by the hair and with all his might he swings round and throws her through the wall. Blake screams and the entire wall explodes, sending her flying down into the elevator shaft.

Dust and silt covers her body as she lays there, groaning with pain and aching. Pyrrha grits her teeth and she goes to attack Adam, but the Taurus Warrior spins round and delivers deadly blow as he swings his sword, blasting red energy into her as well, the impact throws her back and she crashes against the wall.

He spins round and he sprints towards Blake, jumping into the shaft and holding onto the cable. He can see that the counterweight is beneath them, and if he cuts the cable they both will shoot up to the top. “Going up?” He asks her with a smirk, and her eyes widen, realising she is actually on the counterweight. Before she can even say a word he severs the cable, and they both go flying up to the top at great speeds.

He grabs her by the throat and he throws both her and himself out through the doors. He rolls across the marble floor of the lab where they were and he grabs her by the hair, dragging her across the floor as she struggles. Pyrrha stares at the top of the elevator shaft with widened eyes. “Blake!” She screams.

Pyrrha slowly turns round and her eyes widen as she sees the others all still fighting.

She cannot get up there fast enough.

She needs to help them defeat the others.

Adam takes Blake and throws her through the glass window, and she tumbles down the stone stairs that they walked up to get to the Radar Station. She yelps and cries out as she falls down each sharp step, finally coming to a stop at the bottom as Adam walks down the steps behind her. She groans with bruises covering her body, looking up as Adam stands before her, dropping Gambol Shroud at his feet. He then pushes the weapons towards her hands. “Let us finish this the way we started it – you and me. No one else.” Adam states, hand on Wilt and Blush’s hilt.

Blake stares at the weapon yet she refuses to pick her sword up, her voice stammering as she looks at him. At the monster he has returned to being. “Please Adam...” She begs with a trembling voice.

“Pick it up!” Adam barks, so loudly that she jolts, picking the weapons up, standing up yet keeping her distance from him.

“I do not want you to do this, Adam.” She begs.

“Oh and neither do I, Blake. But you’ve clearly left me no other course but to end this here and now – either by me killing you or you killing me.” Adam states as he stands before her.

“I will not fight you Adam!” She yells with anguish in her eyes.

“There it is again...always running from the fight. You really haven’t changed a bit have you, still the spineless coward you always were.” Adam scoffs.

“I’ve changed, I’m not the same girl anymore.” Blake states.

Adam scoffs as he walks towards her. “Really?” He asks her, with a sudden and harsh smack to her face with the back of his hand, making her flinch and touch her cheek. “Then show me.” He demands, staring at her with gritted teeth. “Fight me.” He repeats, punching her in the face so hard that she is launched back and crashes against the floor.

Blake coughs, touching her eye which has bruised into a black eye. “I never chose this path! This is all by your decisions and your betrayals!” Adam yells with rage.

“This is Vir Nominis Umbra! Not me!” Blake begs, but he still does not listen.

“Enough with the lies! Is that what Sun Wukong taught you to do? To lie?” He challenges with a scoff in his voice.

“I am not lying.” Blake coldly hisses, but he somehow hears something else entirely.

“Oh...it was? Well maybe...after we’re finished here, I’ll pay him a visit myself!” Adam yells, which makes Blake snap. They both yell and sprint towards each other, slamming their swords into each other.

 

**Cinder**

Bonnie darts around her in the water reservoir beneath Cinder, smashing through the glass to leap at her from behind. She looks around as she stands there, her conjured swords ready to slash anything that leaps at her. Watching the water beneath her to find the Barracuda Faunus, until she suddenly comes bursting out from the water and shattering the glass right in front of her.

She slams down onto Cinder, pinning her down with her bare foot, staring down at her with a smirk on her face. “Ah...the infamous Cinder Fall...to think that a Fall Maiden would be killed by me – can’t wait to be the one to inherit those gifts of yours.” Bonnie says.

_Emerald..._

_Where are you?_

Cinder’s thoughts immediately went to Emerald, but before Bonnie could even try to damage her aura, Kassius suddenly shoulder charges Bonnie and kicks her in the chest after she staggers back. Kassius immediately swings round and slashes Lash Equinox across her chest, making her stumble across the ground. She immediately reaches down and launches one of her Knives at Kassius. But he instantly catches it as he dodges it, holding it in his cybernetic hand. “Not bad, sweet cheeks. But you’re not the only one who is good at throwing blades.” He says as he drops the knife onto the floor. He immediately offers his human hand to Cinder and she accepts, standing back up as she cracks her neck.

“Thanks, bro. You okay?” Cinder asks him.

“Oh feeling peachy, you?” He asks her.

“Loving life.” She sarcastically responds, both of them set their eyes at where she was.

But she is gone.

“Oh for fu-” Kassius sighs with annoyance, since she has vanished back into the water once again. Suddenly a bullet comes shooting out from the water and they look down at where it came from, seeing the rippling apparition in the deep of Bonnie with her Amphibious Sniper Rifle aimed at them.

“I hate this chick! She just keeps cheating!” Cinder yells as she rolls out of the way from another one. Kassius rolls his eyes as he loads an explosive round into the magazine of his rifle.

“Let’s go fishing the old fashioned way.” Kassius says as he fires, creating a huge explosion in the water that throws water everywhere, but they totally lose sight of her. Water covers Cinder and her beautiful dress, and she sighs, staring at Kassius with a frustrated expression. He looks at her and he smirks.

“Seriously?” Cinder questions as she starts to wring out her hair. The water drools from her hair and she groans as she does that.

“What? I thought you hated that dress because of how you got it.” Kassius presumes, remarking the horrific torture that she endured when she was punished for lying to Salem.

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t a nice dress. But hey, you wouldn’t know about fashion would you, bro?” She scolds, making him gasp.

“Excuse me, but I am a man of many tastes.” He says, flicking the collar of his trench coat.

“Yeah but that is like your only outfit.” She replies.

“I rarely see you wearing different clothes.” He points out.

“That’s because it’s for combat.” She defends with her hand on her hip.

“Totally impractical.” Kassius scoffs with the roll of his eyes. “Besides, Yang says I have good tastes.”

“Did you see Yang when she left for Beacon all those years ago? She looked like a Bimbo.” Cinder states, making Kassius raise an eyebrow.

“Hey.” He says, immediately switching to defend his girlfriend.

“I’m just saying, at least she grew up and actually grew into those tits of hers.” Cinder teases with a smirk.

Suddenly another bullet flies out from the bubbling water beneath them, making both of them jolt. “Seriously?” Kassius questions, in which Cinder rolls her eyes this time, sending ice cold magic through her right hand.

“Eh, screw it.” She sighs, blasting ice into the reservoir. The entire lake beneath the structure suddenly freezes solid beneath their feet, instantly killing Bonnie inside of the gigantic ice cube she just got trapped in. Kassius looks down at the ice and then at her.

“Why didn’t you do that ages ago?” Kassius asks her.

“I dunno...totally forgot I could do that.” Cinder honestly admits.

Then the lights go out because they just killed the energy source of the building, resetting to a backup generator. “Oops.” Cinder says as she looks at the darkness.

 

**Qrow**

Yuma yells with rage as he dives towards the Huntsman in the darkness, slashing his two blades at him with rage, and Mazen continues to battle with his Chainsword, scraping it across Kragen’s Isomacium Staff. Sparks burst up from the attack made at him, but Kragen immediately spins the staff round and strikes him across the face. Yuma immediately lands right in front of Qrow as he slashes both swords into Qrow’s only sword, creating an almighty bang in the process. But he is outnumbered, as both Kassius and Jaune both strike him at once with their swords.

Yuma lets out a screech of agony, falling to one knee as his orange aura crackles away around him. Blood leaks from his wounds as he collapses, yet he still tries to strike, until Qrow roars, swinging his sword and slashing it straight across his stomach. Yuma cries out with agony as he crumbles to his knees with pain, blood spilling from his wounds.

Mazen stares at Yuma...

He knows he cannot defeat them all.

Mazen snarls and he forces his Chainsword downwards with all his might, punching Yenna in the face and kicking the Architect away. He turns and makes a break for the other elevator, the one still operational. “He’s getting away!” Winter yells as she chases after him. Pyrrha turns and she launches Akuou towards the elevator to try and stop him, but the doors close just in time. The shield bounces off the doors and she pulls it back into his grasp with a sigh.

“Damn it.” Qrow sighs with frustration.

“We need to get topside, Adam took Blake. He’s gonna try and kill her.” Pyrrha warns.

“And Mazen could be headed up there right now.” Jaune agrees as he jogs over, and they turn to see an injured Oobleck approaching as well.

But before they are able to proceed.

They hear Yuma snarling with pain not far from them, still alive as he presses his hand to his stomach that has been slashed open by Qrow’s sword. They all turn to stare at him, and they approach him. Qrow crouches down and glares at him with stern eyes. “What the hell were you doing here? What do you want?” Qrow questions the Elite Faunus, but Yuma just laughs sinisterly.

“Technology is the key to destroying your race.” He snarls with a smirk.

“What the hell did we do to you? We were making great strides to lessen the divide.” Winter presumes as she looks down at him, but her mere presence just seems to ignite some rage in the man.

“Shut up you damned Schnee Bitch!” Yuma barks, clearly carrying no form of compassion towards the Schnees. But Qrow grabs him by the throat and glares into his eyes with anger.

“Watch your mouth, your maybe I’ll toss you into that chamber with all those Thralls like I did your friend.” Qrow threatens, legitimately intimidating them when they hear him say that. He really is not a man you want to be your enemy, because he will kill you. Similarly to Kassius and Cinder in that regard.

“You think I fear death? I welcome it...I have for a long time after what I survived.” He snarls, clearly referencing the story of which that Blake told them about. The mission where he was supposed to have died from.

“What are you talking about?” Pyrrha questions.

“The mission – what happened on the mission?” Qrow questions, and to their surprise he actually answers, with the sticky hot red blood in his hand and holding his insides in. But the blood still pools around him from down his leg and belly.

“He arrived...we did not stand a chance. Brought devastation, wiped us out before we could even blink.” Yuma growls through gritted teeth, blood spitting from his mouth as he holds back the agony.

Pyrrha mutters the name, because she has a feeling that she knows who he is talking about. “Vir Nominis Umbra...”

“He wiped out your team all those years ago? Why? Doesn’t seem like it would matter in his grand plan.” Jaune questions with confusion, and Yuma coughs with pain.

“We found something there – Arkhonex – something he did not want us to find. A secret so dangerous that he went to all lengths to hide it. And it seems Merlot found one of the warnings as well.” Yuma growls in agony, staring at the Charred Visionary Book on the pedestal. They all look at it, realising that Merlot must definitely have some sort of base in Arkhonex somewhere to have attained that information.

“Could it be enough to kill him?” Oobleck wonders, but Yuma suddenly rears up and yells.

“You have brought this upon  us!” Yuma roars with blood pouring out from his mouth as he coughs, wheezing with agony as he tries to breathe. “You humans...let one of your own desecrate his ancient secret, prolonged his plan – there will be immense consequences for these actions!” Yuma barks with anger.

“Wait what do you mean _desecrate his ancient secret_? What did you find?” Pyrrha asks, yet he never seems to give them an answer. It is as if he knows something is there but cannot even remember it.

“Your Silver Eyed Hero...she cannot save you...” He wheezes, smiling maniacally as he pants, staring up at them all. “...from what is coming...”

“...there are more...”

“...many more...”

“...this...is just...the beginning...” He softly and weakly says, before his eyes darken and he collapses before finishing what he started. His jaw slacked and muscles loosened as he collapsed to the ground.

“Beginning? Beginning of what?” Qrow questions with fear of what that meant.

Now with Yuma gone...

Only two remain.

And Yuma could have just given them the biggest hint yet of finding the answer.

And that answer.

Is somewhere in the Lost City of Arkhonex.

 

**Blake**

She performs a back flip that knocks him back and she staggers away from her with his sword drawn, slashing it directly at her. She shimmers away, using her semblance as smartly as she possibly can, blasting forward to slash both weapons at him. But Adam blocks her with the huge red sword, stopping her in her tracks before he fires the shotgun at her. She falls back and Adam jumps up in the air, stabbing down at her. But she rolls out of the way, and she kicks him in the knee, bringing him down.

Blake sprints and she wraps her legs around his neck, squeezing tight as she throws him over and he tumbles, dragging Wilt and Blush across the ground. But he gets back up, and he holds the red sword up, pointing it straight at her as he paces back and forth. “Seriously Adam, this is insane! We both know who the real enemy is, Adam!” Even after everything he has said, Blake is still ever so desperately trying to get him to see the good in the world. But he is blinded by revenge, by hatred and that is all that he wants.

“You wanna hear insane?” Adam questions as he paces back and forth, staring her down. “Blake Belladonna and her beloved friends race a delusional thief on a train to Vale!” Adam yells as he swings Wilt and Blush straight at her, but she hops back on her toes, keeping her distance both from him and the blade of his sword.

“Gods!” She yelps.

“Blake Belladonna helps discover the legendary Volcanic Chain Isles!” He yells, and he swings again.

“ _We_ did!” She yells back, but he is not listening.

“Blake Belladonna helped defeat Salem and her forces five years ago.” He continues as he paces back and forth, listening to every move she makes. “Blake Belladonna is a hero. Even after what you did to me, and what you did to Sienna...people still call you that.” He scoffs.

“Adam! We can make it out of this together!” She continues to plead.

“You know for all of your greatness, Blake? You are nothing! Still just a lonely little Faunus girl who continues to try and fit in with people who do not care about her. Only to betray them later on for her own ideals.” Adam snarls, as he slashes towards her with the sword but Blake deflects with her Katana, but he immediately strikes again, cutting her cheek and using the blade to force her down to the ground with all his might. She screams out in distress as he forces her down, gritting his teeth together with anger.

“I have sacrificed _everything_ for the Faunus, and I will not let a traitorous Faunus, a blonde airhead, the former Heiress and a pathetic child take that away from me!” Adam yells, until Blake smashes her head into his and cracks the mask, kicking him in the chest to get her away. Adam staggers away, hearing the cracks in the mask and he chuckles sinisterly, grabbing the mask and throwing it away.

She stares at the terrible burn scars that were inflicted upon his eyes by one of the Onyx Phantoms, still as heartbreaking as ever. But he continues to stand his ground, knowing where she is simply by the sound of her feet. “If you care about the damned Humans that much, then I’ll make sure that you join them in hell.” Adam growls, but Blake fights back the tears, transforming the sadness into rage.

“I gave you all the chances I could – let’s finish this then.” She agrees, and Adam chuckles.

“Finally.” He snarls.

He rushes forward and slashes the sword at her with full force, but she deflects and immediately rolls out of the way, striking at his back with the Katana, shimmering away as he fires the shotgun at her just by spinning the scabbard round. The shells fly up and shatter the windows of nearby buildings, and she appears right at his side, slashing across his face but his waning Aura protected him. Blake makes another attack but Adam locks his blade against hers, staring at her mercilessly. “Come on, Blake!” Adam challenges, but Blake swings her elbow round with force into his head, and she knees him in the stomach then upper cuts him.

He staggers away but snarls more and more, and he sheathes his sword, then swiftly draws it three times, blasting three strafes of red energy towards her. Blake slices one in half but the second hits her, smashing her through the window of one of the houses, and the other burns through the wooden wall. Fire begins to spread throughout the house from the fiery attack, but that fire will spread to the rest of the town.

Adam vaults through the broken window, stabbing the carpet where she was stood, so Blake fires her Magnum at his aura covered body over and over again, but he stops the bullets with his sword, building up the power in Moonslice. His hair flickers as she does that, but she falls away from him, throwing her body through the window behind her to get out of the burning down house. Shotgun shell fragments shatter the lock of the door and he kicks the door open after breaching it.

“No more class mates to fight for you, Blake.” He states, but his words continue to anger her as she scrapes her Katana across his to defend herself from his attack.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” She yells, slashing straight across his chest, cutting some of the pouches. He staggers back and he presses his hand to the wound that is beginning to bleed. Then his red aura crackles away across his body. The same for Blake, he stares in her direction and he smirks.

“Come on, Hero.” He challenges with a snarl, yelling as he swings Wilt and Blush directly at her. Blake ducks down and she kicks him in the chest, now she really needs to be careful. She no longer has any aura to use her semblance anymore, and neither does he. Now they are merely fighting to kill each other. He spins the shotgun round and fires it at her, but she rolls out of the way at the perfect time, except not fast enough. For a fragment punctures into her foot and she shrieks in agony, limping on the spot as blood leaks from her boot.

Adam slashes the sword so fast that the blade slices through the sandy ground like a knife through butter, blowing the dust into her face that partially stuns her. They continue to clash their swords against one another as they fight, and Blake goes to stab him but he catches her arm, dropping his scabbard in the process. “Remember Ilia? How you failed her?” Adam questions with his cold cybernetic arm bruising her forearm. But then she yells with anger, swinging the Scabbard with force, smacking him in the side of the head to get him to release her.

“She died a hero!” She yells back, scraping the sword across Wilt and Blush, sparks dancing off the heated contact of both blades. The emotions run hot in this battle, the metallic taste of blood in both of their mouths, for they have already been fighting for a long time. The fire continues to spread around them, sweat glistening off their skin as they continue to battle, both the heat and constant fighting fatiguing their bodies.

“That what you tell all those who risk their lives for you? That if they die they die heroically? They people will sing songs about them? I’ve not heard a single one about her.” Adam snarls, as he slashes and cuts her cheek, leaving a deep slice across her cheek that nearly went into her eye. She yelps from that hit, blood leaking down from the opening and dripping into her hand. Blake goes for the stab when she sees an opening but he scrapes Wilt and Blush across her blade and pushes her away, going to slash her and he slices the blade up her back. The blade cuts straight through her clothing but luckily she was just far enough away for it to not be serious.

Yet the hot pain that stings through her body does not fade, since her aura has not had time to recover. But she also cannot retreat, there is nowhere for her to retreat, if she runs the Thralls could get her.

She cannot risk that alone.

She has to fight him.

This time she nails a hard elbow strike into his nose, so hard that it breaks his nose and blood begins to leak out from it, and she swings her forearm round against the side of his head extremely hard. So hard the skin actually breaks slightly in the bruise. “You’ve gotten better over the years! Who taught you all of this?” Adam wonders as he paces back and forth, listening to every move she makes, the light from the flames glowing off the skin.

“My family!” She yells, calling her friends family, showing how far she has come in her life. Blake swings towards him, but he locks the blade into hers and forces her towards one of the burning buildings. She stands firmly, holding back his strength as best as she can, but she can feel her legs getting weaker from his force. He laughs cruelly as he forces her closer and closer to the flames.

“Now we’re getting somewhere, my darling.” He snarls, calling her by her old title he used to give her.

_He’s gone..._

_The Beast has returned_

She forces her arms into him with all the strengths in her limbs, scraping the sword across his brow to force him back. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” She yells, stepping away from the flames that made her skin tingle from the heat. Blake sprints towards him, jumping up in the air as she powers a strike with her Katana towards him, but he deflects it with Wilt and Blush. She immediately goes to attack but he grabs her by the throat, lifts her off the floor with all his might and crashes her down into the ground. The impact nearly knocks the wind out of her, and he goes to behead her with Wilt and Blush, but with both hands she holds Gambol Shroud up to stop the red blade. Sparks dropping own into her sternum as she holds him back.

“This...might hurt a little.” He warns with a gritted smirk on his face, Blake snarls and moves her head and neck away, letting the tip of the blade scrape into the ground.

“Get! Off!” She yells, forcing her sword towards him and slicing him across the abdominal region of his body. He rolls off Blake and he presses his hand to the wound he has been given, feeling the blood leaking from the open wound. He turns his head to the sound of a Bullhead retreating and he may not see him, but he knows.

Blake stares at the Bullhead, and Corsac is piloting it with Mazen hanging on.

He just left Adam behind.

Blake turns and looks at Adam and he stares at her and he smirks maniacally, letting his inner demon out. “Come on, Blake.” He challenges again, it is as if he wants her to kill him. “Argh!” He roars, swinging the sword straight at her harder and harder with every single hit he makes, and Blake backs up on her toes, parrying against every single attack. Sparks exploding from the two blades connecting with each forceful hit.

The inferno has spread throughout this section of Kuo Kuana like wildfire, and Blake keeps parrying against him, and he is striking even faster this time. Spinning round with each hit, his fighting style does not even seem like his own any more. He just striking over and over again instead of using the gifts his sword has. Not even using the Scabbard.

Blake swings at him and slashes across his shoulder, cutting deep into the armour plating and his skin, then smashing it into Wilt and Blush, smashing her shoulder into him as well. Adam grunts and he kicks her in the leg, then slashes across her side, releasing a grunt of pain from Blake as she presses her hand to the curve in her core where he hit her, feeling the blood leaving that new scar. Adam runs at her and he slashes at her with the blade, but Blake stops the sword with Gambol Shroud, then Adam grabs her arm, locking her in place. “What now, Blake?” He questions, so Blake swings her arm and smashes his face, but Adam twists her arm round, nearly dislocating her shoulder as he stands by her side. She yells and she stamps down into the back of his knee and she grabs him, throwing him over her shoulder.

Adam immediately gets back up as he swings Wilt and Blush at her, and Blake has noticed that with every single strike that he makes, he is damaging the sword. He is hitting so hard that cracks are spreading through the red blade. She keeps on deflecting the sword with Gambol Shroud. “Come on!” He yells with rage. She keeps deflecting his hits, and he scrapes the sword across hers and forces it downwards, until Blake swiftly forces his blade aside and scrapes it across his ankle.

He stumbles, now with a similar limp that she has, blood trailing from his wound. He rushes her, weaker though as he goes to attack, but this time Blake makes the strikes, thwacking her sword into his over and over again, forcing him into one of the buildings. His back crashes against the building, embers from burning wood falling onto his shoulder and burning him slightly but he does not even seem to feel it. He holds the sword up and stops Gambol Shroud, sending his boot smashing into her chest.

She stumbles and he immediately makes his next move, swinging towards her with all his might, more and more cracks spreading through the plague. “You failed to save Vale! Failed to save Mistral! You couldn’t even keep them safe when you retook them! What hope do you have that you will win this war?” Adam questions as he locks his blade against hers.

“Because hope is all we need to beat him!” Blake yells.

“No! We evolve or we die! Those are the options we have!” He yells, spinning round and slashing her waist, bringing her down to her knee in pain. Blood pours from that wound and she coughs from the shock and pain of how may deep gashes she has in her body right now from this fight.

Adam walks towards her with his sword pointed at her, touching her neck in fact. “You know what, Blake? Underneath all your lies you are still that sad little girl with delusions of being the hero. You can’t win this, none of us can.” He states.

Blake readies herself, because she can see he is about to strike. “Goodbye – Blake Belladonna.” He says.

He swings the blade straight towards her throat, but Blake aggressively smashes Gambol Shroud into Wilt and Blush.

And there is an almighty metallic twang.

The sight of seeing that red blade fracture is chilling, as the fragments float away from him, red dust blasting out from the weapon and leaving his hand. Tears stream down her face as she makes to rotation, and with both hands, screaming with anguish as she does it.

She drives the blade of Gambol Shroud straight through his chest.

Adam gasps with shock and pain, feeling the blade run right through him like that, she pushes him back and the blade protrudes out his back, blood dripping from the claret stained blade. She can hear his breathes becoming more and more laboured as he staggers across the ember covered ground, and he collapses to one knee, and she falls with him, crying constantly as he falls into her arms. He looks at her as she looks down at him tearfully, heartbroken with what she has just done.

Even after everything that they have been through.

Their history...

She still cares.

And somewhere.

So does he.

She looks at his chest where the sword is still lodged, the amount of blood leaking out and she looks back at him with tears drenching her cheeks. “Y-You’ve become...stronger than I...ever could have been.” He stammers weakly, and Blake softly cries, caressing his red hair with her hand.

“Why didn’t you stop? Mazen abandoned you...” She sniffles and he chuckles weakly.

“You didn’t...” Adam admits, and those words nearly break her heart.

“I didn’t...Adam...I swear I didn’t do it. Umbra did...” She says with a heartbroken voice, and it is as if in his final moments the beast was lifted. And the old Adam returned, because he smiles weakly with blood leaking from his mouth.

“Then...kick his ass...” Adam weakly begs of her. “I wish I could see your face...one last time...” He sniffles as he tries to see her face. Blake squeezes her eyes shut and she sniffles.

Because there is a way for him to be able to see what she looks like now, since he has never known what she looks like before his eyes were burned. She gently places her hand on his heart, and she manages to manifest enough leftover aura to cast some upon him. Not enough to save him, but enough for him to mentally be able to see her face. “Wow...” Adam weakly says as he looks at her beauty. He reaches up, able to see his own hand in this form of spectral vision that Blake has granted him with her aura, feeling his pain at the same time. “You’ve...become so beautiful.” He gently says.

The doors behind them open, and Qrow emerges first with his sword ready to fight...only to see Adam in Blake’s arms with her sword stabbed through his chest. They all stand down, the Architect carrying Port’s body in his arms. They turn to see Oscar with Ruby in his arms as well, who has a makeshift bandage wrapped around her stomach, made from Oscar’s sleeve. He has also passed enough aura onto her to heal as much of it as he can.

Blake caresses his cheek, just wanting him to be comfortable when he goes, and she feels his hand gently hold hers. “I’m sorry...” He weakly says, and she looks at him tearfully. “That guy...Sun...He’s a better man than I could ever be...look after him...” He weakly begs as he coughs, more and more blood pooling out around him and into Blake’s legs. But she does not even feel it, she is merely numb from broken emotion.

“I promise...” She sniffles.

He then slightly leans up to her, looking at her, able to see her with the charm that Blake cast upon him. “You can stop him, Blake...I know you can.” He says.

“I will.” She promises.

He looks at her still, unable to look away from how beautiful she really is. “It was nice while it lasted though...being...friends.” He weakly says, and tears stream down her cheeks, her words bring tears to Pyrrha’s eyes when she hears what she says.

“Best friends.” She gently assures with a smile, and she can feel his warmed emotions.

He gazes to her, and everything becomes more and more blurry.

With those being the last words he ever heard her say.

“That’s alright then...it’s alright...” Adam weakly says, as he sees the beautiful face of Blake Belladonna fading away before his very eyes.

Just like she did on the train seven years ago.

“Adam?” Blake whimpers, and she feels his body become looser, and his hand drop down from hers, his head slowly relaxing on her lap. And she feels the connection between the two of them disappear.

Adam is gone.

She lowers her head and sobs uncontrollably for the loss of her old friend, heartbroken that their friendship had to end the way it did. With his blood on her hands, she lifts her head and looks at the others. “We bury him...here...where he belongs.” She tells them, and none of them argue.

They just smile and nod.

She looks at him and she gently kisses his forehead. “Goodbye, Adam.” She sobs.

In the end...

It was Beauty that killed the Beast.


	56. O'Death

**Mazen**

The Bullhead tattooed with the White Fang’s Red Beowulf roars across the ocean, with significantly less people inside of it now. Corsac is sat down inside of the cockpit, with cold and rather saddened eyes. The death of his brother has hit him hard, and the fact he left his hanging body behind truly shows his loyalties really do come down to his own selfish nature. Mazen is knelt down inside of the troop bay of the aircraft with multiple crates that they collected from the Radar Station. His Chainsword leant down on the chairs behind him.

He stands tall, staring at the many crates and he walks towards where Corsac is currently sat, his hands holding onto the joysticks that help steer the craft. Mazen grasps his hand onto the back of his seat, staring out at the sea that stretches out before their very eyes, and Corsac’s eyes slightly turn when he senses the presence of the High Leader. “I do hope all the lives we lost were worth the trouble it took to get those crates.” Corsac speaks with his deep growling voice, angry over the loss of his younger twin brother. Mazen slightly looks at him but keeps his head mostly facing the stretched out sea before them.

Mazen sighs, walking away from the cockpit as he looks at the twelve crates that they managed to get aboard this ship before the chaos followed in that Chamber. “As do I, Corsac...as do I.” He agrees, talking a crowbar and stabbing it into the box, pushing down with all his might to detach the lid of the wooden crate. The crate’s lid breaks off with the ping of the lock and hinge shattering from the action. Mazen drops the metal tool onto the clang, and he peers into the box.

Corsac looks back at him, seeing what he pulls out from inside. Mazen chuckles menacingly, holding a backpack that the Seeker’s wear to move at supersonic speeds, all it requires is Electrical Dust to be loaded into it. “With this tech, though – our forces will be able to challenge the Acolytes...and those damned Huntsmen in the middle of this war.” Mazen states, setting the backpack onto the crate again as he walks over to him again.

Although, Corsac does not appear to share the same enthusiasm, he just stares out at the distance again with pain in his eyes. Mazen is not blind, he can tell when someone is feeling down over a certain loss, and watching his brother die like that was enough reason for Corsac to be angry, and sad. “Corsac...your brother will not die in vain...our cause will save the Faunus from what is coming.” Mazen promises, and he chuckles at the High Leader’s promise.

“Adam said the same thing about when Ilia died.” Corsac tells him, and Mazen stares straight at him. The huge man sighs, scratching the back of his head exposed since his mask is no helmet. Then his words send a chill down Corsac’s spine.

“Adam was weak.” Mazen states, causing him to turn.

“What?” Corsac questions – Corsac Albain never really liked Adam or trusted him, but he respected the man for what he fought for. And in his eyes, Adam returned back to the fold after trying to betray their own cause. That is enough reason for the Last Albain to put some respect on the Bull Faunus. But clearly, Mazen does not share the same feelings towards him, as he walks over to the gear that they acquired.

“He let his obsession over Blake Belladonna cloud his judgement, and because of that it got him killed. He could have never lead the Faunus to a better tomorrow.” He states, looking back at Corsac, and the Albain does not disagree.

“Yes, but he was still fighting for the future of the Faunus.” Corsac defends, but Mazen guffaws at that, opening another crate with the Crowbar he picked back up, barely even struggling to pop the wooden lid from the hinges.

“Do you really think he chased after Blake Belladonna because he wanted to help the Faunus? Do you think he personally lead the attack on Beacon Academy because of the White Fang’s march to bring equality?” Mazen questions, as he looks inside, pushing some high tech rifles, armour and schematics for Juggernaut Exo-Suits, and many other things buried in there. Along with caches of Dust mined from that chasm that his chamber was connected to. “His mind was solely focused on getting back at a single girl that dumped him – I don’t know about you but the boy was fooled by love.” He scoffs.

Then Albain drops the ice cold bomb on him. “And you are doing this for the Faunus and not your own personal ideals?” Corsac questions, and Mazen stops in his tracks, slowly placing the crowbar onto the floor, staring straight at him through that mask that hides his real face.

“Excuse me?” Mazen challenges as he approaches him with a snarling voice, showing his inner Bear Traits. But Corsac uses his intelligence and good memory to support his claim, bravely challenging the High Leader of the White Fang.

“When we were in Kuo Kuana, he had no respect for the Faunus who lost their lives there. You just shrugged their deaths off as statistics, and your are completely focused on wiping out the Atlesians.” Corsac explains, which confuses Mazen of what his motives are.

“Then what are your motives?” He questions.

“I am not my brother – I loved him but he was clouded by his bloodlust. He always enjoyed killing things in his life, but I aim to bring order to the Faunus. To allow us to stand where we should be standing all along.” Corsac explains to him, and Mazen glares at him through the glowing red visors which perfectly are placed where his eyes are.

“And where would that be?” Mazen grills, standing tall before the much shorter Fox Faunus. And Corsac’s answer is just as chilling as the words that Mazen has been saying.

“Above Humanity, not wiping them out...but using them the way they have used us.” Corsac answers.

All of them want payback for something, and Mazen can tell just from the way he said it, where he came from. “You were a Slave in Mantle, weren’t you?” Mazen presumes, and Corsac nods his head.

“My brother and I – I promised him once that we would be free from the Schnee Dust Company and their manipulation. And now he is dead, hanging by a cable because of those who continue to push us down.” Corsac explains, with conviction clear in his vocal tones, his fist clenched as he speaks.

“Is that why you and your brother slaughtered those Faunus in that Village? Because you were _helping the Faunus_?” Mazen questions, and the fact he knows about that does surprise him. How long ago that feels now, when his brother and him formed those bloodthirsty Faunus Fanatics that followed their White Fang, killing any Faunus that have any relations to Humans. Killing Faunus who fell in love with a human, or the other way around as well.

“That was my brother’s doing – not me. He believed it was right that Humans should suffer, and any Faunus that defend them fall as well.” Corsac explains.

“And what do you believe?” Mazen questions.

Corsac stares straight into his eyes. “Control – nothing more. Not the murderous rampages that my brother liked to go on.” He states.

Mazen exhales as he stares at the man, he cannot tell if he is lying or not – so he does not bother to find out. Corsac and Fennec both are great liars and thieves, and with only one of them left now, that means his lies have more weight. No second loose end to rip the line of lies that they had forged.

But Corsac seemed to be honest.

Mazen has calmed down now, understanding the reservations that Corsac has towards this plan that Mazen has, and he has just lost his brother too. It is reason enough for anybody to be a little sharper than they normally would be towards their leader. “We all have our reasons, Corsac. I want Atlas to fall for what they did to my family, you want revenge for what they did to you and your brother in those Mines. Adam Taurus did want to avenge his parents – but when Blake Belladonna left him behind on that train...it fed into his more unfortunate tendencies.” Mazen explains, speaking softer about the man that he disliked.

Corsac looks at him as Mazen places his huge hand on his shoulder, Mazen sighs and he takes his hand away from Corsac, stepping away from him as he continues. “But he did not have what it took to rid himself of his demons – and it got him killed.” Mazen states, turning to him and Corsac sighs, looking away from his leader.

“My brother let his inner demon kill him as well.” Corsac sadly says as he looks down at the floor, desperately wanting to avenge him.

“His death will mean something, Corsac.” Mazen assures, looking at the crates inside of the Bullhead and he pats his hand on one of the closed ones. “This was a major victory for the White Fang, Corsac, even if it does not feel like it yet.” Mazen assures.

“How so?” Corsac asks.

“All this technology? All of it comes with blueprints, blueprints we can give to our allies to build more for our soldiers.” He explains, but he shakes his head.

“We have hardly any forces, High Leader. Most of our soldiers are either dead or are tired of fighting for our cause. Or have been captured – we do not have the forces to fight a war like this.” Corsac explains, wisely as well, yet Mazen still has a plan.

“No...And that is why we shall free the Faunus who have been captured across Remnant. Many Bandits, such as the Traffickers have taken plenty of Faunus to sell them to the Schnee Dust Company. And Mantle has thousands of Faunus who are hungry for revenge.” He explains to him.

“Even if we freed them all, that is not enough against the Acolytes of Lien. They have Faunus in their command as well. It is possible they have no idea of what has happened in Menagerie.” Corsac explains, and Mazen chuckles.

“And that is the other way we will gain more soldiers.” He states, revealing something he had recorded on his scroll.

He recorded the conversations between Jacques Schnee and Doctor Merlot that the good Doctor showed to the Huntsmen and Huntresses that arrived in the Chamber.

“Once the Faunus hear of what happened in Menagerie – they will all be crying for war.” He states, hitting the stop button on his Scroll.

Another War is coming.

And with Vir Nominis Umbra working his dark magic and skills in the background.

Things are not looking good for Remnant at all.

 

**Blake**

The Belladonna Huntress, still with tears welled up in her eyes, is on her knees beside the newly dug grave for Adam. He looks at peace, his skin turned pale from his passing and there are still cuts and blood on his body. But they have done what they could to clean the damage off, and they have recovered the remains of Wilt and Blush to bury it with him. Despite everything that he did in the past, and everything that happened here, they still have the reverence to bury him, and pay their own respects to him. Qrow and the Architect both crouch down as they help pick Adam up and they gently carry him to the grave that they have dug for him. They both carefully lower him into the grave, and Jaune watches with respect in his low eyes as he watches. Pyrrha rests her head on his shoulder.

The fact that they...

Of all people...

Are the ones doing this for him, shows that they are better people than Mazen and Corsac. Because they did not only just bury Adam, but they also made sure that they buried everyone else that they could find. Even Fennec...after what he did to Port, they still buried him in Menagerie.

Because they are better people than their foes.

Qrow and the Architect both rise back up after setting him down and Blake takes Wilt and Blush, gently placing it on his chest where it belongs. Kassius and Kragen look down at Adam as he lays there with his hands held over Wilt and Blush, ready to bury him before they set the tarp over him out of respect. “Would anyone like to make any words?” Kragen asks, as he looks at Adam’s body, and Blake stands up with a sniffle.

Ruby, despite still a little weak from her stab wound she suffered from Corsac, reaches out to Blake to calm her down, flinching from the sharp pain that fluctuates from her stomach where the bandage is tightly wrapped. But Blake looks back at her, and she smiles affectionately to her friend, because she feels like she needs to say something to him.

Blake approaches the grave and she crouches down beside it, looking at his body inside and she sniffles, her hand pressed to the soil. “Adam...” She sniffles as she looks down at him, some bandages wrapped around her body in places as well from the fight that she endured against him. Her aura slowly repairing the damage that Wilt and Blush had done to her skin. “I’m so sorry that things had to end this way between us...” She gently says to him, as she looks at his face as he rests there.

She does not say it but...

_He looks at peace...for once._

Her eulogy continues for her old friend as she looks down at him. “You were always there for me, before I ever met Ruby...before Sun...Before Yang and Weiss...before Jaune and Pyrrha. Before anybody I met after I ran – you and Ilia were always there for me, with my parents – when I needed you.” Blake eulogises as tears trickle down from her eyes. Oscar stands with Ruby at her side, his hand holding hers as he looks at her affectionately and she smiles, looking at Port’s body that has been wrapped in a body bag, being taken back home to Beacon.

Sadly...

They could not uncover the bodies of Vos, Serena and Gray, for the Sandstorm buried their bodies, leaving them M.I.A.

Blake rubs the tear from her eye as she sniffles. “You taught me how to fight – to be more than what Humanity made me think I was. But you let your own anger grow beyond your own control...and now you can rest.” Blake says as she stands up, backing away so then Kragen and Kassius can take the soil and bury him, as Winter covers his body with the sheet. They both begin to cover his body up with the soil, returning him to the dirt and Blake squeezes her eyes shut. “Goodbye Adam.” She concludes, bowing her head as they bury him.

Burying him beside the graves...

_Ghira Belladonna_

_Loving Father and Husband_

_Kali Belladonna_

_Loving Mother and Wife_

_Ilia Amitola_

_Caring Friend taken too soon_

_Adam Taurus_

_Caring Friend taken too soon_

Blake feels the lump in her throat as she holds back the urge to cry more and more, at least he was buried where he belonged. As they stand there, Oobleck looks at Qrow and they both seem to have the same thing on their mind. “The Thralls...” Qrow says as he looks around, and for some reason no one else seems to have noticed it either.

The Thralls that plagued Kuo Kuana.

They are all gone, not a single cry or shuffle.

“They’re all gone.” Qrow says, since they were never attacked when taking Port and Adam back to the Belladonna Estate. And behind them is the Prowler that they took to get there in the first place.

“Something is not right, Qrow.” Oobleck states, still weak from Adam’s Moonslice attack that destroyed his Thermos Staff.

“I know.” Qrow agrees.

Blake continues to watch as Kassius and Kragen both finish burying his body, and Yenna looks at the body with Cinder beside her. It is very clear that Yenna does not overly trust Cinder due to the way she attained the power, but she can tell that she is trying to atone. Yenna looks at her, and she sighs. “You fought well.” Yenna gently compliments, surprising Cinder. As always she never expects to get compliments from anyone after what she did to Beacon all those years ago. But she is slowly becoming more and more accepted amongst everyone here.

“Thank you.” She says to her.

“A lot of things you could work on though.” Yenna says, as if she could not hold in that little addition. Cinder’s shoulders slump downwards and she sighs, her eyelid hangs low over her amber iris.

“There it is.” She sighs.

“No – I mean your gifts.” She says, which confuses her.

“What do you mean?” Cinder asks.

“In that Chamber you only seemed to rely on Conjuring and Fire, but there was so much more you could have done in there.” Yenna tells her as she looks at the young woman with her violet eyes.

“How do you mean?” Cinder asks.

Then Cinder’s eye widens and she gasps when she feels a root caressing her ankle that truly surprises her, she looks down to see some roots and even flowers growing around them. And above the graves of those who belong at the Belladonna Estate. “All four Maidens harbour the same gifts, if we just know how to use them. Some time I will be happy to help you.” Yenna assures as she continues to pay her respects with her hands held together, looking at the grave of Adam Taurus.

But Cinder still remains confused.

“Why?” She asks, Yenna looks at her with a sigh.

“Well – not matter how much I may disagree with you killing another Maiden to take her power – you clearly are not the same person you once were. And down there in that chamber? I could see how much you were trying to atone for your sins.” Yenna assures, she has lived for a very long time so she will know a hell of a lot more about this kind of stuff that Cinder will ever know.

“Thank you...” Cinder gently says, until the sharp and aggressive voice of Yenna returns, making her jolt.

“Don’t think that this makes me like you though!” She warns, and Cinder looks away with a sigh.

_Guess I was expecting a little too much._

Blake remains stood over Adam’s grave, and everyone slowly begins to walk away around her, taking Port into the Prowler so then he can return home. Kragen walks past her and he gently places his hand on her shoulder as he walks away. He moves past Ruby and Oscar, seeing the distrust still in both their faces as they watch him. Eventually Ruby and Oscar go as well, leaving only Blake and Kassius stood by his grave.

Kassius...

Looking at both Adam and Ilia’s graves.

He still feels such guilt for how he tried to kill Ilia without hearing her side of the story, but there is a reason for him being by Adam’s grave still as well. He sighs as he reveals his reason to Blake. “I never got to apologise to him.” He says, and Blake looks at him with a surprised expression. It took her a second, but then she quickly remembered that he broke his horn off when Hyde snapped and took over.

And he did fight all of them in the process.

“Kassius...” Blake gently speaks but as always the Huntsman just shrugs her affection off.

“I  nearly killed him, nearly killed Blake...both because I run off so much anger and aggression.” He says with saddened – or even disappointed – eyes, clenching his cybernetic hand into a fist as he looks at Adam’s grave.

Blake approaches Kassius and she looks up at him. “He cut Yang’s arm off, you had every reason to get angry.” Blake defends, despite how much she still cared for Adam in the end, especially when it ended like this.

“That’s not the point, Blake.” He rejects.

“Then what is it, Kassius?” She asks him, and he reveals it as he crouches down beside the grave.

“I attacked him just from the mere sight, I nearly killed Ilia when I saw her. I cannot control Hyde, all it takes is a trigger for him to snap and...” He stammers, then Blake figures out what his fear seems to be.

“You’re afraid you’ll hurt someone you care about.” She realises and Kassius slowly nods his head.

“Yeah...I attacked all of you when I tried to kill Adam. It hasn’t happened in a while...but I don’t think even Hyde can control it.” He says, sighing.

Blake leans her head against his shoulder gently, there for him as his girlfriend’s best friend. “Then we will help both of you get through it together – at the end of the day let’s face it – both of you are part of this family now.” Blake assures with a smile.

He looks at her and he sighs, nodding his head. She does not even realise how touching those words were for Hyde, he may not show kindness very well. But that does not mean he does not have it in him.

“Thanks...” Hyde softly whispers, bringing some happiness to the entity.

 

**Whitley**

The youngest child of the Schnees is sat at a Piano, playing a complex song on the keys with ease as he sits there. Each finger nails the right key at the perfect time as he plays, the music echoes down the corridor of the Manor that feels so empty now. He follows the sheet of paper with the marks printed on it perfectly.

But before he can go any further, the voice of his father makes him jump and he accidentally messes it up, playing multiple keys at once. “You’ve certainly improved.” Jacques says to his son with his arms crossed, looking at him by the photographs on the wall. Whitley stammers when he sees his father standing there with his blue eyes focused on him.

“Oh...hello father...I was just practicing again.” He replies as he stumbles, yet strangely enough Jacques does something that nobody else has ever seen him do. He calms him down as he approaches, with an aura of actual supportiveness and kindness towards him.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay.” Jacques assures as he pulls a chair up and he sits down in it. He crosses one leg over the other and he looks at the boy. “What song is it? I haven’t heard this one before.” Jacques curiously asks his son, and Whitley turns to the sheet of paper with all the notes on it. And the name of the song is imprinted on the very top of the piece that he holds.

“It’s called the Grand Lord of Redcrossing. I found it in some of the old archives in the Library that Klein used to look after.” Whitley explains to him, setting the piece of paper back onto the mantelpiece.

“Why not use a datapad? I’m sure that would be easier to scroll through.” Jacques presumes, but Whitley shrugs his shoulders with disagreement.

“I prefer having it on paper – dunno why – just works better for me.” He says to his father.

Jacques looks at his son, in a way he never looked at either of his daughters – but he actually looks proud of him. Not for his own ambition or that he actually has an heir worthy of his dynasty to continue it, but just of how he has turned out.

Perhaps there is a softer side to the cold Businessman.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pack it up –” Whitley stammers, but Jacques holds his hands up.

“No, no...please...” He requests as he sits back, actually wanting to hear what he has learned.

“You...want to hear it?” He asks with confusion.

“Of course.” Jacques replies with a smile, and Whitley smiles back as he begins to play.

Whitley sits forward in his chair and he cracks his fingers as he prepares to play the song on the white Piano before him.

Then he begins to play the song for his father, and Jacques is legitimately happy for his son as he hears how talented he is at playing on the piano. Landing every single key perfectly with his fingers, creating a beautiful tune that he can listen to.

And it shows the side that Weiss, Winter and Willow – even Klein – never saw between the two of them.

Winter had her mother and saw her decay when Jacques revealed he only married her for the family name, so she defied her father because she connected to her mother. Weiss saw the same but not as long as Winter did, and thus followed her sister’s footsteps. Whitley on the other hand never remembered a time where his mother did not drink so much wine, does not remember the breaking point, and thus he only had his father to connect to. Since Weiss and Winter were so busy trying to get out of their during their childhood.

And thus...

The connection his father had with his son was better as well.

When Whitley plays the song, there is a side to Jacques that nobody expected – the side of a father that just wants his family to be happy. But his ambition is always there and it always seems to get in the way.

But here...

In this one moment.

Jacques actually feels like a father for once.

And he actually feels pride.

Whitley continues the song, hearing the lyrics in his head as he plays the tune to the words.

_Why, oh why must I bow down to you._

_A group of measly peasants?_

_Spoke the Grand Lord of Redcrossing,_

_Demanding his people work harder and harder – for his own goal._

_Gold, women, food, wine and power,_

_Tis all the reward he knows for his effortless acts._

_Though judgement comes for all men,_

_No matter wealth, age or gender._

_When he comes – one should allow him entry with kindness,_

_And think carefully on their wishes._

_"Riches, food and power...this is what I demand"_

_Spoke the Grand Lord of Redcrossing._

_But now the ashes lay on the once green fields,_

_With only one body residing._

_Wishes be granted..._

_But not what he wanted._

_And with all he asked..._

_He be left behind with not a soul to share with._

 

Whitley gently plays the conclusion to the song, the sound of the keys begins to fade away as he closes the song up, and he leans back against the chair, turning to his father. He takes his hands from the keys and Jacques smiles, giving him a round of applause for how impressive that was. He may not say it, but he does see a slight resemblance to his youngest daughter, she could sing and he could play the piano perfectly. “You have vastly improved from when I last listened.” Jacques compliments.

Whitley smiles as he accepts the praise his father gives him, something he rarely ever hears since it is mostly business that they discuss. “Thank you father, I have been meaning to do some more practice when things had – calmed down.” Whitley states, with the shrug of his shoulders. Jacques nods his head as he sits there.

“Yes...did you know I used to play the piano once?” Jacques asks him, and Whitley looks confused.

“Really?” He questions.

“Well – I say I played it – I was crap at it, but I gave it my best. It was nowhere near as good as that.” Jacques chuckles as he looks at his son, making him laugh as well.

“Well it’s never too late to try.” Whitley says with a smile, but Jacques chuckles as he looks a little saddened.

“Well...my teacher was a Faunus.” He reveals and Whitley looks truly surprised by those words.

“Wait...here at Atlas?” He asks with confusion, since Faunus are practically outlawed in Atlas, and are enslaved in Mantle for labour.

“Yes, you see when dear old Nicholas Schnee was alive – he made sure that the Faunus had a place here in Atlas. He was blind to the threat that they posed to us.” Jacques states, with a scowl as he stares out at the window with resent in his eyes. “But my teacher – he was adamant that I would never make anything in my life. That I would be an immense failure that the world would forget I ever existed.” He explains, beginning to reveal some reasons behind his hatred for the Faunus Species.

Whitley listens to his words intently. “Until one day...I finally did it...I mastered my craft in playing the piano. And I had a show, one where I would play in front of a stage of one thousand people.” Jacques explains to him. “My knees were wobbling so much, wouldn’t think that after how many public speeches I have had to make.”

Whitley chuckles but Jacques continues. “I played my soul out to that crowd, and I was madly in love with the woman that would become your mother. I was trying to win her over...and she was in the crowd, cheering me on.” Jacques explains with a smile on his face. The fact he speaks so highly of her, it does confuse the poor boy, but Jacques continues on and on. “I finished it, and the crowd cheered for me. And when I got off the stage I was ready to soak in the joy...”

“Until...my teacher appeared on the stage...and he created a lie that destroyed that reputation of mine. He said _that I cheated, and I used a recorded version that he played to make it look like he was the real artist. He is a liar and a cheat_. He said that to the entire audience, and he stole my praise...and swallowed all of it for himself.” Jacques explains, and Whitley’s eyes widen at this revelation.

“Mom heard him say that? Did she believe him?” Whitley asks, since he never did have the highest praises for his mother.

But the answer is not what Whitley expected.

“No.” Jacques reveals. “She believed me, when nobody else did. I loved her...and eventually she loved me.” He says, then Whitley spots the anguish in his father’s eyes as he stands up and stares out at the Garden where she sat. “Willow...what a mess I made of it all..” He whispers as he stares at where she would sit, still imaging her face now.

“But she...she cheated on you...” Whitley questions and Jacques turns round.

“Because I betrayed her – in my rage I said that I only married her for the family name. But that wasn’t the truth, I was angry and drunk and stupid. And everything changed after that, she began to drink more and more, and we drifted apart. I became more violent because...because it was the only way she would listen to me.” He sighs as he presses his hands against the windowsill.

Whitley stands up and he walks over to his father with compassion in his blue eyes. “I don’t blame her for falling for Ironwood instead of me. He didn’t let his ambition control him.” He reveals, showing a side he has never shown anybody, perhaps even his own wife when she was alive.

The smirk he gave when the bombs went off...

They were not for Willow or Klein or perhaps even Ironwood.

It is because the politicians and Thaddeus stood in his way were now eradicated.

Willow, Klein and Ironwood were merely unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire. “I’m really sorry, father.” Whitley apologises, and Jacques sighs, wiping a stray tear from his eye as he stands back up.

“All that matters to me know is you, son. I will not let the Faunus hurt you the way they hurt me. That teacher was only one reason for my hatred for their kind, I have more but I will leave those tales for another time. If running the company and fighting your sisters and anything else that stands in our way will protect you...” Jacques says as he places his hand on his shoulder gently. “...I will.” He assures with a kind smile.

Whitley smiles back, until Jacques hears his Scroll buzzing with an incoming call. Jacques sighs. “Go on now, please keep practicing.” Jacques requests as he walks away from him, but before he does he stops and turns to him. “And Whitley?” He speaks, getting his attention, he turns and looks at him. “You mother loved you with all her heart – I am the reason she fell. If you have anybody to hate – place it on me, not your mother.” Jacques requests, and Whitley lowers his head.

 

**Jacques**

Clearly there is more to this businessman than just money and power, he knows of his sins and he lives with them every single day. The Leader of the Schnee Dust Company enters the cold Study of his and he closes the door, setting his scroll down onto the floor so then the call can activate.

A holographic projection of Darren Ortega forms before him with his hands held behind his back, stood like a proper military general. Jacques picks up his large bottle of Kuchinashi Brewed Whiskey into a glass that he puts some ice cubes into, lifting it up with his hand as he turns to the Admiral. “Ortega, to what do I owe this fine pleasure?” Jacques asks him as he walks round his desk and leans against it, looking right at him.

“It seems we have a new course.” Ortega tells him, and Jacques takes a sip of his Whiskey.

“And that is?” Jacques asks.

“It appears the White Fang attacked Merlot’s facility and so did your eldest Daughter and her allies.” Ortega describes, and Jacques lifts his head, returning back to the cold Businessman that he shows to everyone else, opposed to the father-figure he is to his son.

“Was anything important taken?” Jacques asks.

“Twelve crates of Merlot Industries crafted technology. Seeker backpacks, Juggernaut Armour, countless blueprints.” Ortega lists and Jacques sighs as he sets the glass down onto his table.

“So what are we going to do about that?” Jacques asks me, and his answer does seem to worry the Businessman.

“Well our contact, the one we are working for?” Ortega asks him, and Jacques stands there, his back turned to Ortega and he slowly turns.

“Vir Nominis Umbra?” Jacques presumes.

“Yes – he arrived on board my ship – not sure how – and he told me that Merlot has...and I quote... _outlived his usefulness_.” Ortega informs, and it clearly seems to have surprised both of them.

“He gets robbed so he is dead to us?” Jacques questions with confusion, a ballsy thing to question Vir Nominis Umbra’s order like that.

“Well he did say that he found something he really shouldn’t have uncovered. But the issue is I have no idea where he is based.” Ortega tells him.

“Neither do I, he has always maintained that secret from us.” Jacques agrees. “Why doesn’t he just kill him himself? Seems he can pop in out of nowhere wherever and whenever he wants.” Jacques states, and that is what surprises them both again.

“That’s what he told me – that even _he_ cannot track him down for some reason. So we all need to work hard to follow the tracks. But he did say he has a small idea of where he could be.” Ortega says to him, but Jacques already seems to know exactly what he is about to say as an answer. “Well...and Umbra said that he had something important to do right now, something he left pretty quickly to do.”

Jacques does not even seem to pay attention to that last part, so he just continues with what he was going to say before being interrupted by the Admiral.

“Arkhonex?” Jacques guesses.

“Precisely.” Ortega nods.

“Of course, the Lost City of Arkhonex that nobody can find because it has been hidden for thousands of years. He had me hidden in Ephai for months until I was allowed to return home but your spies turned up nothing of the city’s location. How could he have located it?” Jacques questions as he paces back and forth.

“I don’t know...and I don’t like it either.” He sighs.

“Why?” Jacques questions. “You have plenty of workers who have the blueprints you needed from him.”

“Not that.” He says, staring coldly at the man, and Jacques figures it out quick.

“Ah...Miss Penny Polendina, that little project you had him do for you?” Jacques chuckles as he stares at him with a sinister smirk.

“The last thing he told me is that he was really close to bringing her back, very different to our last conversation.” Ortega tells him, still with his daughter’s necklace she made for him around his neck.

“Well the employer has made the demand and we cannot argue with him. You heard the order, and I will send out a contract to hunt him down.” Jacques says, and Ortega glares at him with narrow eyes as he ends the call. “Farewell, Ortega.” He says, and he approaches his scroll, terminating the call. Jacques takes his scroll and sits down at his table, loading up his network he used to set bounties on people as the Trinity Marshall.

He loads up his contract.

_Doctor Archer Merlot_

_Award: 100’000’000 Lien for the capture of the professor._

Jacques leans back as he uploads this meaty contract to track him down.

“Goodbye, Merlot.”

 

**Ruby**

Unaware of this unexpected betrayal in the ranks of their foes...

The Prowler finally returns back home to Beacon, the night has fallen and the Fractured Moon hangs above them all as the Branwen Tribesmen approach with rifles in their hands. The rear door opens and they are stunned when they see the Architect walking past with the body bag that carries Professor Port’s body inside, all of them quiet with saddened expressions.

The Bandit looks at Qrow as he walks out with a shocked look. “What the hell happened?” The Bandit questions as he sees them all walking past and towards the Amphitheatre to relay the bad news. “Did you find a cure?” He asks.

Qrow sighs and just shakes his head. “We failed.” He replies, walking past the Branwen soldier and towards the Amphitheatre.

Pyrrha and Jaune both look ahead and see Ren and Nora stood there and their eyes widen with joy when they see them. Nora jumps into Jaune’s arms, hugging him tight before doing the same to Pyrrha. “Are you okay? What happened?” She asks then they both fall silent when they see the body bag in the Architect’s arms.

“Who is in the bag?” Ren nervously asks.

Pyrrha is the one to break the news with a saddened voice. “Port...Fennec Albain killed him.” Pyrrha reveals with tears in her eyes, and Nora and Ren’s eyes widen with horror and anguish.

“Oh no...” Ren mutters as he presses his hands against his head and Nora clenches her hands into fists.

“Fennec’s gonna pay! Fennec is gonna pay for this!” Nora yells with rage, but Jaune stifles the anger.

“He already has, Oscar and Ruby managed to kill him...but he didn’t go down without a fight.” Jaune states, as he looks at Ruby who is still limping from the pain in her stomach. The Shadow Dust in that blade still has a small affect on her aura, making the healing process a little slower.

“And Adam?” Ren asks, but Jaune just shakes his head.

“Only Mazen and Corsac managed to escape alive, we also faced the Knights there as well. And...the Faunus...” Pyrrha stammers when she pictures the monsters that they became in Kuo Kuana. Nightmares that she may never forget.

“We know...we saw what happened to Brawnz...” Nora informs which brings them horrible worries of what could have happened.

“How is everyone?” Ruby asks as she emerges with Oscar and Blake with her.

“Roy and Nolan aren’t doing well, high fever and they have been saying they feel their skin itching really bad. Yang has started to sweat a lot as well.” Ren describes, and those symptoms do not sound good, especially after what happened to Brawnz after he felt the bones in his forearm shifting in weird ways and places. Ruby checks her aura, noticing that the fluctuations have finally passed now, and her wound can begin to heal back up normally again. Clearly the Shadow Dust only has an effect for a couple hours before the aura can replenish itself naturally again.

“I want see them.” Ruby says as she walks towards the door, she opens it and sees them all inside. It is as if she can feel the shock and awe as she enters, and the stains on the floor where May was brutally torn to shreds by Brawnz. Taiyang gasps, standing up and Raven smiles when she sees Ruby and her brother walking into the room.

“Ruby!” Taiyang sighs with relief, hugging her tight. “You’re okay...” He sighs as he holds her close.

“Hey...dad...” She softly says, since she knows how much of a friend that Port was to him.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Taiyang asks as Glynda approaches, she can see the defeat in their eyes, not only because Merlot did not have a cure but the death of Professor Port had hit them hard. Taiyang looks at Qrow and he shares the same expression as everyone else, so he walks past both of them and opens the door, and his eyes widen when they unzip the bag to reveal his body. His eyes closed and the stain of blood in his chest where the Spiral Dagger blasted the Shadow Dust bolt into his chest. “Pete...” He gasps with shock, and Glynda looks just as heartbroken.

She turns to look at Kragen, Qrow and the Architect. “Please tell me that Merlot had a cure.” She begs with fear in her voice.

Kragen sighs, shaking his head. “No...he didn’t – he didn’t even make the plague, we think Umbra did. He just managed to contain some inside of the devices that released it into Vacuo. And managed to make one that activates fully on command on Atlesian soldiers...testing it on the Faunus there.” He stammers, and Glynda can remember the conversation with Cinder about it as if it just happened.

Kassius and Ruby both rush over to Yang, and Kassius immediately wraps his arms around her, kissing her cheek affectionately. “Thank the gods you’re okay...” He sighs with relief.

“Hey babe...” Yang weakly greets with a smile, the plague is still eating away at her, she sweats profusely and her skin is pale. Kassius takes his eyes from her beautiful face to look at the medical bag above her head to see that it is nearly empty.

“Crap...Glynda where are the meds?” Kassius asks.

“Um...Check in the dorms, I had us store some new ones in there. They just arrived from Vale Medical.” Glynda says, clearly things have been hectic here for even Glynda to just put them in a random dorm.

“Alright...Jaune, Pyrrha. Let’s go find them!” Kassius says as he runs towards the doors. Neither of them argue, they just follow after him, running through the doors to the Dorms.

 

**Kassius**

 

Jaune and Pyrrha run alongside him, towards the Dormitories. “How will this work, Kas? It’s a three story building with like twenty dorms on each.” Jaune asks him.

“Each of us check one floor, it’s gotta be in one of them.” Kassius says, as he sprints straight towards the double doors, smashing his shoulders against the thick wooden doors, barging them open.

They sprint as fast as they possibly can to get there, running up the stairs into each level to find where she stored them. Kassius runs through the level where Team R.W.B.Y and J.N.P.R’s dorms used to be, as fast as he can.

Until a voice stops him.

“Kassius...” The voice whispers.

He stops with widened eyes.

He knows that voice.

That was Merlot.

 

**Ruby**

“Okay...when Kassius gets back with the meds we can think of a new plan.” Ruby says as she paces back and forth.

But then...

They all stop when they hear Yang quietly singing something.

A song...

A terrifying song.

_"A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,"_

_"His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,"_

_"Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye."_

_"Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,"_

_"His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,"_

_"Anger through truth, loss through acceptance."_

_"For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,"_

_"Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,"_

_"The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,"_

_"Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter..."_

They all stare at Yang with horrified eyes, Ruby looks at Oscar and he knows exactly what that song means. Nora and Ren look truly scared as they stand there. “Yang?” Weiss stammers with widened eyes, Blake holds Sun’s hand as she sits beside him, all their eyes on her. Weiss’ voice seems to snap Yang out of it, and she looks at them all with a worried expression.

“Guys? Why are you looking at me like that?” She stammers.

“Why are you singing that song?” Kragen fearfully asks.

“What song? I wasn’t singing...” Yang states, as if she completely just blacked out.

Before they can even ask any more questions, the unmistakable caw of countless crows echoes from outside. The Architect peers through the window to see that there are hundreds of Crows outside, all sat on the Colonnades in the courtyard, staring straight at the Amphitheatre.

All of them have glowing red eyes.

And crystal beaks.

“Guys?” The Architect stammers, the most afraid they have ever heard him, and Cinder can feel the mark that Fury gave her tingling, as does Nora with the one the Lord of the Wood gave her. “He’s here...”

 

**Vir Nominis Umbra**

The Bandits all turn with confused expressions to see the Soothsayer approaching with his eyes focused on the Amphitheatre, walking slowly towards them with a chilling smile on his face. His arms swing back and forth slowly as he moves closer and closer to the building. The crows all watch from above, the infinite eyes of the monster that he is.

One of the Bandits walks towards him with his Revolver drawn, aimed straight at his head. Unaware of who this entity really is. “Hey asshole! Stop right there!” The Bandit demands, all the others have their rifles aimed straight at the Soothsayer.

Vir Nominis Umbra smirks as he walks towards him slowly, and he just walks closer and closer to the Bandit.

Then he just walks, right past him, without even looking at him. “Hey! I said –” But before the Bandit can even finish his sentence, his voice suddenly cuts out and his body jolts. His heart completely stops beating from one moment to the next, his brain shuts down, every organ deactivates and his blood seems to freeze inside of him. Killing him instantly, and he collapses to his knees, dropping his rifle to the ground before landing on his face.

The other Bandits are now terrified.

Vir Nominis Umbra did not even look at him, did not even do anything. He just walked past him, and killed him instantly. And out of fear, the Bandits all begin to scream, firing their weapons at him constantly. Blake turns round with wide eyes when she hears the gunfire outside of the Amphitheatre. The bullets just shoot straight through his body and he only flickers like a hologram as they pass through his form.

He does not even stop walking or turn to attack them, he just continues on his path, and every single Bandit that he walks past collapses, killed instantly from whatever it is that he is doing. One by one they all fall, their bodies killed instantly from whatever dark magic he is pulling on them. They now try and turn to run, wailing with terror, but as soon as he walks past, they collapse to the ground, murdered instantly by him.

In a mere few minutes.

Twenty Branwen Bandits have just been wiped out.

And Vir Nominis Umbra did not even move.

He just walks closer and closer to the doors, and he reaches to the doorknob.

As the Fractured Moon watches from above.

Vir Nominis Umbra is here...


	57. Not an Angel

**Ruby**

Her heart skips a beat from the thunderous bang of the doors suddenly bursting open, she and everyone else spins round with terrified expressions on their faces. Both Ruby and Blake draw their weapons, aiming through the sights of their firearms at him as he enters. With his arms splayed out and a sinister smile on his face, he stares into their eyes with his cunning brown irises. “I made it! Finally...here at this prestigious academy...I mean I have been here before, but you know. Still one of hell of an honour to be here.” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he walks into the Amphitheatre, acting at theatrically as ever as he walks around.

Her heart is pounding at the speed of sound, anxiety flowing with the blood in her veins. Because this is the first time she has ever seen him in person, she has heard of him, had nightmares of him. But she never imagined that he really was real, or perhaps she had hoped that he was not as dangerous as they thought. And the twenty dead Bandits outside shows that he is not a foe that they want to mess with. Her hands are shaking erratically as she holds her beloved Crescent Rose in her grasp, the hospitalised Hunters watch the Soothsayer with lumps in their throats as he walks round slowly with both hands clasped together. “Ruby Rose...what an honour it is to finally meet you in person.” He says with a smile, before bowing before her.

“You...” Ruby stammers with her silver eye wide as she stares at him, her teeth beginning to grit together despite the fact she is quivering with fear right now. Her bones and muscles going stiff from anxiety as she watches is ever move as he walks into the building.

“You’re him...” She stammers as she stares at him, and the Soothsayer chortles away as he walks round them in the huge building.

“Aye...I am.” He confesses, stopping in one place as he stares straight at her.

She waits for him to speak, and even though she has a good feeling she knows what he is about to say, she is still afraid. Oscar stands beside Ruby, with his hand close to the hilt of Traveller’s Atrocity. Qrow is there too, all of them are, staring at the lone Soothsayer. And all of them are intimidated by him, despite the fact they outnumber him nearly twenty to one.

“Vir Nominis Umbra.” He introduces, not even moving when he speaks, until he bows before her with that chilling grin on his face, watching her as he bows downwards. “At your service.” He comedically adds, as if he has just met a friend of his in a bar. Then he continues to walk, and he reveals something that they never realised. “Well – I say that this is the first time we’ve met...but we both know that is not really true – is it, sweetie pie?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her, spinning round on his heel to stare at her, then at Yang.

“When?” Ruby questions.

“Well, Miss Xiao Long over there may not realise it but I think we shared a lovely little campfire before you came across your beloved Kassius Locke.” Vir Nominis Umbra reminds, and her eyes widen when she remembers, staring at him with disbelief. A memory flashes before her eyes of the Merchant that emerged from the night at her campfire.

“Vincent...Reeve...” She gasps as she stares at him and he chuckles.

“Funny isn’t it? Vincent...just like Vir...wouldn’t you say?” He chortles as he stares at her, then his brown eyes turn to Ruby. “And I believe you actually bumped into me when you went to see dear old Professor Leonardo Lionheart for the first time – gods rest his soul.” Vir Nominis Umbra reminds, bowing his head respectively to the traitor who was killed by Death. Ruby thinks back to when they were literally just about to enter the building to meet Lionheart, and she did bump into a man.

Only now...does she see the striking resemblance.

Ruby gasps with disbelief, she had literally passed right by her arch nemesis the whole time, the one responsible for all the terrible things to pass. “Wow...did I really make that much of a fleeting impression? I would be offended if that was not my intention all along, but I did have a better one.” He says as he points at them, and they are all lost for words as they stare at him.

Weiss grunts as she sits upright, looking at Myrtenaster at her side...but she knows that it will have no effect on the man. “What are you talking about? How far back have you been watching us?” Blake questions as she stares the cunning Soothsayer down, her magnum aimed right at his head. He looks at her, with a disturbingly gentle smile.

“Oh Miss Belladonna, my sweet little kitty...I have been watching every single one of you from the day you were born.” He assures, as they hear a Crow caw with its red eyes and diamond beak stood inside where it must have been summoned by them. Raven looks up with shocked eyes at the bird, they belong to him. “My many eyes across Remnant...The Diamond Beaked Crow – I know not a very creative name, but it does what it says on the can.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains.

He continues to walk round them as he speaks, gently caressing the white hair of Weiss and she shudders from his rather ghostly hand that touches her. “But – that is not the disguise I am on about in fact.” He says, as he walks past a Pillar, beginning to change form as he passes it. “This is.”

As he passes by, they are all hit with shock when they realise.

His skin wrinkles before their very eyes, and his eyes sink inwards from time, growing long grey hair from the sides of his head as he walks with somewhat of a hobble. He speaks with a weak, raspy tone as he holds his hands up in surrender. “Oh! Please just take my lien and leave!” He mockingly imitates, and Ruby gasps with disbelief when she remembers all those years ago.

The robbery...

“The old Shopkeep?” Ruby gasps with shock of the revelation, her silver eye bulging from its socket. The Shopkeep lets out the same laughter, the terrifying laugh of Vir Nominis Umbra, holding his belly as he arches back with joy at the sound of her realising. Then they all watch as the wrinkles stretch out and the hair falls from his head and his eyes open back up again, becoming younger and younger. His clothes shifting back into the Merchant’s Clothing that the Soothsayer wears as he stands before them all.

“Y’know...I really didn’t think you ever suspected.” He laughs, and Nora stammers with shock, and they are all thinking the same thing.

“You were in Beacon the whole time? In Vale?” Nora questions, and Umbra smirks at them.

“Oh my stunning little princesses – did any of you ever think to wonder how that old man managed to own so many shops?” He asks with a grin, and then he adds another point as well. “Or perhaps, how he always happened to be nearby whenever something important happened?”

Ruby thinks back, and she cannot help but feel haunted with the memories with this new knowledge.

When she first met Torchwick and Cinder, he was there, being robbed by them.

He was in Vale when they first met Penny.

He was the one that pointed Emerald and Mercury to find Tukson so then they could kill him.

He was there when Penny stopped the truck and revealed herself to be a robot.

He was at the Vytal Festival, when both Weiss’ card was declined and when the school fell to ashes.

He was even in Vacuo...

He...

He has always been there for every single important moment that lead to where they have ended up now. Ruby can picture the old man’ face, and somehow she can actually see the resemblance in the grinning face of Vir Nominis Umbra as he glares at her. “Shocked? I don’t blame you, realising that you are wrong when you always thought you were right. It never seems to surprise people.” He says with a smirk, walking onwards as he approaches.

They are all still shocked with disbelief as he approaches, and Ren is the one to ask the question on his mind that confuses him.”But...how? How have you managed to do all of this?” Ren questions, and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he approaches them slowly, walking to the stage that Ozpin would always do his speeches at.

“Well, Mr Ren – I shall gladly educate you.” He assures, hands still held together, each finger touching one another. “Have any of you heard of the Butterfly Effect?” He asks, as he looks at all of them, so do not know, and others are still too shocked to even formulate an answer for the question. So the Entity gives one the opportunity to answer. “Doctor Oobleck – you are a well learned man – surely a man of your stature would know.”

Taiyang looks at Bartholomew and the Doctor sighs, speaking up. “It is the theory that every single choice can lead to different outcomes, like the markings on a Butterfly’s Wings.” Oobleck answers, knowing exactly what the Soothsayer is talking about. He chuckles, snapping his fingers over and over again as he paces back and forth on the stage.

“Precisely, Doc. Now did any of you know that some are able to actually manipulate the Effect like a tool?” He asks them and they all look unbelievably surprised by that.

“Wait...what?” Taiyang questions with confusion.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Qrow agrees as he watches the man, Kragen too with his silver eyes scanning him as he moves. He is truly surprised that he has said nothing to him yet, and the Architect is ready to draw his rifle if he must. Even though it will have no effect on him, since they cannot harm his form. And yet both Ruby and Blake refuse to lower their weapons from him in their sight.

“I guess it is not a thing for Mortals to understand – but for those of us who are the Infinite and the Unbound...we are capable of more than you realise. Certain aspects of the Universe can be altered or even controlled – and the Butterfly Effect is no different. Like a script written for a play, it can be rewritten and directed by one who’s knowledgeable to use it.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains, before he sets his eyes onto Penny who stands there with widened eyes, stood right beside Glynda.

He smiles as he looks at the synthetic girl. “Take you, Penny Polendina.” He says as he points at her, she jolts with fear as he says her name. “If it were not for my intervention, you would have remained at Atlas. And if you never spoke to the Old Man Shopkeep...you would have never found the street that would have lead to you bumping into Team R.W.B.Y....would you?” He asks her and she thinks back to when she walked into her like that. It is still fuzzy due to her damaged memory drive, but she can faintly see it in her vast memory.

“I...I...” Penny stammers with confusion and concern, only slightly smoothened by the hand of Glynda who touches her back.

His eyes then turn to Ruby and he smirks. “And then...there’s you...Oscar...Pyrrha...and Jaune.” Vir Nominis Umbra labels, slowly making his way down the steps towards the girl. Ruby stands her ground, her eye focused on him with anger. “No matter what I did to the Effect that exists in this Universe...the four of you never abide it. So I have to make it personal just to make you do what I want you to do. Which...anyone could do.” He states, slowly walking closer and closer to her, and then Oscar draws his weapon, aiming one of the revolvers at the Entity’s head.

“Stay back.” Oscar demands, and Vir Nominis Umbra’s brown eyes slowly swivel round and he glares at Oscar with a raised eyebrow.

“Really boy? You know that gun won’t do shit against me.” He states.

He turns his eyes back to Ruby, staring straight at her. Oscar knows he is right, yet he still keeps the Revolver trained on the entity stood before the woman he loves. “You four...the four pieces of my jigsaw puzzle that just won’t fit...” He states, almost with awe as he stares at her large silver eye. Ruby is fighting the tension and fear that grows within her body as she stands before him, keeping Crescent Rose aimed at his head, despite that it would not even do anything to him.

“What do you want? Why are you here, Umbra?” Ruby questions, keeping her voice strong and preventing it from trembling as best she can. He smiles as he looks at her, and his answer legitimately strikes fear into their hearts.

“Punishment...and also a warning for the four of you.” He states, and they all look incredibly afraid of what he means by that.

“Punishment for what?” Blake asks fearfully, not as well composed as her friend next to her, and Vir Nominis Umbra retains that grin of his.

“Well...I’m glad you asked – you see the lot of you really did mess up my plan five years ago.” He explains, but not pacing back and forth anymore, just standing as still as stone with his hands clasped together, staring at them all. “The Volcanic Chain Isles?” He tuts, shaking his head as he smacks his lips together. “Taking those Relics from Salem...from me...may not have been the best decision.” He says to them all.

“What? You expected us to just let her win?” Ruby questions with a scoff in her voice, making Umbra turn his eyes to her.

“Of course not – I just wished she did not fail me...she has already suffered her punishment. But the one you will face will be...different indeed.” He states, now slowly walking towards Ruby and Blake with his hands still together below his belly.

Ruby keeps her eyes on him, since he is completely unpredictable.

“You really have no idea of who you have been messing with...have you, my little flower?” He asks her, and Ruby can hear the distant cackles of Tyrian Callows when he says the phrase that he always tagged her with when he was alive. “I set up all these problems, turned a Headmaster insane which lead to his murder, drove the White Fang to darker levels – hell I even crippled three Kingdoms in half an hour just to give you the idea of what you are up against.” He says as he approaches them.

He stops. “So take this as a gentle warning – my rogue puzzle pieces – learn from your elders.” He warns, and Ruby keeps her eyes on him, and he continues to approach her slowly with a toothed smile on his face, one that is actually quite charming.

Which makes it all the more terrifying.

“Although, I have to admit. I have loved watching all this – this little game of ours! Tricking the world into falling into yet another war. Playing as Blake, did you like my little touch with Gambol Shroud? Really worked hard to make it look authentic.” He admits as he points at the weapon in her grasp.

“How can you make jokes? People have died because of you.” Blake reminds with disgust, and Umbra laughs.

“Funnily enough...everybody DIES!” Umbra suddenly explodes with a form of rage that makes all of them jolt with fear, Ruby could even see the brown irises flicker bright blood red for a couple seconds when he does that.

And in that one moment.

Silence fills the room, the shock and awe of hearing Vir Nominis Umbra is something that they have never heard before.

And that is scarier than anything they have faced.

His scowl slowly transforms back into a grin as he stares at her, and Ruby reconstructs her bravery, keeping Crescent Rose pointed at him. “We will stop you...” Ruby warns right back, making him scoff.

“Nah...I doubt that.” Umbra shakes his head, but Ruby’s attention turns when she sees Yang flinching with pain as she touches the side of her neck where she is sweating unendingly.

“Yang? Are you okay?” Ruby immediately asks, as if Vir Nominis Umbra is not even there, which does impress him. But before Yang could even answer her question, Vir Nominis Umbra slides up to her side, leaning down to her ear with that conniving grin of his.

“You can talk still – Little Miss Yang-let – go ahead goldilocks.” He encourages, then Ruby grits her teeth with anger as she stares him down, and he rises back up, staring her right back into the eyes. “So...do you know what will happen if you don’t stop interfering with my plan, Ruby Rose?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks her, standing right before her. “What will happen as punishment for what you have already done?”

Ruby rolls her eye with a heavy sigh. “The same thing all your other cronies have tried to do to me over the past seven years?” Ruby presumes, but Vir Nominis Umbra lets out a scoff.

“Wow, you’re dull. Don’t be boring, Sweetpea – think big!” Vir Nominis Umbra says as he holds his hands out, then Ruby realises.

Her eyes look around at everyone, to see he is clearly talking about all of them, every single one that surrounds him. “As I said...I have been watching you for your entire life...and I know what your number one weakness is, my dear.” Vir Nominis Umbra states as he walks towards her, he reaches out and he touches her long black and red hair with his ghostly hand with a smirk. “You share deep love for the people around you...and that will always be your weakness.”

He stares straight into her eyes with that grin. “There will come a time, sweetheart, when you will know what it is like to lose. To feel you have sacrificed everything to win, yet you’ll fail all the same.” Vir Nominis Umbra states with that evil glare in his eyes.

Ruby stares straight back, he can sense her fear and dread yet he does not even seem to comment on it.

She is waiting...

Anticipating something to happen.

But...

“Well!” He suddenly says, jolting back from Ruby with that gleeful smile on his face. “I guess I best be off then – so nice to finally have a chat with you in the flesh.” Vir Nominis Umbra says as he backs away from her, and Ruby just looks bewildered as he walks away. She has such an urge to shoot him but she knows that it will do nothing to him, he may as well be a hologram of a person than an actual person.

He continues to walk back, towards the doors to the building behind him with that smile on his face. “So long...Ruby Rose...” Vir Nominis Umbra says with a smirk, and Ruby follows him with her rifle trained on him.

“Catch you...later...” Ruby slowly says as she watches him walk into the door, he looks back with that smirk.

“I’m sure you will, my dear.” He assures, and the doors slam shut behind him.

The mood seems to change to relief in an instance, and Ruby’s first instinct is to run to Yang’s side. “Yang? Yang are you alright? What was wrong?” She fearfully asks as she crouches down beside her, checking her temperature with the back of her hand.

“I’m...I’m fine, Ruby.” Yang dejects, but Ruby just stares at her with a fearfully stern expression.

“Yang...tell me...I saw you suffering a second ago.” Ruby points out, so Yang sighs and gives her the answer she wanted to hear.

“I felt some burning in my neck...it got difficult to breathe for a second.” She answers, her voice even sounds quite fragile, so Ruby smiles, standing back up as she looks around.

“Come on, Kassius...where are you?” She stammers, completely unaware that Kassius just heard the voice of Merlot in his apartment. As she stands there, looking around, Sun sits upright with an audible groan, feeling the urge to lighten the mood as always.

“Man...What a freak.” He sighs.

“SAY THAT AGAIN!” Vir Nominis Umbra’s voice suddenly explodes from behind Sun, and many people audibly scream with horror and shock they all spin around to see that Vir Nominis Umbra is somehow back, and stood right behind Sun. The Monkey Faunus falls from his bed from how much he jolts from that, crawling back with wide blue eyes, staring up at the Soothsayer.

Ruby looks back at the doors...

They are still swinging...and he appeared on the other side of the room.

_How is that even possible?_

Now they are seeing what he is truly capable of, and what they are up against. An enemy that can literally just form out of thin air in a single moment.

Vir Nominis Umbra walks towards Sun, his eyes glowing red with rage as the hot vapour trails from his eyesockets, slowly approaching the man on the ground. He raises his hand and points directly at him with a stern expression on his cold face. “Say that again...Mr Wukong...I dare you.” He warns as he walks towards him, moving straight through the bed as if it were not even there.

Their hearts are beating out of their chests and Blake’s first instinct is to raise her pistol, but Sun is still too scared to even speak. None of them have ever seen Sun that scared before, he is just silenced with shock, truly believing that Vir Nominis Umbra just left the building. Vir Nominis Umbra stands above Sun, slowly squatting down beside him, waiting to hear him repeat what he muttered under his breath.

Vir Nominis Umbra rolls his eyes with an audible sigh. “Fine...how about some extra incentive?” He suggests, and Sun turns round when he hears the sound of Blake gasping. He stares with terrified eyes to see a dark magical black spike manifesting from thin air behind her spine, pressing against her back. And it would definitely puncture through his aura no problem, this is Vir Nominis Umbra after all.

Sun stares back at him, almost begging him not hurt her. “Please...don’t...” He begs, but Umbra puts his finger on Sun’s lips to shush him. He silently leans forward and stares into his eyes.

“Say. That. Again.” Vir Nominis Umbra whispers, frightening him to his very core.

“W-What a-a freak...” Sun stammers with terror, sweating uncontrollably from how terrified he is. The scowl on Vir Nominis Umbra’s face unexpectedly disappears and he shockingly just starts to giggle as he rises up. And the spike that formed behind Blake fades away as quickly as it arrived.

The giggle evolves into a guffaw of laughter, he even arches back as he laughs. “Oh! You should have seen your faces there! Ha!” Vir Nominis Umbra cheers as he claps his hands together. Now...they are shaking with fear, he lead them into a false sense of security and shattered it instantly. None of them even noticed him manifest in that moment, he just appeared behind Sun with that nightmarish shout.

Sun’s heart beats are out of control, if he does not control his breathing he may end up having a heart attack. Vir Nominis Umbra stares at Ruby with a smile on his face. “Now...do you understand what you are up against?” He asks her, and her expression is all the answer he needed.

The fear...the disbelief...

Vir Nominis Umbra lets out a sigh as he stands there, looking at all of them. “But! As I said...punishment is required.” He twists, and he suddenly snaps his fingers and they all look around with shock as Knights Bannerman Skeletal Soldiers emerge from the shadows behind them all.

“What the hell?” Sun questions fearfully.

“Round them up! Take them outside.” He orders, and the Maidens attempt to use their powers against him, only for the Shadow Spikes to stop them as they form right before their sternums, and Umbra just shakes his head. The Knights Bannermen approach, grabbing the weak ones and dragging them outside. One of them pushes Penny and she stumbles, and Glynda drops her crop onto the floor.

All of them are disarmed as they are taken outside to kneel down onto the stone floor of the courtyard before them. The Fractured Moon floats above their heads, watching constantly as the event unfolds. Yang is thrown against the ground and she scuffs her cheek with a cry of pain, blood drawn from the forceful attack. Weiss is pushed down to her knees, they all are except for Ruby who stands beside Vir Nominis Umbra who has his arms crossed.

Even Hazel, who is dragged from round the corner with bruises and cuts on his face, being smashed downwards to the ground by one of the bigger Bannermen, keeping him down on his knees. Cinder glares at one of the Bannermen as she willingly drops down to her knees, scowling at them all, and Yenna does the same. The Architect and Kragen both grunt as the armoured skeletal spirits stamp down into the back of their knees to bring them down to the ground.

“What is this?” Ruby questions, as she looks at Vir Nominis Umbra, as everyone bar Kassius, Pyrrha and Jaune are being rounded up and brought to their knees. Nora was desperate to fight back but the presence of Vir Nominis Umbra was enough to stifle that desperation of hers. Ren also is forced to his knees with Neptune, Glynda and Penny beside him. The poor synthetic girl looks utterly terrified.

Hazel snarls through gritted teeth at the Bannermen that surround them all.

Ruby looks ahead with a gasp when she sees the four entities approaching.

Death.

Fear.

Loss.

And Fury.

They have already reconstructed their forms to come here tonight. Ruby turns to look at Vir Nominis Umbra and he smirks. “Punishment.” He answers, and she lets out a terrified gasp as she looks at him.

“Why am I not on my knees?” She fearfully asks as the Soothsayer walks round her.

“Oh you are.” He says, as he kicks her in the back of her leg, and she yelps, falling to her knees with force. She turns to see Oscar being brought down to her left and Qrow to her right with Raven and Taiyang there as well. Oobleck falls to his knees beside Taiyang with Roy and Nolan next to him.

The cold night wind brushes across their faces as Vir Nominis Umbra walks into the centre of the circle that has been formed, all of them on their knees before him. “So...any of you have any idea of what’s about to happen here?” He asks them all, and Sun has a look of terror and regret in his eyes.

_Why did I say it?_

_Why did I say it?_

Umbra turns, hearing his thoughts and he rolls his eyes at him. “Oh man, hey Wukong? Don’t start that soppy crap, this was always gonna happen. I just took the opportunity to scare the living shit out of all of you.” He states, staring straight at Sun, but that does not even seem to cool his anxiety off. “This was always coming – so don’t start that whole guilt arc with me. So boring.” He sighs as he walks back and forth, keeping those brown eyes on them.

The he stops, staring straight at Ruby.

“Have you figured out your mistake yet?” He inquires curiously and before Ruby can even give him an answer, he speaks again. “Well...” He mutters, standing right above her. “You’re all about to regret crossing me in a few minutes.” He warns with  scowl that transforms back into a grin as he walks away from her.

He immediately spins round, and despite that he carries no weapon, they all look so terrified of him. Until he turns to a crate, that has just a Claw Hammer sat on it, one used during the reconstruction of the school. He picks it up, feeling the steel in the craftsmanship of the tool. A smile grows on his face as he stares at it. “This’ll do.” He says, as he takes the hammer and walks back into the circle again, looking at Ruby.

“You see, Red – no matter what it is that you do, there is a very polite order to things. And one thing you should never do, is what you did five years ago on that island. A little thin called – balance.” He says as he holds his hands out to the sky, turning to her once more. “And that balance is very easy to understand...so listen up.” He says as he points the clawed end of the hammer at her cheek, making her flinch.

Because Aura will not save them from what he will do to them.

Then he speaks. “You break my stuff – and I’ll break yours. Simple, right?” He presumes with the shrug of his shoulders, pouting his lips.

Vir Nominis Umbra paces back and forth as he speaks to them all. “Five years ago, you bunch of Heroic Assholes decided to mess up my plans. Now sure I manipulated the Butterfly Effect and that was a possible outcome of that battle. But at the end of the day...you still messed the plan up for me. Three Relics taken from me, and in one battle it cost me five years of prep.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains as he stands before them all, as he spins the hammer through his fingers over and over again.

He stops and points the hammer at her. “That means...you definitely owe me...three lives.” He states, and Ruby’s eye widens with horror. “Three of you _will_ die tonight, no magical power is saving you this time. However...for the time it took...that adds a fourth life as well. However, I am willing to place a wager on that individual’s life, one that Miss Rose here will have to win. If she wins, that person lives, if she loses, that person dies.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains with his hands held out to them all, bending his knees as he says it.

Then his eyes focus onto Ruby again.

“But...three must die first.” He says as he stares at her with a menacing smirk on his face. Ruby looks past him at the Knights to see all of their heads are bowed, and she can tell from their mannerisms...

They do not wish this for them.

Not even Fear, the most sadistic of them all.

But what Vir Nominis Umbra says – goes.

“Three lives, possibly four if Ruby messes up...for Five years of recovery for me. I’d say that is a good deal, considering I could just kill every single one of you right here and now. But where would be the fun in that?” Vir Nominis Umbra states as he holds his hands out, looking down at them all at his feet. “Now I know that will be one big...nasty...pill for you lot to swallow. But as the doctors say...you have to do it anyway...if you wanna live.” He says as he walks towards Ruby again, looking down at her with those menacing eyes.

“For five years...you all ruled the roost here. Aw...you even built something here for yourselves, hoped you could have little babies. Enjoying each other’s warmth and embrace, romance in the air...” He says as he prances about around the circle, turning to look at Yang on her knees, barely able to stay conscious from the Horridus Morbus plague working its dark magic on her. “You truly thought you were free...safe even...but now the truth rains upon you all.” He says as he walks towards her.

“You...are not safe.” He states, staring down at her as she lifts her head with sweat trickling down her face. “Far from it in fact, because if you don’t allow me to take what it is I want for payment for what you did, then I will kill all of you right now. And what was it I wanted? Repeat it.” Vir Nominis Umbra demands, his hand to his ear as he crouches down to Yang.

“T-Three li-ives...” Yang trembles, feeling sick from a lack of meds for her body.

“See? The yellow beauty gets it.” Vir Nominis Umbra states, and Weiss is also beginning to suffer too, trying to see through the sweat on her face and she flicks her head back slightly to get her white hair from her eyes.

Vir Nominis Umbra twirls round on the spot with his arms stretched out. “This is the best deal you heroes will ever get from me.” He states with a smirk. He walks back and forth and Qrow cannot help but notice that the Soothsayer’s eyes have been darting between each of them over and over again.

He’s choosing...

“This is a real damn shame...because I’ll admit – I admire you guys. Your bravery and determination to stop me is just adorable! But being cute can only get you so far...can’t it?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks as he looks straight at Ruby and she stares right back. “And I’m afraid, you messed up my plan, in one hell of a mighty way as well. So bad that you need to be punished – so for starters...” He says as he brandishes the hammer.

“I’ve got some nails to sort out.” He says with a smirk, making a sick pun as he looks at them all. “And I have already made my choice.” He says, his eyes turn to his target with a grin.

Yang...

She stares at him with fear as he walks towards her with the Claw Hammer in his hand, lifting it up and swinging it towards her face. Only for it to miss, because he was messing with her. Yang is not the target, and he walks past her, and she gasps with shock, trying to breathe through the anxiety. Ruby watches his every move with haunted eyes, seeing how close her big sister was to biting it just then. The Soothsayer’s soft laugh is nightmare fuel as he walks round the circle, gently stroking the hammer across Penny’s cheek.

Each one.

Raven

Glynda

Hazel, who glares at him with clenched fists and gritted teeth.

Cinder, who looks ready to pounce whenever she can, even though she has no chance against him.

Blake

Weiss

Neptune

Nolan

But then...Vir Nominis Umbra stops, looking down at the victim who looks up at him with terror and sweat dripping from his hair.

Roy

“I’m sorry kiddo...” Vir Nominis Umbra says with a smile on his face, and Nolan’s eyes widen with terror as his friend is at the mercy of a monster. “But it is as I said...the bill has come due.” He says, swinging the hammer towards his face.

And it makes an impact.

Knocking the glasses right off his face.

They all gasp with shock and awe, and Roy slowly turns his head with horror, as Oobleck slowly lifts his head with a groan of agony from his mouth. Blood pouring down from the wound that he has suffered, his green aura completely shattered from that single hit, the Doctor makes horrible guttural sounds as he rises back up. The dumbfounded laughs of Vir Nominis Umbra can be heard, Taiyang stares at Oobleck with horror in his eyes, and Ruby is left with tears welling in her own.

“Hot damn! Took the glasses right off his face!” He laughs, pointing to the snapped glasses on the cobblestone floor. The blood trickles down Oobleck’s cheek, his chin and onto the floor as he stares at Umbra. The Soothsayer smiles demonically as he stares down at him. “How’re you feeling, Professor?”

Oobleck releases one final word.

With defiance as always. “Doc-Doctor...” He corrects through a pained voice, barely able to see through the blood that obscures his vision.

Vir Nominis Umbra smiles. “Of course – Doctor.” He corrects, as he takes the Hammer and slams it downwards to the top of the green haired huntsman’s scalp with a crunch, bringing him down to the floor with a thud. They all flinch with horror, and they know he is dead know, but Umbra does not stop.

He keeps whacking.

And whacking.

And whacking.

And with every impact, they all flinch, and Ruby lets out a soft sob whilst others scream and wail for the doctor.

Oobleck...

He has paid the first price.

Meaning there are two more to go.

Or even three, if Ruby fails his task.

 

**Kassius**

Unaware of the horrifying end that Oobleck will suffer, and the torment that Vir Nominis Umbra plagues upon them all...at the very same time as those events that take place, Kassius stares into his room with a shocked pair of amber eyes. Because stood inside of his dormitory is Doctor Archer Merlot himself with his hands at his side, instead of being behind his back respectfully. His cybernetic eye staring straight at him, yet he is still only a hologram that is being projected from a scroll that has been left on the floor.

Kassius touches his pocket and he can feel his scroll is still sitting there, meaning that the scroll on the ground does not belong to him. Merlot smiles, almost gently as he looks at the man stood before him. “I thought it was you I saw in that Radar Station.” Merlot states as he stares straight into Kassius’ eyes.

Filled with confusion and also concern, Kassius keeps his hands close to Lash Equinox at all times, ready to fight whatever it is that the doctor has planned for him. “What the hell do you want, Merlot?” Kassius questions, scowling at the man with narrowed eyes.

“I was hoping we could catch up...it has been a long time.” He says, and the hologram remains stood in that one place.

_What?_

“Catch up?” Kassius questions with confusion as he stares at the man, and Merlot chuckles as he awkwardly scratches the back of his neck with his metal hand.

“Oof...I guess I must look really different now, mustn’t I?” He presumes, still not overly giving him the answer to his question. Merlot lets out a sigh, that sounds legitimately saddened as he looks upon the Huntsman standing right before him. “You’ve grown up into quite a handsome man, my son.” He reveals.

Kassius’ eyes widen with shock and awe when he says the words – _my son_.

“What?” Kassius questions, frozen still in the same place, until he walks into the Dormitory, looking around for any sign of a trap. But there is none, only the scroll on the floor with the holographic image of Archer Merlot. The Doctor looks right at him, and Kassius is still completely dumbfounded, in fact he does not even seem to believe him, as he shakes his head. “No...You’re lying.” He snarls straight at him, and he sighs.

“I left you and your sister with your mother to continue my research...because I came into contact with some dangerous individuals.” Merlot explains to him with a saddened voice.

“What do you mean? What kind of research?” Kassius questions.

“The kind that dear old Oz wanted me to hide from the public eye about – the kind that could finally bring an end to the Grimm once and for all, Kassius.” He explains as he looks right into his eyes with his half cybernetic, but Kassius scoffs, shaking his head.

“And yet here you are – working for them.” Kassius states, glaring straight back. Merlot looks taken back, and he touches his chest with his hand as he steps forward, leaning closer to Kassius.

“Do you think that just because I gained the trust of my enemy, that it no longer makes them my enemy?” He asks him, and it all seems to come together now from what he says. “Everything, Kassius – absolutely everything I have done is to learn what I can about the Grimm, even if it meant committing terrible deeds to gain their trust. The things you saw on Menagerie? If I had any other choice I would have saved them...but with Vir Nominis Umbra nipping at my heels, I had no other choice but to play along with Jacques’ orders.” Merlot explains with a sigh, and Kassius stares at him, examining the expression on his face.

It is grief.

Not Pride.

Not Disappointment.

Grief.

“Then did you mean what you said? Back there?” He asks him.

“Hm? About what?” Merlot asks in return.

“About not having a cure for Horridus Morbus – my girlfriend, my friends are dying right now because of it.” Kassius begs, still uncertain if what he said about being his father was true or not, but he can tell that this man is being sincere right now. And that is more of a surprise than anything right now. Merlot sighs as he grabs the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

“My contacts told me that they all left the city, they saw a ship leaving so I presumed that Yang was safe. I am so sorry, my son.” He apologises, and Kassius clenches his hand into a fist. His hatred for his father has always been so strong because he was never there for his wife, Kassius and Cinder’s mother, when she died.

“Stop calling me that! You are not my father!” He yells as he points at him with his cybernetic hand, and Merlot looks at the augmentation.

“When I heard you lost your arm...I immediately sent one of my augmentations to the Hospital you were in. Did you really expect the Mistraalians to have Atlesian-Grade equipment available for just any Huntsman?” Merlot asks him, and Kassius stops, looking more and more surprised as he looks at the hand. “That arm has more features that I think you realise, there is a setting to be able to feel what you touch. You can hack with it if you learn how, even blade as well...in case you lose Lash Equinox. I made certain it was made right for you.” Merlot explains, but he still does not look convinced.

Or at least Kassius does not want to believe it.

“You’re not him...he left our mother to die...” Kassius growls, tensing the muscles in his arms as he stares him down.

Merlot swiftly turns his head and glares at Kassius. “I loved your mother with all my heart! When I heard she contracted the tumour...I tried to create a cure and send it to you. But it never got there, and when I called she just got angry. I never did get to tell her how I felt...she never accepted the money I sent back to the family. And...Then I heard nothing. Only when I heard you and your sister were alive...did I really feel alive again.”

Kassius stares at his eyes.

And now...

Now he can see it.

The broken eyes of a father who just wanted to help his family even if he could not physically be there for them. “I miss your mother so much...Did she...Did she go peacefully?” Merlot asks him with tears in his only real eye as he looks at his son. Kassius thinks back and tears begin to well up in his own eyes, he brushes them away, remembering as he held her hand and kept Cinder close to him when she passed away.

“She died in her sleep.” Kassius answers as he rubs a tear from his eye with his thumb, and Merlot closes his eye sadly.

“Well...at least she didn’t...”

“She was in agony for nearly every single day before the end, Merlot. Don’t try and sympathise! You don’t know the first thing about sacrifice.” Kassius growls with anger, and he needs to be careful because he can feel the burning rage building up within his nerves. But when he says that, Merlot holds his cybernetic hand up, flexing the fingers as he taps the cybernetic eye with it.

“I know a thing or two about it...son...” Merlot assures as he lowers the arm, looking back to him. “I used my own body to try and create a cure for her disease...and it lead to...complications.” Merlot states as he looks down at the floor slightly. Everybody presumed the augments were given to him during the fall of Mountain Glenn, but clearly that was not the case.

“Then what were you doing in Mountain Glenn? Yang and I both went there once and never saw you.” Kassius explains, remembering the time the two of them explored the mysterious abandoned city together when they were kids. Digging the treasures mostly, seeing what kind of trouble they could get themselves into. Merlot smiles with a chuckle as he looks at him.

“Yes...Mountain Glenn...that was a complicated process. Ozpin wanted me to learn what I could about the Grimm, and I found out that they could be controlled. As the Arkhoni did all those years ago, but he did not approve of my tests. Said that they were unpredictable and dangerous – I guess he was right.” He sighs.

“What does that mean?” Kassius asks.

“My test subjects broke free one night, and before the city knew it the panic drew Wild Grimm in from all sides. The city fell in one night, thousands of souls taken in twenty four hours, the survivors were lucky for they got to the Evacuation Shuttles, and were sworn to secrecy by the Government to never speak of what happened there ever again.” Merlot explains.

“How did you survive?” Kassius asks, and Merlot smiles.

“I have my ways.” He states with the shrug of his shoulders, not giving Kassius the answer that he sought.

“Then...why are we talking right now?” Kassius questions with confusion.

“Because...so much of my life has been wasted. I am constantly filled with regret in my heart for what happened to your mother and how I abandoned you both. But I have collated all my research in my Headquarters, and I know that Vir Nominis Umbra has turned my allies against me again.” Merlot explains.

“Again? This has happened before?” Kassius asks.

“Yes, in Mountain Glenn. The breakout was caused by one of my scientists, he let them loose and was the first to be devoured. But he was ordered by Umbra to do it, part of his sick little game no doubt. And now he wants me out of the equation...because of what I found in Arkhonex.” Merlot explains, and Kassius’ amber eyes widen when he hears him mention the same thing that Yuma was yammering on about before he died.

“Wait! The thing that Yuma was talking about?” Kassius presumes.

“I remember seeing what happened to his team when they explored the ruins. I managed to gain access to his little secret...it is a Visionary Book – but one that is older than any of them I have ever seen before.” Merlot explains.

“A Visionary Book?”

“Yes, I cannot access it and none of my scientists have been able to either. It seems to be hailing for somebody in particular – I believe it is your girlfriend’s little sister, she has a massive part to play in all of this. Whatever is on that Visionary Book is the key to killing him. I just know it.” Merlot assures.

“How?” Kassius asks.

“Because now he has his forces spread across Remnant trying to locate me, he knows I am in Arkhonex but they cannot find the city. You and your friends must find Arkhonex in order to find me, and the information I have collected. I can give you all the knowledge I have collected on the Grimm, I hope it will be enough to stop him.” Merlot explains to him, and he sighs.

Merlot reaches out to Kassius, wishing he could touch his cheek. “It has been so hard living in a world where I was forced not to think of you – but I love you and your sister with all my heart. You must find me...”

Then he says something...

And the mood changes.

“I am sorry...for what I did to you, my son.” He confesses, and Kassius’ eyes open up.

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“When I was blending in with Vir Nominis Umbra, I made a deal with him...a pact I guess you could say...” He stammers, and Kassius begins to back up from him. “I wanted you and your sister to be alive and well...”

Merlot looks into his son’s eyes.

“I never thought he would bind a Demon to your Aura...”

And in that one moment...

Everything Kassius and Hyde have ever known...has changed forever.

“What?” They both question with shock and disbelief, and Kassius can feel the flames building up within him. But they are not from his emotions, but from the ones that Hyde has within him.

“Kassius...please calm down...” Merlot begs, realising he should not have said that.

Kassius flinches and yells with pain, grabbing his own head with pain as the flesh and skin burn around his eyes to reveal the markings that always form. Kassius screams with pain, trying to fight against Hyde, but this is all the monster within him. “Hyde! Stop!” Kassius begs as the demon fights against him.

“I am not a demon! I am not a demon! I am not a demon!” Hyde screams with rage as he writhes around, when flames suddenly erupt from Kassius’ ember irises as he lets out the inhuman roar he always lets out. Merlot is filled with horror as he watches this happen to his own baby right in front of him, the muscles tighten and he draws Lash Equinox, slashing them around the room, smashing the bed and the electronics apart, creating sparks and crashes, that Jaune and Pyrrha both hear from beneath him.

Hyde takes full control over Kassius’ body, with so much rage in him that he has gone completely berserk.

So berserk...

That he cannot even distinguish good from bad at this point. Hyde leaps upwards into the air, smashing through the ceiling of the building and landing onto the roof above him. He staggers and he lets out a terrifying roar from both his and Kassius’ lungs as flames burn through his clothes from where the markings form across his body. He leaps off and goes on a rampage.

Leaving the damaged Scroll and flickering hologram of Merlot behind, with tears streaming down his face, from horror of what he just witnessed.

And only two words come from his heartbroken voice.

“My...son...”

 

**Ruby**

Blood drips down from the bent hammer in his grasp, the force of what he had just done to Oobleck’s head has completely bent the metal claw hammer out of shape. Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles menacingly as he stands above the dead corpse of Oobleck at his feet, arching back as he laughs aloud, echoing off into the distant. Many of them are crying with horror from what they just watched, whilst the others are silenced with shock and horror of what just happened.

Even Cinder is crying, and Hazel’s teeth are viciously gritted together as he stares the monster down that just murdered Bartholomew Oobleck right in front of them all. His blood pools out across the cobblestone at their knees, steam trailing from his still warm body in the cold. Vir Nominis Umbra looks over to the Knights of Grimm, and none of them look amused, they are all just staring at the Soothsayer with angry expressions on their faces.

Yet...

He just grins away after what he just did to them, looking at the broken hammer in his grasp. “Wow! Would you look at that? Bent this steel hammer right out of shape, I guess his brains really were as tough as they said. Weren’t enough to save him though, were they?” He asks as he throws the hammer across the floor towards Ruby’s knees, who has tears streaming from her crying face. She sniffles, staring at her reflection in Oobleck’s blood on the hammer, and she slowly lifts her head with an enraged expression on his face.

He laughs maniacally almost as he paces back and forth. “Well! That’s one down! Who’s next?” He asks.

“You!” Ruby shrieks with rage as her Silver Eyes ignite with fury and she reaches her hand out, pulling Crescent Rose into her hand with the powers her eyes give her. Everybody stares at her with horror, and the Knights Bannermen step forward to stop her.

But Vir Nominis Umbra halts them with just his finger as he simpers, staring straight at Ruby as she aims the rifle at his head. She has her teeth gritted together with anger, not even thinking as she keeps the rifle aimed at his head. He looks so real...anybody would pull the trigger on him and think he would die, but Ruby is not thinking.

She is operating from anger, and revenge.

And Vir Nominis Umbra knows that as he walks towards her. “Go ahead.” Vir Nominis Umbra challenges with his hands held outwards, and Ruby remains filled with hatred as the tears pour down her cheeks.

“Ruby...calm down...” Oscar whispers as he reaches out to her until a spike forms at his neck to keep him at bay, causing the young man to flinch as it forms. Vir Nominis Umbra walks closer and closer to her, his head now inches from the barrel.

“Pull the trigger, my dear. See what happens.” He says with a smile on his face, before he grabs the barrel and physically presses it to his head. “Do it!” He challenges and Ruby looks more afraid than angry now, with her finger still resting on the trigger. Then Vir Nominis Umbra sighs, reaching to the trigger and pulling it for her, and there is a deafening bang.

Vir Nominis Umbra just shimmers like something moving through a hologram, but Ruby’s eye widens when she realises.

Just as he shimmered...

She saw Nolan’s head recoil back with a flash of red behind him, and her mouth drops with horror, dropping Crescent Rose as a reaction. Penny screams with terror as the blood splatters across her face, and Nolan falls backwards onto his spine, a bullet hole carved straight through the centre of his skull. Blood leaking out from the hole that lies between his eyes, and Roy looks utterly horrified as he stares at his dead teammate’s corpse behind him.

Her heart nearly stopped when she saw his head recoil.

She wasn’t thinking...

_I wasn’t thinking..._

_You idiot!_

_You stupid fucking brat!_

_Why did you draw the gun!_

Her eye turns to Vir Nominis Umbra as he shrugs his shoulders, then holds up his index and middle finger as if to say “two”.

Then he smiles gently, squinting his eyes playfully. “Why don’t we just finish that team off, huh?” He asks.

“Wait don’t –!” Roy screams, as Vir Nominis Umbra spins round a forms a huge javelin made of darkness that he throws straight through Roy’s sternum that plunges so deep that it erupts out from between his shoulder blades and punctures through the cobblestone, impaling him on it. His voice is cut off immediately into nothing but a choke and a gasp as blood pours from his wound and his mouth as he remains impaled by the spike, and Penny is screaming with horror, her innocent mind never wanted to see punishment like this before.

And everybody.

Has fallen silent.

The silence has been left to hang ever since they Vir Nominis Umbra entered the Amphitheatre. Ruby stares at the Javelined corpse of Roy, his blood trickling down the spike that impaled him and to the floor, creating a pool very slowly beneath him. “And just like that...we have three deaths for three relics.” Vir Nominis Umbra states as he claps his hands together with a grin.

Nobody else applauds, still in shock from what has just happened.

Oobleck.

Nolan.

And Roy are all dead, minutes, hell even seconds apart from one another. Taiyang still on his knees is staring at what remains of one of his good friend’s head, after it was smashed in with a goddamn claw hammer. He did not deserve what happened to him, none of them deserved what happened.

But they are not out of the woods yet, as Vir Nominis Umbra turns his head to Ruby with a gentle smile on his face. “Now...the fourth one...is all on you my dear.” Vir Nominis Umbra says, walking towards her.

He walks right past her and he snaps his fingers behind her, and she gasps, for in that one moment she finds herself on a rooftop, in fact the same rooftop that Jaune and Pyrrha trained on, looking down to see everyone still there.

Even...

She can even see herself.

“What...what the hell?” Ruby stammers, her voice still fractured from broken emotions after what she just saw. Her body does not even know how to react, she can feel that terrible tangy taste in her mouth like she about to vomit but nothing comes up at any moment.

Confusion has set in...

And she cannot even feel the wind, she looks at her watch and realises that time has completely paused around her. Even Oscar has no idea, because he is paused too, which means that this is Vir Nominis Umbra manipulating time, since he can do it in a more refined way than people can with that power.

And speak of the devil...

And he shall appear.

The whistling can be heard behind her and she slowly looks behind her, hearing him slowly singing his theme behind her.

_"A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,"_

_"His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,"_

_"Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye."_

_"Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,"_

_"His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,"_

_"Anger through truth, loss through acceptance."_

_"For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,"_

_"Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,"_

_"The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,"_

_"Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter..."_

Then he stops singing, and he turns to her, sat on the beds that Pyrrha and Jaune slept in, sat on the one Pyrrha slept in with his feet kicked out and resting on her beloved’s. Ruby glares at him as he turns to her with that sinister smirk on his face. “Do you like it? That song? I mean I can’t take credit for it, some ballads made from some bards made it...hundreds of Universes ago. Can’t even remember which one it was actually.” He says, quickly pulling his legs back as he jumps off their beds and lands on his feet, walking towards them.

Ruby musters her strength, despite how much she just wants to kill him, she knows that she cannot do it right now. “What the hell is this? How am I up here and still down there?” Ruby questions, and as always he answers.

“I pulled your Aura from your body to come and join me, just as I did with the Arkos Couple.” He chuckles away as he mimics their silly team attack name that Jaune claimed he came up with. Vir Nominis Umbra walks over to the edge, placing his foot against it as he looks down at the drop, spinning round to look at her.

“Why?” Ruby sternfully questions, staring at the murderer of three friends that she held dear. He chuckles, as he stares at her, holding his arms out theatrically as he cheers at the top of his lungs, letting his voice echo across the landscape.

“To begin the game!” He cheers, then he looks disappointed. “Shame I had hoped there’d be lightning to time it perfectly.” He sighs, scratching the back of his bald head, but Ruby stares into his brown eyes with anger.

“You...you murdered three people I cared about.” Ruby reminds with tears in her eyes and her voice trembling as she speaks.

“Oh come on now, Ruby. Oobleck I can understand you grief by Roy and Nolan? Come now, you hardly even knew those two.” He states.

“That makes a difference?” She screams with anger, standing her ground with her eyes igniting with rage for a couple seconds. So Vir Nominis Umbra cuts the jokes.

“You know why I killed them – it was making it even, and I’m gonna be honest with you right now. You are lucky that I made it be just three dead and one possibly dead. Because if I wanted to...you’d be dead just like those bandits over there.” He says as he points at a pile of dead bandits stuffed round one of the colonnades by the Knights Bannermen.

They showed utterly no respect to them whatsoever.

Ruby squeezes her eye shut as she sniffles. “Who’s life is on the line?” Ruby inquires.

“Where would be the fun if I tell you?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks, but Ruby is done playing his games, staring straight at him with anger.

“Whose?” Ruby yells with rage, and Umbra rolls his eyes with annoyance. His form changes before her very eyes and she gasps.

Blonde hair grows out from his head but not very long and he remains male, and does not become any younger. He has a slight stubble and an impressive tattoo on his arm, wearing a pauldron on one shoulder.

It’s Taiyang...

His life is on the line now.

She looks horrified, for the man who raised her, her real father opposed to her blood father, could die if she fails this task. Whatever the task is that Vir Nominis Umbra has planned for her right now. The body that Umbra formed sheds away and the Soothsayer returns, and he walks towards her. “Before we play though – I’d like to ask a question.” He walks up to her ear and he speaks softly. “Did you nearly think I was a hallucination because of the nightmares I gave you? Did I nearly getcha?” Vir Nominis Umbra playfully asks her as he walks around her.

And Ruby must have been thinking on this for a while, ever since she heard him say the name he gave himself when he met Yang in the woods. “Vincent...Reeve...” She slowly speaks with a snarl, Vir Nominis Umbra smiles gleefully.

“Nobody seems to get the reference, well except for you, Team S.T.R.Q and Yang maybe. Correct?” He presumes.

“Of course.” Ruby answers, still staring down at everyone below.

“Atta girl.” He chuckles.

“Vincent Reeve was the name of the Huntsman that was the serial killer in hiding all along, the case that graduated Team S.T.R.Q as Hunters.” Ruby recites, remembering the story that Qrow, Raven and Taiyang told her after they saved her from Salem and her forces. Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he continues to walk around her, mimicking her accent as he circles her.

“Thought a little call back would be great fun!” Vir Nominis Umbra states with excitement.

“And you used Blake as a disguise to destabilise the White Fang? Had Merlot and the Acolytes of Lien place those Horridus Morbus charges all over Vacuo? Readied the bombs in Atlas to take out the Politicians so then Jacques Schnee would have full control and Ortega had the whole Atlesian Amy at his finger tips?” Ruby describes, finally figuring out how he did it.

“Took a while yes, but it was so worth it in the end. Now the whole world is in my grasp.” Vir Nominis Umbra states as he clenches his hand into a fist.

“Sure but once we show the White Fang that you were the one responsible for Sienna Khan’s death then they will rally to us. We will find a cure and save everyone you have infected and stop Jacques...and then you.” Ruby promises with a cold stare directed towards his face and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles.

“Oh bless your sweet heart...” He sighs, and Ruby looks confused.

Because she really believes that Merlot made the plague, really thinks he has a cure because of his knowledge. “Merlot has no cure!” Vir Nominis Umbra shouts straight at her face, and her eye widens with fear. “I’m afraid the dear doctor has fulfilled his usefulness to me and he never had time to even make one.” He states as he shrugs his shoulders.

“But the crates they had his symbol.” Ruby stammers.

“Yes because I had him create the caches, but _I_ am the one that made the plague. Did you really think some human scientist would be able to make a plague that can actually _create_ Grimm Hybrids?” He scoffs as he holds his hands out to her, shaking his head with disappointment. “Man alive...you really are just as blind as your boyfriend.” He scoffs. “I guess Taiyang is dead if you are this good at solving cases.” He chuckles.

She stammers, feeling her hand shaking as she realises that the task is about to appear. “Speaking of which...shall we continue the game?” He asks her.

“W-What game?” Ruby asks him and he smiles, his hands clasped together behind her.

“It is very simple – I want you to try and figure something out for me.” He says as he stands there.

“Figure what out?” Ruby asks him.

He grins.

“Who. Am. I?”

A chill runs down her spine when he asks her that question, the very question they have all been trying to figure out so then they could beat him. If Kragen Nox could not figure this out in the thousands of years he has lived them what hope does she have in figuring the answer to that question out?

“What?” Ruby questions.

“Sorry did I stutter? I think you heard me loud and clear.” Vir Nominis Umbra scoffs and Ruby begins to pace back and forth as she pushes her hands through her hair, the look of fear in her eye for her father’s life. “I will allow you to think aloud, it’s great fun.” He assures, so she begins to stammer.

“What are you? You’re not human...”

“Nope.”

“Demon?”

“Eh.”

“Ghost?”

“Yeesh.”

“What the hell are you?” She questions with confusion, then Umbra begins to speak in a squeaky voice behind her.

“Oooh! Will she figure it out?” He squeaks excitedly, and that seems to piss her off royally, for she spins round and grabs him by the collar with anger. Sick and tired of hearing his charismatic voice she instinctively throws the Soothsayer off the edge of the building. But he does not even fall, he just floats before her with a surprised expression. “Wow...how you have fallen you cookie loving little treat.” Vir Nominis Umbra scoffs as he stares at her.

Her teeth gritted together with an almost animalistic snarl escaping her mouth. “You’re insane.” She snarls, and Vir Nominis Umbra laughs when hearing that word.

“I see Oscar did not tell you, or you just never listened.” He says, walking on thin air towards her as if it was as normal as walking on solid ground. “Insanity and Evil are always the two most common misconceptions people make. But the Laws of the Mind are clear – Insanity is merely a by-product of suffering. Whereas Evil – is a choice.” He states as he lectures her, walking back onto the rooftop to point at her with a smirk.

She steps back with disbelief of him, nothing works...she just stumbles around constantly. “Remember, Miss Rose – if you mess this up, your daddy will die in front of you...your sister and his fiancé. Do you want to live with that guilt?” He asks her with a smile on his face.

She presses her hands to her head as she stammers, trying to think on what he could possibly be. But with him stood by her, she looks back at him with a single request. “Can you give me...just a moment to think on this? Please?” She begs.

Vir Nominis Umbra smiles. “Of course.” He obliges, stepping away to walk to the other side, and he smiles from what he sees beneath him. The sight of Hyde possessing Kassius, roaring monstrously.

Everything is going according to plan for him.

But then...

He hears Ruby begin to giggle and his expression changes to concern, turning to look at her. “What? Did something funny happen or did I miss the joke?” He asks her as he walks towards her, and she turns to him with that beautiful smile as she laughs. She turns and walks towards him as well.

“I think I’ve figured you out, Umbra.” She reveals, surprising him. He raises his eyebrows and crosses his arms. “Because you see I have been thinking about this question for quite a while now...and it just hit me.” She says.

“Oh?” He curiously asks her.

“Yes – because you just revealed your card. You just told me that you made the plague that turns people into Grimm Hybrids...which means – you can create Grimm, can’t you?” She presumes as she walks around him and he chuckles.

“Aye.” He agrees.

“You always appear out of the darkest reaches, everyone has told me you emerge from the shadows. Even Torchwick has said that is where you disappeared into when you punished Neo when you made that pact with him.” She continues to explain as she walks around him.

“And?” He asks her.

“And I...can kill Grimm...with this.” She says as she points at her faintly glowing Silver Eye and he chuckles as she walks around him. He looks at the beautiful silver eye of hers that shimmers as she stares at him.

“Are you claiming...I am a Grimm?” He asks with confusion.

“No...” Ruby says. “I don’t – Brother of Darkness.” She says and he stops, his eyes partially widen when he hears her say that name. He stops in his tracks and he looks like he is a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Nobody has ever seen him with that expression before, one of utter disbelief.

Has she gotten it right?

“And with these eyes...I will be able to kill you, Umbra. I might not be able to here on Remnant but I know I can in the Charred Forest.” Ruby states, impressing Vir Nominis Umbra even more.

“Wow – I must say Miss Rose I highly doubt that you would follow me there.” He states.

“You don’t know a thing about me, Umbra.” Ruby snarls.

“Oh but I do.” Vir Nominis Umbra argues.

“Oh but you don’t.” She replies, staring straight into his eyes with anger in them as the white flames burn from her irises. “Because I know that you are afraid of me, because you cannot control me with all your gifts and dark magic. Because I can kill you and nobody has been able to do that before me, have they? If you want to drag me down to hell with you than I promise I won’t disappoint.” Ruby assures as she stares at him with a cold scow.

Vir Nominis Umbra examines her eyes with a grin and he shakes his head with a condescending smile on his face. “No...As always your bark is worse than your bite – just like all those who want to become an angel I have faced.” Vir Nominis Umbra says with a grin on his face.

“Oh I may have wanted to be an angel once, Umbra – but I can promise you this: the woman I have become is most definitely not one of them anymore.” Ruby warns with a stern stare directed into his eyes, her teeth gritted together.

Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles with awe in his voice as he looks at her, the person she is now compared to the girl who was in his shop seven years ago. “What...are you?” Vir Nominis Umbra questions as he stares into her eyes, and she can see an expression she never saw in his face before.

He lost for words, he cannot figure her out. “Of all those I have faced...you are nothing like any of them.” He states.

“Then I guess maybe we have a thing or two in common, Brother of Darkness.” She says and he sighs, lowering his head with a nod.

“Is that your final answer?” He asks her, sounding defeated.

“Yes.” She coldly says.

He lifts his head and looks into her eyes.

“EEERRNG!” He exclaims, mimicking the sound of a buzzer going off in a game show. “Wrong answer! Let’s see what you’ve lost today!” He cheers, and everything collapses around Ruby, her eye widens with horror and her heart sinks.

Her vision returns and she sees Taiyang right in front of her, looking into her eyes with fear. “Ruby?” Taiyang whimpers.

“No!” Ruby screams.

Then...

The Black Javelin comes protrudes out his ribs and he gasps with shock and pain, and time seems to slow down for a couple of moments when he does it. “Tai!” Raven wails with anguish as she reaches out for him, and Ruby collapses to her knees again, but this time Vir Nominis Umbra did not help.

She fell with defeat...

Broken...

She lets out a scream of complete and utter hopeless pain, tears burst from her eyes and Yang cries out with horror as she sobs. Qrow’s eyes are agape with trepidation.

He just watched another member of his team die in front of him.

He sets his eyes on Vir Nominis Umbra, seeing that smirk on his face as he crouches down beside Ruby with a smile, patting her shoulder. “You were very close...but still wrong. Seems you are not as great as you claim, little red flower.” He whispers into her ear as she sobs uncontrollably before her father.

Taiyang’s body slumps to the ground with a thud, eyes still open and blood leaking into his clothes from his chest with that javelin still lodged in his torso. The spike killed him instantly...and now...Ruby and Yang are both left without their father. Vir Nominis Umbra rises back up as he walks past Ruby and Yang.

But then...

BANG!

There is a huge crash behind them and dust plumes around what just landed behind Ruby. She slowly turns round and she gasps with shock.

Vir Nominis Umbra looks over his shoulder to see what just landed.

Out of the smoke...

Walks a man with a cane in his grasp that forms out of thin air, the same one that was locked away in the chamber at Dragonspire Keep.

He looks like a middle-aged man with tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes. He has a light complexion and sharp facial features. He also has black eyebrows, suggesting that he may have had black hair when he was younger.

He wears shaded glass spectacles and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck. His outfit mainly consists of an unzipped black suit over a buttoned vest and green shirt. He also wears black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. The cane forms with a magical green aura around his hand as he holds it in his grasp, stepping out into the lunar light, staring Vir Nominis Umbra down with a scowl, and Glynda gasps with shock.

“Ozpin...” Vir Nominis Umbra whispers with a smirk on his face.

Professor Ozpin has finally woken back up...

And perhaps he was too late to save them.

“You should not have committed the crimes you have done tonight, Umbra.” Ozpin warns as he spins the cane through his fingers, staring him down with an enraged expression in his eyes. Vir Nominis Umbra smirks menacingly as he stands before the Long Rested Professor.

“My, my...what a night this has been.” He mutters with excitement as he stares the professor down, and Ozpin has the look of vengeance in his eyes.

“You will not harm my students any further.” Ozpin snarls with anger, gritting his teeth together.

Then Umbra scoffs. “Come now, Oz – or should I call you by your old name? Wymerus Ozymandius was it not?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks him, in which Kragen, the Architect and Yenna’ eyes all widen with disbelief as they both stare at Ozpin. “Show us all who you really are.” He encourages, and Ozpin does not disappoint.

“As you wish.” Ozpin agrees, slamming his cane downwards against the ground which creates a loud thunderous clap of bright green lightning around his body. And from the green light, metal cogs begin to form around his body to form armour plating and his cane grows into a huge staff of the same design, covering his body in them all with a green hue underneath. Not only did he manage to summon the Cane with the Relic of Knowledge from Dragonspire Keep’s Vault, but he also has just revealed who he really is.

Oscar’s eyes widen.

He is Time...the entity that Oscar has spoken to before.

And the name...

Wymerus...

That was...

“Come then – Knight of Vengeance...” Vir Nominis Umbra challenges, leaving Kragen dumbfounded, for he thought that he freed the Knight of Vengeance.

Yet there he stands.

Alive.

And _against_ Vir Nominis Umbra, looking very different to how he used to look. Vir Nominis Umbra lowers to the ground with a cruel smirk on his face and his eyes glow blood red as he forms a pair of swords forged from Darkness itself, smoke trailing from them. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.” Vir Nominis Umbra challenges.

Ozpin looks at them all. “Get to safety.” Ozpin orders as the cogs form around his head to form the helmet, the eye holes glow bright green as he spins his staff through his fingers.

They all scatter and Vir Nominis Umbra leaps straight towards Ozpin.

And Ozpin jumps towards him, both of them striking forward with a boom.

Professor Ozpin...

The Knight of Vengeance...

Has returned.


	58. The Knight of Vengeance

**Ozpin**

The Professor strikes forward with his huge staff formed from cogs and green lightning in his grasp, smashing it straight towards Vir Nominis Umbra. The Soothsayer takes his two swords forged from darkness and he slashes them straight across his sceptre, which creates a powerful blast of wind from the impact. Sparks fly into the air from that attack, and Umbra already takes the advantage, smashing his boot down against the Knight of Vengeance’s head and pushing him across the ground.

Tarmac cracks and crumbles from beneath the Knight of Time, sparks bleeding from the contact of metal against the gravelly tarmac of the courtyard. Vir Nominis Umbra laughs deeply with a gritted smirk on his face, his eyes glowing bright red with hot vapour trailing from the irises. “Oh how I’ve missed this – I’ve been itching for a good fight for hundreds of years!” He laughs, grabbing Ozpin by the throat and launching him straight through one of the Colonnades. The stone pillar shatters like glass, toppling over and crumbling into large hunks of rock.

Dust plumes out from where he landed, and Umbra smirks as he stands there, whilst the other attempt to flee from the scene. Hazel immediately runs to Taiyang and he picks him up, whilst Qrow picks up poor Oobleck and the Architect picks both the executed members of Team B.R.N.Z to get them to safety. The Knights of Grimm clench their hands into fists, they may not like serving the mysterious force of evil that is Vir Nominis Umbra – but they have a duty.

Kragen remains on his knees, his silver eyes glaring at the stains of blood on the ground, tightening his fist more and more as the tattoos of ancient hieroglyphics on his arms begin to glow, and so do his eyes. Death jumps in the air behind him with Ferrum Arctus held above his head to cut his head off, until Kragen’s staff comes flying towards him and into his hand. He used his silver eyes to pull it straight to him, and he stops the sword with the Isomacium Stick with a bang.

Kragen glares to Krekras with an emotion he has rarely ever expressed.

Rage.

The three other Knights rush towards him but he spins the staff round with such speed that the other end clatters against the huge black blade and causes the Knight of Death to stagger. Immediately spiralling back round to clatter Fear across the jaw and kick Loss in the knee to bring her down. His eyes glow brighter and brighter as he blasts a powerful beam of white light into Fury’s chest. The Knight roars with anger as he is pushes back by the solar energy from the old man’s eyes.

Then he steps back, white flames trail from his eyes and Fear chuckles, resetting his jaw with his hand with a horrible crunch. “Still got it, old man.” Fear chuckles, spinning Formido Falcem through his fingers and unhooking his crossbow from his shoulder, the broken wood creaking in his grasp. Kragen glares the four of them down, looking at Starla who of all of them looks the guiltiest of them all.

“How can you stand there and support that monstrosity?” Kragen snarls, with disbelief in his voice when he speaks, and Starla lowers her head with shame in her blue eyes.

“It is our duty.” She states, unable to find another answer.

“And your burden.” Kragen adds, as he stands defiantly before the four Knights of Grimm. Rylen grins as he stands there.

“You really think you can take all four of us on, Kragen? You’re all alone.” He states.

“No he’s not.” Yenna’s voice suddenly appears behind him and Fear raises an eyebrow and slowly turns around to see Yenna stood behind him. Her long black hair blowing in the wind as she glares with glowing violet flames from her eyes. Then Fury hears Cinder clear her throat as she appears as well, her eyes burning too.

“Nobody else dies today.” Kragen states.

Fear chuckles. “We shall see, old friend.” He states, leaping directly at Kragen with a deranged laugh.

Back at the Colonnades...

Vir Nominis Umbra slowly walks towards the pile of rubble that he launched Professor Ozpin into with that conniving smile on his face, slowly forming a huge black blade that floats in his grasp. It is not even a sword; it is just the blade without a hilt. With his glowing red eyes watching the rubble, he stops with excitement as he spots the flashes of green light from beneath the rubble.

Then suddenly the rocks all rise up as Ozpin emerges with not a single scuff on his armour, his eyes glow bright green as he summons that lightning from his body. He yells with anger, launching the rocks towards Umbra with force, using magic to his advantage. Umbra leaps into the air, and he spins round as he jumps like a corkscrew, slashing the rocks all out the air, and landing on one knee and the other with his foot. He raises his head and immediately throws that blade towards Ozpin.

Ozpin does not even move, the blade just comes flying towards him and it punctures through his chest.

 

But...

Umbra’s eyes widen with surprise, as the form of Ozpin just fades away into thin air as soon as that blade touches him. He turns to see Ozpin smacking him across the head with his staff, launching him backwards, but Umbra stops himself mid air, holding his arms out as he looks down at him. “You have vastly improved from when we last met, Wymerus.” Vir Nominis Umbra compliments, and Ozpin paces back and forth, using his staff like a walking cane still.

“I’ve learned a few things since then.” Ozpin assures, as he spins the staff round and slams the sceptre downwards into the ground, forming glyphs that crackle with green lightning in his hand. He immediately fires a powerful magical bolt towards Vir Nominis Umbra and his eyes widen as he is hit from out of the sky by the shot. He dissipates the magical sign and instantly sprints towards the Soothsayer whom rises back up, cracking his neck.

It seems that Umbra has now solidified his form so then the fight is even.

Further proving he has honour when it comes to a fight.

Vir Nominis Umbra forms more blades and he holds up three at each arm, lifting them with telekinesis as he slashes the six blades overall at Ozpin. The Professor ducks down, narrowly missing them; only one manages to scrape across his armour to cause a golden spark to burst upwards from the impact. Ozpin rises back up to deflect the attacks from his many conjured blades with the sceptre, spinning it round as he charges the magical energy within the weapon into the head. The cogs spin round and they channel it all round, into a powerful bolt that blasts towards Umbra.

The Soothsayer uses the swords as a shield as well, blocking the powerful lightning bolt with the swords, a bright flash of green light and boom from it as well. The green electricity crackles across the blades, in which Vir Nominis Umbra launches three of them towards Ozpin. He jumps into the air, dodging them with speed and agility. He immediately runs at Umbra and swings the Sceptre at him, but Umbra smashes one of his swords against the sceptre to knock it aside. The impact of that sword against Ozpin’s weapon breaks the blade in half, but he immediately forms another blade that he slashes at him.

Ozpin spins the Sceptre round and nails Vir Nominis Umbra right up his jaw, to make him stagger and he kicks him in the chest as he stumbles. Vir Nominis Umbra turns round, building the strength up in his attack to throw all six blades towards him. Ozpin focuses his senses and time begins to slow down, and he carefully strikes each blade in the short time frame he has here. The sceptre shatters every single blade and he rushes towards Umbra, hoping to use this slowed time to his advantage.

Until Umbra catches him by his throat, staring through the helmet that the Professor wears with a grin. “You think you’re the only person that can play this game?” Vir Nominis Umbra asks him with a smirk, since he can control time too. Vir Nominis Umbra pulls his arm all the way back and powers a punch straight into Ozpin’s chest, so hard that the fractured moment in time shatters like the moon slowly breaking away above their heads. Ozpin tumbles backwards across the floor, lifting his head to see Umbra.

He seems to be able to form any kind of weapon because now he has formed a shadowy whip that he lashes towards Ozpin, which wraps around his arm and he holds him there. Ozpin snarks with anger, wrapping his arm round the whip to pull the Soothsayer closer and closer, only to swing his fist directly into his nose to knock him back. Vir Nominis Umbra is thrown back, crashing against the broken Colonnades.

Yet he has not even been swayed to back down, he just seems to be enjoying this fight that he is having between Ozpin and him. Umbra rises back up to his feet, and his eyes continue to glow bright red, like the eyes of all the Grimm that he has created. He opens his palms and thick black smoke – like the smoke the Grimm disintegrate into – emerges from his wrists. They form powerful battle axes and he darts towards him with both of them, swinging them straight at Ozpin. The Professor holds his Sceptre up with both hands to block that attack, backing up on his feet to deflect the attacks that he makes. And they are extremely powerful; every impact makes the ground shake.

Ozpin rewinds time with his hand to rebuild the structure of the Colonnades, kicking Umbra in the chest and then instantly reversing what he just did. Umbra looks up and he growls with anger as the rocks crash down on top of him, only for Ozpin’s eyes to widen with shock and awe as a powerful shockwave erupts from within the rocks. Umbra roars with rage, clenching his hand into a fist and suddenly there is a powerful red pulse that erupts around them. The rocks suddenly transform into a swarm of Grimm Bats and he points at Ozpin, and the swarm dart towards him.

Ozpin staggers as the bats eat away at his armour, scraping against it until he channels the magical energy that he can summon into the staff and he slams it into the ground with both hands. An almighty green electrical explosion erupts when he does that, one so powerful that it burns the bats away into ashes. But as soon as the swarm of bats are eradicated, Umbra comes leaping towards him with his fist pulled all the way back as he punches at Ozpin.

The Professor takes a punch square to the chest and it launches him against the wall. Vir Nominis Umbra darts right towards him with a huge hammer formed in his hands and he swings it straight towards his face. But Ozpin uses his Time Semblance – just like Oscar – and he darts out of the way. At the perfect moment too, because that hammer would have done some immense damage to Ozpin’s head, shattering the concrete that builds the base of the C.C.T Tower itself. Umbra turns to see him stood there and he yells with rage, throwing the hammer towards him with one hand.

Ozpin holds out both hands to form a magical barrier that stops the hammer, and it explodes into black smoke against the barrier he forms. Ozpin walks through the smoke with his glowing green eyes focused on him. Vir Nominis Umbra walks away from the wall in which he had Ozpin pinned and he keeps his eyes on him. “I must say, Ozymandius...I never remembered you being a wizard, or a Traveller for that matter.” Vir Nominis Umbra ponders as he stands before him.

Ozpin forms his Sceptre back into his hand again, moving it perfectly through his fingers. “I’ve had time to meditate in my years of solitude, Umbra.” Ozpin tells him as he stands there, keeping his eyes on the monster that stands before him.

“Indeed – you have become quite formidable...but...” He says, as he continues to form darkness around him, and more and more blades form. “You are not a god yet.” He states, as the clouds ripple above his head from his very thoughts. Ozpin tightens his grip on the Sceptre, and he stands his ground as Umbra stands before him. Umbra pulls a smirk as always, jumping towards him with great height, throwing some of the blades towards him, but Ozpin dodges them all.

He turns and his eyes widen as Vir Nominis Umbra channels black and red lightning through his arm, the same looking lightning that both Death and Salem can summon, meaning he must have been able to give that power to them as well. Umbra smashes his fist into the ground, creating an explosion in the ground that Ozpin manages to luckily avoid by jumping upward at the right time. The red lightning erupts from beneath him, throwing chunks of the ground into the air as Vir Nominis Umbra blasts a bolt of the lightning towards him again.

Ozpin rolls out of the way of one of the bolts, before he slides underneath the next one to swipe Umbra off his feet, only for the entity to turn himself ethereal again so then he could not do that. Vir Nominis Umbra flickers from the attack, before reforming himself into a physical body once more. He immediately blasts red lightning from both hands at the Professor, but he spins the Sceptre round at the same speed as a helicopter’s propeller. The red energy crackles across the sceptre but he uses the magic to absorb that dark magic and convert it into his own. He charges the crystal inside of his sceptre up all the way until it glows as bright as the sun in a green hue.

Ozpin’s body glows bright green with that lightning sparking out from the cogs in his armour plating. He pulls the arm back and thrusts it forward, blasting a thick green beam of crackling magic towards Vir Nominis Umbra, one that the Soothsayer forms a pair of huge black wings around his body that shields him from the attack. Vir Nominis Umbra is pushed back across the round from the attack he delivered, and Ozpin keeps his teeth gritted together as he pushes him across the ground.

Until Vir Nominis Umbra swings his wings outward with full force, creating a huge shockwave the staggers Ozpin slightly, but would knock others off their feet. The Soothsayer rises above him with his hands held out with a smirk. “I’ll leave you to get acquainted with some of my friends.” He states, clasping his hands together.

Ozpin turns to see the Knights Bannermen Soldiers rushing towards him with their swords, axes and spears at the ready as they charge towards him. Ozpin just turns and he calmly walks towards them, glaring through the glowing green eyes of his Time Armour. Oscar and the others watch from inside of the Amphitheatre, safe from the chaos that is happening outside. “He’s outnumbered.” Nora stammers as she watches them sprint towards him.

But Ozpin is not afraid of the Knights Bannermen in the slightest, he just holds his Sceptre in his hands as they charge towards him, roaring and yelling in High Arkhoni. One of them swings its sword straight at Ozpin but he just steps aside and be spins the Sceptre through his fingers so fast that it is moving like a blur at this point. He smashes the back of the Bannerman’s head so hard that the armoured helmet shatters like glass and he immediately kicks it in the back of the knee to stab the bladed of it into the back of its skull. The blade snaps the jaw bone from the hinge and he swings round, throwing that soldier into the body of another that stands behind him.

He catches the hammer swung at him by one of the Bannermen and he twists its arm round to break the bone inside, immediately smashing the Sceptre across its head to shatter the skull. Every single one collapses into themselves as Ozpin takes them down, sending them back to the Charred Forest whence they came. But as he continues to fight them, he holds out his Sceptre and something in the cogs begins to change.

The mechanism in the head of the Sceptre shifts and plates begin to move, and it reveals what is inside.

The Relic of Knowledge.

It rises up from the centre of the Sceptre’s Head and it shows it has more properties than just intellect, it glows bright green and he smashes the Sceptre into the ground. The shards of tone from the ground fly up and they are held up by the telekinetic powers of the Relic, and the magic hardens and sharpens each piece, forging them together. Each of them float in the same place, and the Sceptre shortens so then he can easily swing it in one hand.

Vir Nominis Umbra looks impressed, since he was wondering what happened to the weapon he cursed him with.

His Sceptre transforms into the Mace that once cursed him with Vengeance all those years ago, except it is very different and no longer centred around the curse. Now he controls it and can form it on command. Green lightning shoots down from the clouds above him and it charges the mace up and he swings it upwards into a Bannerman, the lightning blows it to smithereens and he immediately spins round to crush the skull of another that ran up behind him.

He armoured head collapses from the impact of his mace, then Ozpin stretches out his hand to reveal the clock inside that ticks and ticks away. Until the many hands start to spin the other way around and time begins to rewind around him and he spins round and just holds his mace out. The Bannerman he targeted walks backwards in the rewinding moment in time and he kills it instantly in that moment. And then instantly fast forwarding as he throws the Mace through time into the remaining Bannermen that attacked him.

As the Mace smashes straight through them all, it circles back around and as soon as it lands in his open hand.

Time resumes in the present, he stands tall with his eyes rising back up to Vir Nominis Umbra.

Who looks utterly impressed and in awe of the skills that he has learned since Kragen freed him from his curse. Everyone inside of the Amphitheatre who just watched what Ozpin just did are in awe. Because from their eyes suddenly five Bannermen just fell in a single second and Ozpin barely even moved. “Whoa...” Nora gasps with awe.

Ozpin stares up at Vir Nominis Umbra that floats above him with that same smirk on his face. “I did not reveal myself just to fight your pawns, Umbra!” Ozpin yells up at him.

Vir Nominis Umbra simpers down to him. “No...You didn’t.” He agrees as he forms another pair of curved black smoking swords in his hands, before he shoots downwards towards him, slashing both towards the Headmaster of the School. He slashes crossways at him, but Ozpin catches both the blades in his mace, staring into his eyes.

 

**Kragen**

Kragen focuses his senses, his eyes closed as Fear and Fury both charge towards him, and with his eyes closed he walks towards the two Knights of Grimm. Fury roars, swinging his burning axe towards his head, but Kragen ducks down gracefully, dodging the attack from his old friend and immediately smacking the staff into his lower gut. Fury grunts and Kragen opens his eyes that are glowing intensely with silver light and he strikes up Fury’s jaw to push him back, and as soon as Fear makes an attack, Kragen spirals the staff through his fingers to shatter the crossbow bolt that he fired at him to inflict his curse upon him.

Kragen suddenly sprints towards Fear and he jumps up, smashing his knee into Rylen’s nose to make him stagger backwards. He immediately rotates round to jab him in the chest with his staff to knock him back. Fear snarls, extending his hand to blast his nightmare toxin towards him, but Kragen rolls out of the way and he yells in Higher Arkhoni, revealing some other little tricks he has learned. “Igne Consumptum Metum!” Kragen yells, his voice becoming rather magical for a couple of second there. He throws off the robes he wears over the tactical shirt he wears underneath and reveals the tattoos of old magical signs on his arms. The words he shouted translate into – “Burn away your fears!” – And as soon as he yells that collection of Arkhoni words, flames suddenly channel across his right arm and erupts out from his palm towards Fear.

The Knight widens his rotting golden eyes and he shields himself with the poncho of rotten skin that covers his body. The skin burns and creates an utterly foul stench from his body, and Fear snarls with anger, cracking his neck. Fury immediately attacks, jumping at Kragen and smashes both axes downwards into the ground with all his might. The impact of both burning axes creates an almighty explosion that throws Kragen back slightly. He slides across the ground, narrowly avoiding that and Fury throws his axe at him, immediately forging another from the fire he can summon. Kragen crosses his arms over one another and that forms a barrier of aura that protects him from the explosion that follows when that axe impacts against the barrier. The flames wrap around him but fade away very quickly, and Kragen lowers his arms, staring straight into the burning eyes of the Knight of Fury.

Fury snarls with anger as he stands his ground, smoke and embers trailing from his never ceasing burning body. “Why continue to fight, Kragen? You cannot beat him!” Fury roars with anger, frustrated by his determination to fight for what he believes in.

“I’d rather fight and lose than join his side.” Kragen states, showing how he will always fight for the side of life itself.

“We can happily arrange that for you, old friend.” Fear assures with a grin, as he and Fury both charge towards him. Fury bellows, clattering the axe at him but Kragen hooks his staff to the axe and he kicks Fear in the head. With all his might, Kragen pulls downwards and he throws Fury over his head, crashing the massive molten Knight against the tarmac. He tumbles but he stabs the axe into the ground to slow down. His huge burning wings fold out from his back, creating a powerful blast of heated wind as he swings them aggressively, launching his huge body right back towards the old Silver Eyed Warrior.

Kragen could not deflect this attack, and he could not move out of the way in time – so he stares his enemy down and he takes the attack. Fury grabs Kragen and smashes him down against the cobblestone, dragging him across the ground with his burning hand gripping his throat. He immediately lifts him off the floor and smashes him against the ground again and again. Kragen grunts from the repetitive and painful attacks that Fury inflicts upon him. He roars monstrously at his face as he holds his burning axe above his head. “All you had to do was stay away!” Fury roars, until he chokes when he feels a glowing yellow whip wrap around his neck, and he is pulled away from Kragen by Yenna.

She holds her conjured whip in her hand, immediately latching it around Loss’s wrist as she draws her bow which is aimed at her face. “Cut it out, Starla!” Yenna yells, the two of them know these four better than anybody else here, perhaps more than the Architect. Starla grunts as she feels the burning hot whip around her wrist that tightens more and more.

“It didn’t have to be this way!” Starla yells back.

“Of course it doesn’t! You are all better than what Umbra has bullied you into becoming! Help us kill him!” Yenna begs.

“Even if we could – we can’t kill him! You think we haven’t tried? He just punishes us!” Starla yells back, her memories flooding back into her mind as she remembers what happened when she merely went to talk to Weiss. He put her through so much pain and killed Krekras over and over again when he tried to attack him in the Charred Forest. Fury pushes his hands against the ground as he stands back up, and Kragen rises back up too, with his staff in his grasp.

“We can beat him if we work together, Wymerus did...I don’t know how he could possibly be here now but he is...we can all defeat that damned monster.” Yenna begs, and they can see a hint of wonder on the face of both Fear and Fury.

They are used to it from Starla, but seeing the eyes of both of them dart around as they contemplate on that possibility...

That was truly something.

But when they contemplate, suddenly a Nevermore dives down from the clouds above them with a roar and it transforms with a cloud of thick black smoke into Death. He plunges Ferrum Arctus downwards into the ground as he tried to attack Yenna, but as soon as he goes for a second attack.

A storm of fire and lightning erupts and collides into Death’s chest, pushing him across the ground, and he lifts his sword and blocks the attack with the black blade. Yenna and Kragen both turn with wide eyes to see Cinder, holding Death back as best as she can. As soon as Death returned, the curse that binds them seems to have returned yet again to the Knights and they snap out of it, returning to their cursed mindsets. Death snarls, charging the red lightning across his blade and he roars, aiming it at Cinder as he withstands the flames that scorch him.

He blasts the flames at her until Yenna protects the Fall Maiden, zooming towards her and pushing her out the way. Yenna takes the hit, and her aura is much stronger than Cinder’s is. She is thrown across the ground from that impact but she immediately gets back up, forming a sword and an axe in her hands with roots caressing the hilt, ice and fire on each. Matching both elements that she can use in combat.

Cinder rises back up, and she conjures her swords, her eye burning viciously as she prepares to fight the other Knights of Grimm. Kragen spins his staff round, eyes on the Knights that stand there, and Death glares at the three of them with his black cape blowing in the wind, glowing red eyes focused on them. “Seems like history is repeating itself once again.” Death states.

“But this time, this generation will not be destroyed.” Kragen states, ready to fight again.

“We shall see.” Krekras replies, his wings folding out as his black cape transforms and he launches fatal feathers towards the old Silver Eyed Man. He immediately blasts silver energy from his eyes, turning them to stone and he quickly smacks his staff against them all, causing them to shatter into tiny pieces that fall and roll across the ground. The residue energy from his eyes trails away from his irises as he stands there.

Krekras cracks his neck as he runs towards Death who immediately swings Ferrum Arctus at him, but he drops to his knees and slides underneath the blade that cuts through the air. He swipes the staff across his legs and he nearly falls, but he stabs his sword into the ground. Using it as a support, he rises back up and slashes at him, sending an arc of black and red energy towards him. Kragen grits his teeth as he spins his staff quickly, shielding himself from that attack.

Death jumps at him and grabs him by the neck, throwing him into the garden where the pond is. Kragen crashes into the pond and water is thrown absolutely everywhere from that crash landing. Water drips from his hair, both in his beard and his head as he pushes his hands against the ground. Death jumps up there immediately and blasts lightning from his sword, but Kragen shakes it off and rolls out of the way at the perfect time.

A huge explosion throws Starla across the air and she lands up there with them, and Fear and Fury follow. They both jump up and they roll across the field as Cinder and Yenna both dart towards them. Yenna moves with such grace as she fights, ducking down at the prime moments, slashing her conjured weapons at the Knights that battle her. Fear laughs maniacally as he slashes Formido Falcem at her, the fear toxin flowing across his scythe as he fights. He opens his wings that were wrapped around him and he uses them to fly higher above them. He holds the scythe with both hands and drops down towards the Fall Maiden this time, just missing her when she hops back on her toes.

Cinder cartwheels away from Fear and she crosses her blades over each other when he brings the scythe downwards towards her. He grins and he pulls with force, snapping the conjured glass blades with that hit, and the action also brought Cinder closer as well. He immediately twirls round and kicks her in the chest. But as he goes to stab her in the stomach, she blasts a huge icicle into his chest. He grunts, launched into the air and crashing to the ground. He snarls with annoyance, ripping the icicle from his hand as he rises back up to his feet.

Yenna blocks the attacks from Loss with the speed she has become accustomed to, backing up and deflecting the arrows that Starla fires at her. She cuts one of them clean in half with her hatchet and she immediately throws the conjured sword towards Starla. The blade punctures through her veil and she grunts, pinned to the wall by her black veil. She snarls with annoyance, and Fury immediately takes her place. He strikes with speed but lacking the same precision as Starla, as he operates on strength and rage, slashing the axes at her over and over again.

Yenna backs up, moving her head away from every attack at the perfect moments as she blasts a fireball into his chest with her magic. Fury stumbles back but he absorbs the flames and he grins with rage in his eyes. “Shit.” Yenna sighs, realising fire against Fury was not really the best idea.

Starla growls as she rips herself free from Yenna’s sword and she walks towards Starla as she stares at her.

She reaches to her veil and she pulls it off, her eyes glowing bright blue with tears pouring down them. “Crap! Look away!” Yenna advises, but as soon as she turns away from Starla, she gasps when she hears the demonic howl of Fear as he charges his attack up. Suddenly he zigzags towards her with sharp barks as he darts towards her, and he smashes the scythe across her chest, launching Yenna across the ground. Fear drags her across the floor with the hooked blade of his scythe holding her, and he presses his foot down against her throat.

He leans down, staring into her eyes with a grin as his golden eyes glow. “Is that fear I see in those eyes?” He asks, one of his most remembered phrases he ever had was that question.

But as he holds her there, he does not notice the wind beginning to pick up around him until he hears the crackling thunder above his head. He looks up and his eyes widen when Yenna yells with rage, and a powerful lightning bolt comes crashing down into his head. Fear roars with pain and she blasts a lightning bolt from her fist and into his chest. The impact throws the Knight of Grimm from her body. He crashes to the ground with a grunt, looking at her as his skin is partially charred from that attack.

She stands back up with violet flames burning from her irises as she stares him down with gritted teeth. Fear rises back to his feet and he spins his Scythe through his fingers, ready to fight again. “Let’s dance, old friend.” Rylen challenges.

Yenna smirks.

“Let’s dance.” She agrees.

They both leap towards each other and yell.

Whereas still fighting alongside Kragen, Cinder delivers a professional back flip that kicks up Starla’s jaw and she staggers back, now with her black veil hiding her face. Her long white hair blows in the wind and dances as she moves, slashing her Tonfas at Cinder over and over again. Cinder uses her newly conjured glass swords to block her attacks; sparks erupt from every single contact made between the two blades. Clangs burst out from every single strike but her training is keeping her strong right now. Starla goes to stab her in the stomach but Cinder catches her wrist and locks her sword against the other.

The two of them stare into each other’s eyes. “You know...I am actually proud of you.” Starla admits, but Cinder does not appear to be as willing to take that compliment.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cinder snarls back.

“How far you have come after where you began...it really is admirable. I hope you will find whatever it is you are looking for.” Starla states.

“You don’t know a thing about me! About what I want!” Cinder yells.

“I know you want to find Emerald – deep down you know she did not die in the Sanctum trying to free Ruby. You know Mercury is dead but she is still a mystery, correct?” Starla presumes, and Cinder’s eye darts down to the side as she thinks about Emerald. But she snaps out of it, thinking that Starla is just using that to her advantage. Cinder growls as she scrapes her sword across her Tonfa and slashes it across her face, to make her stagger back.

“Stop trying to get in my head.” Cinder demands.

“I’m not.” Starla replies as she connects the Tonfas together to rebuild her bow that she immediately fires at her. Cinder deflects one with her sword and it bounces off the blade. “I merely want what is best for you!” Starla yells as she fires another arrow.

Cinder smirks.

She swings her sword and she remembers exactly what her brother managed to do when they both fought years ago. She carves the blade in half in one impressive motion and the arrow halves imbed themselves in the tree behind them.

She has a constant smile on her face. “Thanks bro.” She mutters to herself.

 

**Jaune**

Earlier...

Completely unaware of what has happened in the Amphitheatre and the Courtyard...

Jaune and Pyrrha both hear the demonic roar of Mr Hyde from above them where Kassius was searching for Medical Supplies. As it turns out, Pyrrha managed to find them and she has them in her arms. But she sets them down when they heard him yelling with a rage that she has never heard before.

But Jaune has heard it.

Once.

“What the hell was that?” Pyrrha nervously asks with fear, and Jaune has that worried look in his eyes that always gives her that funny feeling in her stomach. That feeling like when a child knows that they have done something wrong and they are scared that their parents will find out. Or when you know that there is bad news coming and you try to prepare for it. Jaune looks at her with concern in his big blue eyes.

“Hyde...” Jaune speaks with shortened breath as he slowly draws his sword, and Pyrrha follows him, her hands shaking.

“Jaune? Why are you scared? I thought Hyde is on our side.” Pyrrha presumes.

“When he has control – I’ve heard that roar before, and it was when he went berserk after seeing Adam for the first time.” Jaune explains.

“What do you mean?” Pyrrha asks and Jaune sighs as he remembers.

“Hyde getting that mad makes him struggle to see the difference between friend and foe – he attacked us before...and he made that exact same sound...” Jaune remembers, hearing the roar he made in his nightmares. Pyrrha’s eyes widen, seeing the fear and hearing it in Jaune’s voice...is enough reason to be concerned.

They walk down the stairs and they see him stood outside with his fists clenched, head down and facing away from them as they approach. He is muttering something and due to the embers that trail from his head...they can tell that he is not Kassius right now. This is Hyde, and he is enraged.

Jaune carefully reaches out to Hyde as he softly speaks. “Hyde? Is that you, buddy?” Jaune softly speaks, hoping he can calm him down. He has formed a very strong friendship with both Kassius and Hyde now, and Hyde has always listened to him. They both listen carefully, and they eventually figure out what it is that he is repeating over and over again.

“I am not a demon...” He repeats it over and over again, like some kind of possessed individual.

Jaune turns to Pyrrha with confusion in his eyes. “What? No you’re not...you’re part of Kassius.” Jaune states.

Then...

He arrives somehow, showing how powerful he truly is. “No, Mr Arc...” Vir Nominis Umbra announces, and his eyes widen as he slowly turns to see Vir Nominis Umbra approaching from out of nowhere. Despite that at this moment he is actually executing Oobleck, Taiyang, Roy and Nolan in his brutal fashion. If they listen carefully, they could actually hear the wails of mercy from those watching as he murders Oobleck at this second.

And they have no idea.

And Umbra is here as well...

As if he is some sort of force of nature. “I am afraid he really is...” He reveals, walking over to Kassius possessed by Hyde right now who is still muttering that exact same sentence over and over.

Jaune glares at Umbra with anger, clenching his hand into a fist as he stares into his eyes. “What the hell are you doing here, Umbra?” Jaune sternfully questions. Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he paces back and forth as he speaks to him.

“Well – I am currently with your friends at the courtyard right now...adding a little punishment for what you all did five years ago.” He reveals and his eyes widen as he looks at Pyrrha and she looks just as horrified. “But as I have informed them – I have planned for every single event that happens...and I know that you will come in handy tonight. You see the two of you...I still cannot control.” He explains.

Then he places his hand on Kassius’ shoulder, and in that case, Hyde’s as well. “But I can control these two...” He states.

“Leave them alone.” Jaune demands.

“If it is us you want then here we are.” Pyrrha states, and Umbra chuckles.

“Oh no, don’t you see that is precisely why I am doing what I am doing tonight. Because you always walk round important points in my little story I have planned out, I have to have contingencies...and luckily for us...I do.” He says as he pats Kassius’ shoulder again.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jaune questions, keeping his hand close to his sword. Vir Nominis Umbra grins as he walks around Kassius with his hands together as always.

“Well – I may as well save dear old Kassius the displeasure of having to reveal to you that Doctor Archer Merlot is in fact his and Cinder’s father.” He reveals and both of them gasp with shock and disbelief. “Didn’t see that coming did you? Well in fairness neither do they, they both have absolutely no idea of this...even Cinder does not currently know. Kassius and Hyde only found out earlier – but Merlot hides a terrible secret.”

“What secret?” Pyrrha asks.

“Years ago, when he was working his magic to solve the Grimm Problem for Ozpin – he made a bargain...a pact if you will. With me – he wanted to know how to control the Grimm – so I provided him the knowledge of the Arkhoni Formula created thousands of years ago. The price however?” Vir Nominis Umbra explains with a smirk as he stands there, and Jaune figures it out.

“Hyde...” Jaune mutters.

“Yes – although that is not his real name. Merely the title given to him from the inspiration of a book, but his real name – is the Ebony Berserker.” He reveals and they both look extremely shocked by this. “Demon names are more like titles than names – Onyx Phantom, Lord of the Wood, the Whisperer...and the Ebony Berserker.” He explains as he stands before them all.

“Why?” Pyrrha questions with a heartbroken voice for Kassius.

“Why? Payment was due for what I gave him, so I laid curses on his children. His son would have to suffer with a demon in the back of his mind for the rest of his life. I must say though I never expected the demon to actually forge a bond with him and become his semblance, but whatever. And Sapphire on the other hand...I was going to just kill her but after I saw what her future could entail...I decided I would have her suffer.” Vir Nominis Umbra explains.

“What?” Jaune questions, and he has never felt such sadness for Cinder Fall before.

“She would live with the idea her brother died trying to save her in the worst and most agonizing way. She would be beaten and tortured to become the Fall Maiden. Suffering still awaits the princess...” He assures with a grin.

Jaune clenches his hand into a fist with rage. “You will die for everything you have done.” Jaune assures, and Umbra chuckles.

“And so you say, yet here I stand.” He states with his hands held out. “But...I have talked enough...I believe you have some reuniting to do.” He says as he snaps his fingers.

Hyde suddenly spins round and punches Jaune straight in the face and he is thrown all the way across the ground, crashing against the dumpster behind him. Pyrrha gasps with fear as she watches Jaune get launched by Hyde like that. “Jaune!” She screams but only for Hyde to immediately throw a punch towards her with his cybernetic arm. She gasps, catching it with both hands, holding him back. “Hyde! Hyde stop!” Pyrrha begs as she holds him back.

Vir Nominis Umbra smirks as he walks away.

Whistling his ever sinister theme.

Fading away into the shadows.

Hyde immediately pulls her close and he throws her across the area with all his might and she smashes against the brick wall. Hyde immediately lunges towards her, his eyes burning hotter and more viciously than Jaune has ever seen. His teeth gritted together and smoke pouring out from them. He snarls like a feral animal as he pins her to the wall. “Hyde!” Jaune yells as he tackles Kassius against the floor, trying to hold him down. Hyde struggles in Jaune’s grip. “Snap out of it! It’s us! Jaune and Pyrrha! Your friends!” Jaune begs, only for Hyde to smash his knee into his gut and to stand back up.

Hyde roars, swinging his boot round to kick him right across the face. Pyrrha launches Akuou at his head and Hyde barely even flinches, just turning round to stare into his eyes with a gritted furious expression on his face. He just tightens his fist even more and sprints towards Pyrrha, and he jumps up a slab of rock that fell from where he leapt through the ceiling. He leaps at her and he powers a punch into the side of her head.

She yelps, falling to the floor with a groan, and as she pushes her hands against the floor, Kassius’ metal hand grabs her by the throat and squeezes as he picks her off the floor. He chokes her and she stares at him, then she growls with anger. She uses her polarity and she pulls a metal beam from the building and launches it at Kassius. Hyde turns with widened eyes as the piece of rebar smashes against him, knocking him over. She gasps for air, released by Hyde finally.

He stands back up and roars as Jaune stands between him and Pyrrha. “Hyde! This isn’t you! You are not a puppet for Umbra, we have fought together!” Jaune yells, and yet he still cannot seem to get through.

But the thing that Jaune has noticed more than anything?

Hyde is acting like an animal, he has not said a word since he kept repeating – _I am not a demon_.

It’s as if Hyde is the one being possessed instead of Kassius, meaning Kassius is too far away to get control if Hyde is under something else’s control.

Vir Nominis Umbra’s control most likely as well.

“Please...we can work together!” Jaune begs, but Hyde bellows as he charges towards both of them and he tackles them both through the building behind them. They both crash straight through and Hyde tumbles with Pyrrha tumbling ahead of him. She spins round as she jumps in the air and smashes Akuou across his face to make him stagger. She immediately grabs his head and smashes his face into the ground.

Jaune groans, wiping the dust from his blonde hair as he tries to get up. He turns and he gasps, seeing the others running for safety.

Seeing Ozpin battling against Ozpin.

Seeing Kragen, Cinder and Yenna fighting the Knights of Grimm.

This peaceful moment they had at Beacon has gone out the window really fast. Pyrrha runs to Jaune and helps him up. “What do we do, Jaune? He won’t listen.” Pyrrha stammers fearfully as Hyde gets back up with a growl.

“Something isn’t right, Pyrrha – even when Hyde when Berserk in the past he would still speak. He isn’t saying a word.” Jaune points out.

“What are you saying?” Pyrrha asks.

“I think Umbra has done something to Hyde, we need to try and beat whatever is in Hyde out of him. That was always the second option if talking never worked anyway.” Jaune states as he lifts his shield and holds Crocea Mors behind him.

“That won’t be easy, Kassius is tough enough on his own. But Hyde is stronger.” Pyrrha states.

“I know...But we have to free both of them from whatever Umbra just did to them. We have to help them.” Jaune states and Pyrrha nods.

“Okay Hyde...this is gonna sting, but it’s for your betterment.” Pyrrha assures as she pulls Milo and Akuou into her hands by using her Polarity.

Hyde throws Kassius’ arms back, releasing a monstrous bellow to the sky, staggering around as he stares at them, acting like an animal with his body close to the ground. He paces back and forth, snarling viciously.

Then Hyde charges, drawing Lash Equinox this time as he attacks.

Jaune and Pyrrha both run at him and they make their next moves.

A small war has just broken out in the Courtyard of Beacon.

All because of one Soothsayer.


	59. The Ebony Berserker

**Ozpin**

Ozpin suddenly tackles Vir Nominis Umbra, a huge pair of electrical wings fold out from his back as he holds the Soothsayer by the jugular. They both fly towards Beacon Tower and Ozpin smashes him into the side of the building with full force. Ozpin drags Vir Nominis Umbra through the render and concrete which comprises the tower, shattering and crumbing it all as he smashes him into it. Ozpin throws his fist into Umbra’s face over and over again with all his might, the punches create almighty thunderous booms from every single impact made.

Umbra smashes his knee into Ozpin’s chest and returns the favour, grabbing Ozpin by his neck this time and he rotates all the way round and smashes the Professor into the building with all his might. The Knight of Vengeance grunts as the chunks of both rebar and concrete scrape against his armoured cog body, sparks bursting from every single impact. Smoke and dust plumes out from the building as they rise up, shattering the windows of his office as Vir Nominis Umbra drags him up the tower.

With Ozpin still in his grasp he floats up in the air, not even with wings unfolded like the other Knights do. He even can alter his own physical form so then gravity does not even affect him. He pulls him closer as he stares into the glowing green eyes of the Knight, smirking with pure evil in his red eyes. “Going down?” He asks, as he thrusts his arm downwards and launches Ozpin downwards.

Ozpin plummets at the speed of an asteroid towards the ground, creating an almighty screeching sound as Ozpin falls. He crashes through an angle of the Amphitheatre, blowing the roof and ceiling apart, making those hiding inside yell with shock. Ruby stumbles as the wall collapses from the impact of Ozpin crashing through like a celestial object. Chunks of concrete shatter into dust on the ground and the metallic clangs of rebar rebound as they hit the floor.

Ozpin crashes through the concrete, leaving a huge impact crater where he lands, a cloud of dust rising into the sky. Ozpin groans, as the dust settles onto his armour, but as he looks up at the Fractured Moon, he can see the Soothsayer still floating above him. Until he suddenly shoots down towards him, breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic pulse from the speed he moves at. He crashes down on top of Ozpin, pounding his knee down into Ozpin’s chest as he lands, scraping him across the cobblestone courtyard that they continue their epic skirmish on. He laughs cruelly as he pushes him down into the floor, using his knee to press his cog armoured helmeted head against the ground with force.

He leans down, adding more and more force with that smirk on his face as ever. “You know I have half the mind to report this school – I mean the amount of students that have turned up dead here is a real reputation ruiner.” Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles as he stares down at the Headmaster.

Ozpin grits his teeth, like a thunderstorm of anger building up within him, he channels the green lightning he can manifest through his arms and he lets out an almighty roar. Ozpin smashes his fist into Vir Nominis Umbra’s chest with full force, creating a powerful electrical that sends Umbra upwards. Ozpin takes his opportunity, reaching his hand outwards and the electricity shoots out from his hand and it wraps around his Mace on the ground where he dropped it. It magnetises all the way back to his hand, and he twists round to clatter the electrified Mace into Vir Nominis Umbra’s torso.

The impact sends an almighty shockwave across the area that sends him flying, tumbling across the ground. He drags his hand across the ground, slowing down a couple of yards away from him. He quickly rises back up, and he does not even have a bruise or a drop of blood on him.

Then again.

Neither does Ozpin.

Perhaps they do not suffer those sorts of wounds.

Ozpin glares at Vir Nominis Umbra as he stands tall once more, glaring through the eye sockets of his helmet, glowing green eyes meeting his red ones. “Don’t...say a word...about my students.” Ozpin snarls with anger, showing how much he does care for his school as well. Most of them honestly did not believe that he cared but only saw them as numbers, but the anger that flows through his body right now.

Proves that wrong.

Umbra grins as he forms more weapons, all different kinds as he stares into his eyes. “No matter how much you preach to be changed – you are still the Knight of Vengeance.” Vir Nominis Umbra cunningly states with a smirk as he stares into his old friend’s eyes. Ozpin spins his mace through his fingers as Umbra stands there with countless abilities at his disposal.

“I am the Knight of Vengeance, but I am no longer a tool for you to use in your sick game.” Ozpin replies, in which he chuckles sinisterly.

“Let’s see, shall we?” He asks as he pulls two of the swords he has floating around him into his hands. He lowers his body downwards and he jumps towards Ozpin, whooshing through the air. Ozpin ducks down and parries the attack from Umbra, punching him across the face and he spins round to smash the mace into his face. The impact makes Umbra stumble, but he gyrates round and he immediately launches one of the blades that float around him towards Ozpin. The Professor flicks the Mace round with speed, snapping that sword in half and he immediately fires a bolt of lightning from the relic that sits within the mace that he fights with. Umbra shimmers out of the way, appearing behind Ozpin and he stabs towards him with both swords, but Ozpin deflects his attacks, but Umbra immediately slices at him with both swords, impacting the mace. As soon as he does the swords break and he forms more that he launches at him.

A hammer crashes into Ozpin’s chest, throwing him back with a grunt, and the hammer disintegrates away into embers after it hits him. Ozpin rolls backwards after that impact, but Vir Nominis Umbra shoots towards him, and he jumps over his head, flipping as he slashes his blades up Ozpin’s back. Ozpin turns and he stops the next attack as he lands behind him, breaking the blades but Umbra blasts red lightning into his chest which pushes him back with some force.

Ozpin launches a time bubble at Umbra as the Soothsayer launches multiple blades of shadows towards him. The blades are caught in the bubble, stopping in once place. Ozpin rolls out of the way and he charges time through his right arm, firing an almighty pulse of Chronon Particles into Vir Nominis Umbra. The sphere of shattered glass looking pieces of matter detonates against Umbra’s chest, pushing him across the ground.

Umbra snarls as he rises back up.

“Fine then.” Umbra replies as he channels dark energy into his body, his eyes glowing bright red with a smirk on his face. He runs directly towards Ozpin and the Professor charges the magical powers of the Relic of Knowledge up, blasting beams of green energy towards him. Umbra jumps over them as they create powerful explosions from where they land, shattering the landscape. As Vir Nominis Umbra rises above the explosion, he pulls his arm back and blasts a terrifyingly powerful beam of red and black matter towards Ozpin, so powerful that it seems to completely burn through the oxygen in the air.

Ozpin extends the mace, the chunks of hardened rock that formed the Mace turn to dust from a small green pulse created by the stone inside. The skull of the Sceptre closes and the long staff extends outwards, the curved blade over the container of the Relic emerges as well. He stabs the spearhead downwards into the ground as that beam comes towards him. He then holds out his hands and he moves them to form a round sign with his fingers bending in almost unnatural ways.

Then an incredible display of magic activates as Ozpin stands there, forming Chronon Particles with his Time Semblance, which forms a wall of frozen time. The wall approximately five by six meters in size that he throws towards Vir Nominis Umbra. The beam impacts the wall of frozen time and the red energy explodes against it, flames ripple across it but as it moves closer to Umbra, he pulls his arm back and smashes his fist directly into it.

Showing the power that the entity wields, he manages to completely blow the wall of frozen time apart as it pours across his body as he walks towards the Professor. He channels the Chronon Particles into his hand as he forms a singularity in his palm with a smirk on his face, launching it towards Ozpin. It begins to devour everything in its path, swallowing chunks of rubble and dust from their battle. Ozpin glares at the singularity as he thrusts his hand forward, bending his pinkie finger down and pulling the middle all the way back. The rest are splayed outwards as he forms a magical sign that he uses against the projectile. A magical orange barrier forms right in front of him, and the singularity crashes against it with a powerful pulse.

Umbra glares at Ozpin with a grin, impressed with the feats they are both capable of. But then Ozpin uses his magic to rise up above him and he spins the staff through his fingers, darting down towards him at extreme speed. He stabs the Sceptre towards him, and he just misses when Umbra dashes out of the way, only for him to punch him in the back of the head. Ozpin grunts, having to press his hand against the ground from that attack that Umbra delivered. Ozpin spins round and smacks the Sceptre against his head, rushing forward to smash his boot into his chest.

Umbra slides back, then Ozpin’s eyes widen from behind his helmet when he notices the flames beginning to ignite across his arms. Umbra’s normal Soothsayer voice transforms into that terrifying Demonic Voice that builds up, and so do the roaring flames in his arms. He stands tall, charging it all into his palms with that grin, and he thrusts both of them forwards. Two huge beams of almighty solar fire discharge from his palms towards Ozpin. “You will burn!” Vir Nominis Umbra bellows, his demonic voice that sounds like a collection of voices combined into a monstrous voice.

Ozpin stabs his Staff into the ground, and a dome of green energy forms around his body – just as he did to avoid Cinder’s attack in the Vault years ago – the beam of powerful energy crashes against the dome, dancing flames rippling across the green dome of light. The fire begins to scorch and even melt the cobblestone beneath him, smoke rising from the heat of those powerful flames. Ozpin glares at him and sees that evil look on his face as he forces those flames onto him.

Ozpin roars with rage, and he jumps towards Umbra, still fortifying that dome of green energy around his body, again just as he did against Cinder in the Vault. The beam roars louder and louder the closer it gets to the Soothsayer. As soon as he impacts, Ozpin breaks the dome and he smashes his fist against Umbra’s face, forcing him down to the ground.

Ozpin crashes into the ground, landing on both feet whilst Umbra crashes onto the ground. He rises back up and the rocks around him float up and he throws them with his dark magical powers. Every single one heats up from the magic he uses, turning them into balls of molten lava. Ozpin forms magical energy from his hands, creating barriers around his arms that he uses to knock the balls of lava out of the air. The molten rock shatters into tiny pieces and slides off his armour.

Umbra shoots towards him, and he suddenly speeds up at unbelievable speeds, delivering ten punches in a single second, pounding the living hell out of his torso. Ozpin grunts from every single punch delivered into his body, and they all sound like thunderous earthquakes going off. Umbra stamps down onto Ozpin’s knee, bring him downwards as he uppercuts him into the air. Ozpin flies across the sky before he crashes down into the ground, his armour getting scratches and scuffed in different areas. Ozpin turns when he sees Umbra stood by the Colonnades as he jumps extremely high in the air as he drops down to crush his skull with his foot.

Ozpin uses his semblance at the perfect moment, dashing out of the way as his boot crushes the cobblestone beneath him where he lands. The ground cracks and ruptures beneath his boot. Vir Nominis Umbra viciously snarls as he sharply turns his head, launching a huge spear of shadows that he forms at Ozpin. The Professor rolls out of the way and the dark javelin lands into the ground. Ozpin spins round, grabbing that shadowy spear and throwing it straight back.

It crashes against his chest and he grunts, sent flying backwards.

Ozpin picks his Sceptre back up, keeping his eyes on the Soothsayer as he slowly rises back up.

Then...

A pair of chilling black wings fold out from his back, all formed from the smoke that Grimm appear to be made from. His eyes glow bright red and his teeth have become razor sharp as he smirks.

“Come on...” He challenges, lunging forward with a nightmarish screech.

 

**Jaune**

The terrifying roar of Hyde grows and grows as he jumps towards the Arc Boy with both Lash Equinox Swords in is grasp as he slashes them straight towards him. He lifts Crocea Mors upwards, combined with his shield to form the Greatsword that he can battle with. But Kassius is so much bigger than Jaune is, both in muscle and size compared to him. And that combined with Hyde boosting his strength anyway, which brings Jaune down to one knee as he pushes the two blades against him.

Sparks leak from the friction between the two swords as he pushes against him, the hot embers roll down his face as it forces him down. “Hyde! Look at me! It’s Jaune! You can beat whatever it is that Umbra is doing to you!” Jaune yells, desperately trying to break through into that extremely complicated mind of Hyde’s. But Hyde just roars monstrously through Kassius’ mouth.

Jaune can see the difference as well just physically in Hyde possessing Kassius in this state – because usually the cracks are only around his eyes and maybe in his shoulders and pectoral areas, but not so much up his back and across both arms. Even the Cybernetic arm is being affected by his presence. His eyes are practically on fire as well, take that and the fact that he is acting almost feral in the ways that he is acting right now. Drooling from the mouth as he paces back and forth.

Suddenly black energy surrounds Kassius’ arm and Hyde stares at it, only for Pyrrha to use her Polarity to pull him away from Jaune, throwing him across the area. He crashes and tumbles across the ground whilst Pyrrha rushes towards him. She thrusts upwards, smashing her knee up into his jaw and she smashes Akuou into his brow as well. Every attack she makes is focused on his head, or at least she tries to just so then the can attempt to knock him out.

It worked when Yang punched him to get Hyde out, with Ilia when he tried to kill her in Raven’s Hideout five years ago.

But Hyde seems to be more resilient and he snarls, gritting his teeth together and he stares at Pyrrha. She swings Akuou at his head again but he catches her shield and pulls it from her forearm and throws it onto the ground. Immediately afterwards he ploughs his fist into her face and she yelps with pain from the knuckles that impact into her nose. She staggers back and Hyde immediately delivers a painful gut punch that brings her down to her knee. Hyde smashes his elbow downwards into her spine and he immediately grabs her with both hands.

He howls as he lifts her off the floor and throws her back down with great force. She cries out in pain, feeling her aura spark like an electrical shock from that attack, grabbing her stomach with distress. He picks Lash Equinox back up and he snarls with anger, bringing the blades upwards to plunge them down towards her, until Jaune rushes with his shield now in the play again.

Jaune smashes the shield into his chest, forcing him away from Pyrrha and he spins round to slash the blade of Crocea Mors across his aura, creating a flash of orange energy from his chest where the blade met. Jaune snarls as he staggers back from Hyde, that swing he delivered was so hard that he nearly fell over from it. But Jaune rushes towards him again to smash his shield across his face, but Hyde hardly even flinches from it. He takes the hit and he grabs Jaune by his messy blonde hair and he throws him onto the ground. Jaune tumbles and he eventually lands back on his feet.

Jaune keeps his hands close to the floor as he lifts his head, staring at him with gritted teeth. “Please stop Hyde...” Jaune attempts as he stares him down, but he growls with so much aggression, firing Vulcan Nox at him immediately. Jaune quickly reacts, holding up his shield to stop the bullets that come clanging against the shield. Bright sparks ping off the huge metal shield that he holds and the impact reverberates through his body.

Pyrrha sprints towards Hyde from behind and she jumps at him, kicking him in the spine to bring him down to his knees. It works and she stands on his back, smashing the shield against the back of Kassius’ head. “Sorry, Kassius!” She cries out, feeling guilty as she attacks Kassius in such a way.

But they both know.

That neither of them are in control now.

This is all Vir Nominis Umbra and his sick game that he is playing.

Hyde snarls as he takes his much larger body and he pushes his muscular feet against the ground and jumps in the air. He falls backwards and crushes Pyrrha against the ground with his heavier body. Pyrrha yelps with pain and Hyde rises back up, turning to Pyrrha and he arches his cybernetic arm all the way back and he throws the metal fist directly into her stomach. She cries out with agony, her aura weakened drastically from that punch as well. Winded, she gasps and gasps as she tries to breathe properly, but luckily her aura is working hard to fix the damage as fast as it can.

Hyde goes to hit her again but Jaune wraps his arms around Kassius’ torso and he turns with all his strength, smashing him head-first into the ground with all his might. Hyde grunts as he rolls across the ground but Jaune immediately jumps onto him and he holds his arms down with his own arms. Hyde struggles, snarling and roaring with anger as Pyrrha slowly gets back up. “Hyde! Listen to me! You are not Umbra’s puppet! You’re our friend; we do not want to fight you!” Jaune desperately yells as he tries to restrain him.

Hyde continues to roar, it scares them at how he has not even said a word since Umbra snapped his fingers when he disappeared again. He is snarling and trying to break free from Jaune’s hold. “Hyde! You are not the Ebony Berserker! You are better than him!” Jaune desperately attempts as he holds him down.

For a split second, they can actually hear Hyde trying to say something, as if it is being forced away from him. “St-Stop me!” Hyde begs as he roars with agony in his enraged voice, but as soon as he speaks his voice devolves into a roar with pure animosity. He rips his cybernetic arm from Jaune’s grasp and punches him straight in his ribs. Jaune grunts with pain as he is thrown into the air. Hyde stands back up and catches Jaune by the throat as he smashes him down into the ground with all his might.

Jaune grunts with pain as he lays in the cracked cobblestone and Pyrrha launches Akuou towards his head which makes him stagger. She yells with rage, she performs a graceful pirouette as she slashes Milo across his aura which pushes him back. She moves extremely fast, bouncing Akuou off his head over and over again as she knees him in the abdomen and punches down the top of his head with all her might.

He staggers backwards from that attack, feeling his aura repairing the aching pains that he suffers in his head that is struggling to keep him conscious. But as soon as the aura fixes that damage, he immediately turns to her with a snarl. Pyrrha jumps and throws Akuou again, but Hyde punches it out of the air and he sprints towards her, picking Lash Equinox back up as he slashes the swords at her.

Pyrrha hops back and she holds Milo in its sword form as she defends herself from him, scraping blades over and over again at her. Sparks burst out from the blades colliding against one another over and over again. Pyrrha performs a back flip to kick him up the jaw and he staggers back, and she sticks the landing. Hyde snarls, spinning through the air in Kassius’ dangerous attack.

Cyclone.

He holds Lash Equinox outwards and he fires Lash Equinox constantly over and over again as he spins, creating a tornado of danger towards her. Pyrrha blocks the blades and the bullets as best as she can, and as the bullets fly towards her, she luckily pulls Akuou to her and keeps the bullets at bay. She manages to hold back every attack as best she can, and she uses her polarity to pull the swords from his grasp.

Pyrrha jumps and she kicks downwards, until Kassius finally lands a hit. He catches her heel and he swings her over his head and smashes her down into the ground. Jaune’s eyes widen with concern when he sees Pyrrha’s aura begin to flicker, then...

He throws her...

And she falls towards the cliff face that heads to the hills beneath the landing pad.

But as she falls, she turns and she pulls Akuou to her, and once she catches it, she spins through the air and throws it right at his head. Hyde grunts from the impact, and the attack is enough for Jaune to take his chance. He sprints at full speed and tackles Kassius down the hill, and they both begin to fall with Pyrrha down the hill. Pyrrha crashes and tumbles down the rocks and soil, and Hyde crashes against a huge rock that dents his cybernetic shoulder.

Jaune uses his shield to block most of the rocks that he falls into, and he eventually slows down as he comes to the end. But Hyde however has landed right next to Pyrrha. He glares at her with a snarl, Lash Equinox not far from him. But he does not even pick them up; he just turns and grabs her by her breast plates with that cybernetic arm of his. He lifts her off the ground with no effort whatsoever, smashing her athletic body down against a boulder with all his might.

Pyrrha cries out with agony, due to her aura already being broken, she can feel her internal organs being damaged and bruised over and over. Hyde lets out agonized yells as he continues to smash her down against the rock. Winded more than ever, until Jaune grabs Hyde and forces him into the tree behind them with all his might. “Get off her!” Jaune yells, letting out his protective side.

Hyde barks, smashing his head into Jaune’s head with all his might to create a loud bang from the impact. Hyde immediately grapples onto his shoulder with his metal arm to smash him down into the ground. But Jaune instantly comes back up and swings his shield round into the side of his head.

Hyde staggers away from him, but he rises up yet again, his teeth gritted down as he glares at Jaune, embers and smoke trailing from the burning hot fissures in his head.

Jaune stands in front of Pyrrha with his shield held up as he protects her, Crocea Mors at his side, ready to fight some more.

“Enough, Hyde...” Jaune demands.

Hyde just throws his arms back with a deafening roar.

Jaune looks back at Pyrrha and she looks at him with a gentle smile. “I believe in you...” She softly assures and he smiles.

“I’ll keep you covered.” Jaune assures, so then her aura can repair her internal damage.

Jaune turns with a scowl as he prepares to fight his friend more.

“Alright Hyde...let’s go.”

 

**Kragen**

Death takes Ferrum Arctus and he slashes it straight at Kragen with force, sending an arc of black and red lightning towards him. Kragen crosses his arms together to form is protective barrier of aura, which also pushes him across the ground as well. Kragen spins his Isomacium Staff through his fingers and he channels his silver eyed strength into the staff, and just as Death brings the huge black blade downwards towards his head, he immediately comes round to strike right across his head.

Death grunts, staggering back from the attack, a loud metallic thrum made from that strike. The silver energy trailing from the dent in his helmet where Kragen managed to land a hell of a hit. He growls with anger as he spins round and slashes Ferrum Arctus at him again, but Kragen rolls back and just misses the blade. Beside him, Fear jumps in the air as he avoids the blades from Yenna as she flies towards him, and she raises her arm up.

The huge roots in the ground suddenly erupt through the ground, and Fear flies up into the air as he uses his rotten Bat wings to fly up. The roots lunge after him and he spins the Scythe through his hands to cut the plants down before they can grab onto him. He hooks the blade round the tree that she has suddenly grown and he scrapes his way all the way down the monstrous stalk that has grown, and he swings round to kick Yenna with both feet to the chest.

He lands behind Yenna as she falls to the ground from that sudden kick to the chest, and Yenna stands back up, turning to see him drawing his one-handed crossbow at her. He fires and she ducks down, just missing the fear poisoned bolt that comes flying towards her. The bolt stabs into the stalk’s wooden skin with the fear toxin trailing from the bolt that hangs there. Yenna narrows her violet eyes as she glares at him, and she launches a couple of icicles towards Fear and he darts out of the way.

He immediately lunges forward as he slashes the scythe straight at her with all his might, cutting straight through the stalk. The massive structure collapses and begins to rot away from the presence of Death standing right next to it. As Fear lands behind the stalk, he suddenly gets slashed by Cinder, who flies past him as Fury pursues with his massive burning Wyvern Wings extended, breathing fire from his monster form. He continues to pursue her, burning down the remnants of Yenna’s stalk.

He transforms in a blast of fire into his Knight form and he tackles her into the ground, smashing his hand against her chest. Cinder struggles with anger as Fury holds her down. He snarls at her has he forces her against the ground, then her eye begins to ignite with her Fall Maiden flames, as she gets more and more furious. Fury then realises that the wind is starting to pick up, and clouds begin to form above his head.

Suddenly...

The swirling clouds form a factor three tornado that comes crashing down behind Fury. Fury reaches out as he lets out a monstrous roar as it pulls him into its Vortex. Lightning cracks against him and it begins to destroy the landscape around where they fight. Cinder pursues Fury and she silences the Tornado with her gifts, using the power to form a pair of swords that she stabs into Fury’s chest as she shoots towards him like a bullet. They both fly down towards the ground like a meteor that comes crashing down into the ground.

Cinder presses her foot down onto Fury’s neck, glaring into his eyes with hatred. Fury chuckles menacingly as he stares at her. “How’s the mark? Still burning as hard as it did when I gave you it?” Fury asks her and Cinder yells with rage as she drives the sword straight into Fury’s head.

The blade protrudes out the back of his head with smoke and embers pouring out the back of his skull, but he laughs cruelly as he stares into her eye. “You really never learn, do you?” Fury questions as he feels the sword imbedded in his skull, since that is not his weakness. He grabs her forearm tight and he rises back up, holding her off the ground with ease. He pulls his other fist back and he throws it straight into her face with all his might.

She falls to the ground with a grunt, feeling her head throbbing with pain due to that punch. Blood leaks from the cut in her scalp and she groans as he crouches down to grab her long black hair. He stares into her weak eyes with that grin on his face. “Time to finish the job.” Fury snarls as he forms one of his burning axes to cut her head from her shoulders.

Unexpectedly, Cinder snaps out of it and she yells with rage, blasting a lightning bolt into his chest that knocks him back. “You talk too much.” Cinder states.

Ironic.

Coming from her of all people, truly shows how much she has changed.

Starla watches the battle and she brandishes her bow in her hands, her fingers gently caressing the bow as she watches the epic bout. Kragen smashes his staff across Death’s face and he turns to see her stood there. He can see the uncertainty on her face as she fiddles with her bow. “Starla!” He calls as Death slowly stands back up.

 

She looks at him, and she always looks like she just wants someone to help her. “Help us kill Umbra! You know we have a chance against him! It is different this time!” Kragen yells, just before he hops back and he rotates round to clatter the staff across his head with full force. Death staggers back and he snarls, his Nevermore Wings fold outwards and he swings them forwards and launches multiple Fatal Feathers towards her.

Kragen rolls out of the way and he smacks one of the feathers out of the sky to stop the feather from getting any closer. The huge feather falls to the floor and he holds the staff towards Death, his senses focused as he watches the Archangel who paces back and forth. His glowing red eyes watching him constantly as he paces back and forth. “Even if you manage to survive this night – what then? How many more souls will die to help you fight a war you cannot win?” Death questions, scraping the sword against the ground.

Kragen turns round to see Loss who sadly has come to aid Krekras in this battle and Kragen looks at her sadly. “Less than the amount if we refuse to try.” Kragen answers as he glares at Kragen.

“Don’t you think we’ve tried fighting him? It never works, he is beyond our understanding.” Starla states, knowing better than any of them about how dangerous Vir Nominis Umbra really is. Kragen watches the godly battle between Vir Nominis Umbra and Ozpin, seeing them using Dimensional Magic against one another – it is entirely possible that they could shatter entire dimensions just in a scuffle.

“Everything has a weakness; it is the natural order of things.” Kragen says.

“Look around you, Kragen. What part of us – of _him ­_ – is natural to you?” Loss questions, and he looks at her.

“I know you, Starla. Spirits are a part of nature, even demons – and all of them have weaknesses. He must have one as well, nothing is unstoppable. Nature simply would not allow it.” Kragen explains, he has had thousands of years to understand the ways in which the world works and his theory is not too crazy. Nothing can be unstoppable, otherwise it would completely eviscerate the food chain in which the world thrives off.

But then again...

Vir Nominis Umbra is so unknown, that he might be the one thing that has ever existed that even nature cannot control.

“You’re wrong...he can’t be stopped.” Krekras states, staring at him.

“So what? The only way forward is to join him? To forgive everything he has done and all the lives he will take? You used to be a Vanguard! Or does that mean nothing to you anymore?” Kragen sternly questions, even sounding disappointed as well. Krekras growls as he charges that black and red lightning across Ferrum Arctus’ blade.

“You think I’ve forgotten who I used to be? If I could change it all I would but I have committed sins – we all have. _This_ is our punishment.” Krekras snarls as he glares at him, and he immediately swings the sword at him. Kragen leans back, narrowly missing the sword and he spins the staff through his fingers, keeping his eyes on both of the Knights of Grimm. Loss holds her Tonfas in her hands, she may not want to fight her old friend but sadly she has no other choice left.

“I won’t give up on any of you.” Kragen assures and Starla looks at him and she desperately wants to help him.

But the curse...

It seems to control her body but not her mind, because she did not choose to do what her body did next. “No!” Starla yells as she immediately lunges towards Kragen, but luckily the old Silver Eyed Warrior is skilled and cannot be caught by surprise that easily. He quickly brings the staff round and he knocks the Tonfa Blade downwards to keep her away from harming him. He gyrates the weapon round at great speed to jump up and smash his knee into Death’s helmet.

Moving quickly, Starla sprints towards Kragen and pounces him, jumping and slamming her knees against his chest. The impact knocks Kragen to the ground and she stabs at his face with the Tonfa. Kragen lifts both hands up and he catches the Tonfa Blade with both hands, holding it there as Starla pushes it down to his chest. “I’m sorry.” Kragen sadly says as his eyes begin to glow.

“Me too...” Starla sadly responds.

Kragen blasts a powerful white beam of light from his eyes that crashes against her sternum, burning her body away into a mist as he destroys her body. Krekras watches as she fades back to the Charred Forest – even though he knows that she is perfectly fine since they cannot die because of their curse – he still feels heartbroken every time she gets destroyed. Clearly still in love with her even now, even in death.

Death snarls with anger as he spins round and smashes his fist across Kragen’s face, knocking him across the ground.

Yenna crosses her blades over each other as she stops the crossbow bolt from fear, and she channels fire across her arm and she blasts the fire bolt towards Fear. The Knight spins the Scythe through his fingers which blocks that attack from hitting his Spectral Form. The flames rupture across his blade wrapped in dead skin and brandishing the skulls of his many victims. He grins as his eyes begin to glow brighter and brighter, as he roars and darts towards her at creepy speeds.

His body quivers as he stands there, freaking her out from his unnatural movements like he is being animated like a stop-motion video. Then he slashes upward at her, scraping across her aura and knocking the Spring Maiden back. Fear walks towards her with his arms held out as he grins, challenging her to continue her fight. “Just like old times, right sweetheart?” He laughs.

“Those were terrible times! How can you possibly relish in that war?” Yenna questions with disbelief, remembering the wars that sprung after the Fall of Arkhonex, like the battle that took place at her and Kragen’s shack.

“How can’t you? All the terror and the screams...it was just beautiful.” He chuckles sinisterly, but Yenna knows him and she can tell that this is not Rylen speaking.

She saw his face when Umbra was in charge, he was not smiling at all.

“What would your daughter think of this?” Yenna questions, and something changes in Fear. He stops in his tracks and stares right into her soul with an enraged pair of eyes as he clenches one of his hands into fists.

“Don’t ever mention my baby!” Rylen suddenly explodes like a volcano, his eyes glowing bright gold as he lunges towards her. He spins round and swings Formido Falcem towards Yenna with full force, so much aggression in that attack that it knocks her back. She presses her hands against the floor and she coughs, looking up at the Knight that paces back and forth with his scythe blade dragging across the cobblestone.

“I know you, Rylen – you would never relish in warfare the way you are right now. It’s the curse, and you know that you can break free from it. Just let us help you!” Yenna begs.

“Never!” Fear roars, his voice becoming quite demonic there as well – clearly the curse of Formido Falcem talking right then. He rushes towards her again, but this time she conjures one of her Nature Bound Swords and she blocks the attack and forms another in her other hand, driving it right into his chest. Fear grunts as she pushes him back and rips the blade out, spiralling round to slash across his neck.

But he does not fall, he just staggers with a snarl. He immediately faces her to blast more of that fear toxin at her face, but she covers her face with a wall of roots and flowers that she summons. But the wall she formed immediately gets hacked away by the curved blade of Formido Falcem as he walks towards her. Yenna clenches her hand into a fist and she drops the temperature in the air down to the point of below freezing, forming a lethal icicle that she launches into his shoulder.

Fear grunts and she immediately rushes him again, slashing his face.

The battle is about to continue...

But then...

Fear stops right in his tracks, as does Fury as he is about to slam the axe down into Cinder’s head.

Even Deaths stops.

The Knights of Grimm all look at each other and they all suddenly transform in front of them into their Beast Forms. The massive flying monsters all fly up into the sky and the leave the school of Beacon. “What the hell?” Cinder questions with utter bewilderment as she watches them fly away.

“Where the hell are they going? They had the upper hand.” Yenna points out as she stands back up.

Kragen watches them flee...

“Why would they retreat when they were beating us? Unless...one of their soldiers found something important...” Kragen mutters.

His silver eyes focus onto Vir Nominis Umbra who has a smirk on his face, and he immediately spins round to launch another dark blade at Ozpin.

 

**Ozpin**

Ozpin swings his mace at Umbra but the Soothsayer catches it, now the mace is formed from the metal of broken rebar that fell from Beacon Tower. Then Ozpin charges up a powerful pulse in the Relic inside of his mace that forms it. The green electrical pulse knocks Umbra back and he flies up into the air, launching the blades down at Ozpin. The Professor smashes some of them out of his way, jumping up in the air to smash the weapon across Umbra’s face and kicking him in the chest.

As they battle, Ozpin channels all the power of the relic up and he blasts him in the back, throwing him into the side of Beacon Tower.

Umbra crashes against it, shattering the wall and he lands on his side, chuckling as he falls there. Ozpin lands right in front of him with his Mace in his grasp, glaring at him. Kragen, Cinder and Yenna run over to him, ready to help fight the Soothsayer.

But the chuckle from Vir Nominis Umbra is enough to worry them. “Did I miss the joke?” Ozpin sternly scowls, and he smirks as he looks up at them.

“The Knights of Grimm are getting away.” He reminds with a smile, but Ozpin does not look as amused by his comment.

“Let them run, because I’m gonna kill you tonight for what you’ve done.” Ozpin growls, showing the effects of being the Knight of Vengeance on his personality.

“Amen to your optimism, Ozzie...but not pursuing them could be your biggest mistake.” He warns with a grin.

“You are not going anywhere. And you won’t find where they are going.” Ozpin assures and he chuckles.

“Of course not, I’m already there.” He states with a scoff, confusing them. “You’ll catch on – oh yeah, and speaking of catching – you may want to catch Mr Hyde.” He warns with a smirk.

Ozpin’s eyes widen and he turns to see Kragen nod. “I’ll go after him! Just take him down!” Kragen demands as he sprints away from the scene of the battle.

But when Ozpin turns back to Umbra.

He is gone.

Then his chuckle returns, and the Knight of Vengeance along with the two Maidens turn round to see Vir Nominis Umbra now stood behind them with his hands still clasped together with a menacing smirk on his face. “I’ve been wanting to sock this prick since the day we met!” Yenna enthusiastically says as she bounces on her toes, ready to fight.

Cinder and Ozpin look at her and then they look at Umbra.

“You’ll have to get in line.” Cinder states as she forms her swords in her hands.

Umbra holds out his hands as he forms multiple weapons around him and the blades in his palms as he smirks villainously. “Come then heroes – show me what you are capable of...have your revenge.” Vir Nominis Umbra welcomes with a sinister voice.

Ozpin spins his Mace through his fingers as he scowls.

“Now!” Ozpin roars.

The irony...

That six years ago Ozpin and Cinder were once battling to the death here.

And now...

They are fighting side by side.

 

**Jaune**

The Arc Knight takes a heavy punch straight to the face from Hyde who attacks him, the feral demon that possesses Kassius roars and grunts aggressively as he keeps attacking him. He turns to Lash Equinox and picks the swords up, since they keep knocking them from his hands to try and get the upper hand against him. He sprints at Jaune and he jumps onto his shield and jumps over his head. Hyde lands behind him and slices up his back, but luckily is aura protected him.

For the most part.

Jaune turns and swipes the shield round to smash his head, still attempting to knock him unconscious. But Hyde just will not give in, whatever it was that Umbra did is holding on extremely tight and it just will not break.

Jaune takes Crocea Mors and he swiftly blocks the strikes from Lash Equinox in the hands of Hyde, sparks burst from every single strike made. Pyrrha growls as she gets back up, picking up Milo and Akuou to help Jaune. Since she cannot sit there and worry about Hyde getting the upper hand.

Because he always does.

She pulls them to her hands and she sees Hyde already gaining the upper hand against the man she loves. He slams Lash Equinox into Crocea Mors and he kicks the shield from his arm, and instantly slashes across his face. His white aura immediately repairs the damage done to his face but soon his aura will run out. He might have a lot but it will not last forever, especially not after the beating Hyde has put upon him.

But when Hyde goes to stab him, he feels his arm freeze in place.

He snarls with anger as he hears Pyrrha yelling behind him.

He rips his arm from her polarity and spins round, thrusting the blade towards her.

Her green eyes widen with pain and shock, she gasps and Jaune’s eyes widen when he sees her stood there.

Hyde glares into her eyes with gritted teeth, holding the hilt of Lash Equinox in his grasp...

And the blade in her stomach.

Blood drips from the blade that protrudes out her back and she looks down at the blade in her and Hyde presses his boot to her chest, pushing her from the blade. She collapses to the ground, desperately trying to pass out.

But she is running out of time as her blood begins to pour out from her stomach.

Jaune glares at Hyde...

And the ancient hieroglyphics begin to glow across the blade of Crocea Mors and his blue eyes start to glow.

He lets out a heartbroken roar as he charges towards Hyde and the Possessed Friend of theirs spins round and he swings Lash Equinox directly at him.

They blades lock together.

With an almighty bang and flash as the swords meet.

Kragen needs to get there...

As fast as he can.

Or Pyrrha _will_ die.


	60. Purpose

**Kragen**

The Old Silver Eyed Warrior runs as fast as he can to where he saw Kassius fighting Pyrrha and Jaune – or in reality, Hyde versus Pyrrha and Jaune. He approaches the area of the battle, and the signs are all around him. He crouches down and he looks at the scuffs and dents in the cobblestone where somebody has been smashed against. From the chips of bronze paint on the ground it is clearly Pyrrha’s armour that has been damaged. Therefore that means her aura must have been broken for her armour to have suffered some trauma.

Tufts of red hair along with blonde hair also on the ground, meaning Hyde really has gone berserk because he is fighting like a feral animal. Grabbing people by their hair and if he has the chance, probably gnawing chunks out of people as well. The signs of the fight are everywhere, from broken rocks from the battle that Ozpin and Umbra have been having with one another to mere markings on the ground.

His eyes turn to the empty shell casings on the ground as well, the ones that clearly belong to Vulcan Nox. He always crafted his own bullets; he and Yang have always been very handy like that. Both of them learned how to build their motorcycles and keep them repaired themselves, although Kassius bought his bike. Yang built hers, because she always did shine brighter than everyone else she was around.

He feels the casing with his fingers...

It is still warm from when it was discharged, the scent of recently ignited fire dust wafts from inside the casing itself. He sighs, dropping the shell to the ground and it bounces with a cling, rolling across the floor as he stands back up. There are also scratch marks on the ground, perhaps either from their blades or from the contact of Pyrrha and Jaune’s armour scuffing the ground as well. From the looks of it Hyde already had the upper hand – but that is because they have been trying to knock the two of them out so then they can help him calm down.

Kragen is able to detect and deduce all of this from the smallest details in the point of conflict.

Then a distant yell gets his attention.

It was Jaune’s, followed by a rather chilling roar from Mr. Hyde.

Only then can he spot the depressions in the ground where they were thrown, where Jaune tackled Kassius down the hill and the three of them tumbled down. He follows the trail, carefully stepping onto the rocks that some of them crashed against on their way down here. From the heavy cracks he can tell that some of these definitely would have hurt a lot, until he sees some red blood on one of the rocks. He may not know it yet but it is Pyrrha’s from when she fell, since her Aura was down as she went down there. Her skin would have broken in places, meaning blood would have been drawn.

Kragen slides down further, hearing the conflict in the distance.

He tightens his grip on the Isomacium Staff.

And he pursues.

 

**Ozpin**

The Professor blasts a powerful beam of magical light towards Vir Nominis Umbra, who merely defends himself by forming a shield of darkness that blocks it from hitting him. The greenish white beam of energy rebounds off the barrier and is sent exploding into another portion of Beacon Tower. The explosion exposes the internal ribs made of stainless steel rebar inside, the plaster render shattering like glass and sent tumbling down into the courtyard below.

Vir Nominis Umbra launches three swords towards Ozpin who deflects them with his mace that he has formed again, smashing them out of the sky and he sprints towards him again. He jumps high in the air to smash the mace downwards at where the entity was stood. Umbra warps away and he immediately powers his fist into the ground. His arm transforms and the rock in the ground hardens across his fist, as he jumps towards the Professor as well.

Umbra punches him straight in the face, knocking the Knight of Vengeance to the ground momentarily, until a lightning strike hits the Soothsayer in the shoulder. It burns straight through but he hardly even flinches as the smoke regenerates the wound that was inflicted upon his Astral Form. Vir Nominis Umbra looks up to see Yenna floating above him, using her Spring Maiden powers to keep her levitating with the clouds shifting into storm clouds above her head. Her long black hair dances in the powerful stormy wind that picks up around them.

The lightning cracks and ripples through the dark clouds that congregate above Yenna and her eyes burn a bright violet purple as she glares down at him with a furious expression. The lightning strikes into her body and crackles across her torso, but she begins to direct all that power into her arms. And before Vir Nominis Umbra’s very eyes, she conjures an almighty blast of lightning that comes crashing down from above to his chest.

Umbra falls to one knee, an impact that would have vaporised most things but he is pushes across the ground. His form takes damage but the smoke within him continuously reconstructs the holes blown into his body. Vir Nominis Umbra snarls as the lightning that glows ever so brightly collides against him, smashing him further and further across the ground. Yenna has her pearlescent white teeth gritted together to push him back, to try and kill him.

But then...

She can feel her power being taken from her grasp, like a weapon being taken from her hand. The lightning that is blasted into him begins to crackle across his own arm and the Soothsayer snarls with furor as he holds his fist up, the same lightning that she utilized crackles across his own appendage. Before he thrusts it forward and unleashes that same beam back towards her, too fast for her to move out of the way.

The powerful attack smashes straight into her chest, which knocks her out of the sky. The impact of the Claws of Thor claps across the School of Beacon with thunderous aggression. The Spring Maiden crashes into the ground with smoke trailing from her body and forked blades of lightning crackling across her body as well. She groans, pressing her hand to her head as she feels an almighty pain in the side of her head. Like her muscles and bones are buzzing all at once as that electricity courses through her, she lifts her head to see Vir Nominis Umbra walking together.

He opens his palms to form a pair of blades from darkness in his grasp, and he launches them towards her. Cinder suddenly lands right between them, cutting the blade down as he throws it at Yenna. Her amber eye burns angrily as she stares the Soothsayer down. “Well, well.” Vir Nominis Umbra conniving chuckles as he stares her down, seeing how far she has come from the little enemy that they faced all those years ago.

“You’re not going to hurt anyone else.” Cinder snarls.

“My, my...how you have grown.” He snarls with a grin, forming more blades that float around him and he launches them towards her. Cinder yells out with anger, jumping into the air and she spins through the air, her swords extended outwards – formed from obsidian as she slashes straight through the magical blade. The blade shatters and the shards fade away into smoke. Cinder nails the landing, standing on two feet and she immediately swings the sword across the side of Vir Nominis Umbra’s face.

She stabs towards him but he punches the sword aside, shattering the glass instantly and he immediately goes to punch her in the face. She ducks down at the perfect moment and he immediately takes both fists and pounds them into Vir Nominis Umbra’s chest. The Soothsayer grunts as he staggers back from the punch, so powerful that it creates a deep shockwave, and she immediately charges flames across her other fist and ploughs it into the side of his head. He flinches and he grins, glaring at her as he instantly returns the favour with a forceful head butt that pushes her back. He walks towards her and he kicks her in the chest to knock her onto the ground.

The Fall Maiden growls with annoyance as Vir Nominis Umbra walks towards her with a sword forming in his hand. “I must say my dear – I admire your drive to try and atone.” He states as he stands right above her, pressing his boot down onto her chest. With the sword he hooks it onto her dress and he slowly moves it aside to reveal the scar on her collarbone, not completely showing the print but enough for him to see it. She flinches when he does that, keeping her eye focused on him as he smirks. “But do you really think the world will forget the sins you have committed?” He asks her curiously.

“I don’t want them to forget or forgive – I just want to make it right!” Cinder spits with disdain, but the Soothsayer only smirks menacingly as he stares into her only remaining eye.

“Admirable...but not enough.” He states as he pushes the sword down towards her head to kill her, until Ozpin’s Mace smashes across the sword to break it. Umbra turns to see Ozpin delivering a lethal punch square into the Soothsayer’s face to make him stagger back. He snarls with rage as he staggers away from Cinder. Ozpin dashes towards him at great speed as he spins round and slams that mace into the side of Vir Nominis Umbra’s face, and immediately jabs it into his abdomen. Using Time Manipulation to his advantage, he speeds up his attacks to become extremely fast.

He transforms the Mace back into its Sceptre form and he jabs the bladed end of the spear straight into Umbra’s torso over and over again. It might look like he is merely poking the Soothsayer, but he is in fact stabbing him over and over again in an extremely accelerated frame of time. Umbra hardly even flinches unlike what happened to Cinder when he did the same thing to her in the Vault. Umbra growls and he channels the dark magic into his body again, smashing his fist into the ground.

The cobblestone cracks and jolts beneath their feet and he leaps towards Ozpin with two blades forming in his hands to stab him as he crashes against the ground. Yenna sees the moment coming and she gasps, reaching her hands out and the ground begins to rumble around Ozpin. Huge roots erupt from the ground to form a protective dome around Ozpin that hardens like Ebony, and multiple stalks burst outwards and impale themselves through Umbra’s body. The Soothsayer roars with anger as the sharp roots puncture through his Spectral form, lifting him above them all.

Yenna and Cinder both take their opportunity, blasting bolts of elemental energy into his body, from fire to ice to lightning. The impacts blow holes into his body but every single one just heals itself, completely baffling them all. “He just doesn’t take damage!” Cinder points out as she launches a huge fireball into his head. It blows his head apart but it instantly returns from the smoke, his red eyes staring straight down at her with that cruel smirk on his face. Ozpin groans as he gets back up, he has been using so much energy that his strength is waning now. Even his Cog Armour seems to be flickering with green light, meaning he must have formed it somehow from his aura.

“He...can counter our every move. He learns our attacks faster than we can think of them and he can create defences against them.” Ozpin states, and they witness that power right here and now when he begins to break free from the stalks. A wall of ice forms before him to stop the fire bolt from Cinder, and his arms begin to ignite with flames. The roots shriek with agony as he burns them to dust and he drops back down, breaking the ice barrier that he formed.

“I could do this all day.” Umbra assures, forming more and more blades. His weapons are so dangerous as well because not only can he form many, but he can sacrifice them since he can just make more and more to defend himself. Cinder snarls, clenching her hands into fists as she stands there, leaping towards Umbra with a newly formed sword in the palm. But Yenna is wiser and she reaches her hand out to her as she attacks.

“No, wait!” She yells, but Umbra immediately catches her by the jugular and he lifts her off the floor as she strains. Vir Nominis Umbra smashes the Fall Maiden into the ground with might and the impact breaks her aura instantaneously. Cinder gasps from the pain she felt from that one as well, but Umbra refuses to kill her.

He just does what he always does.

He smirks.

Then sets his eyes on Yenna. “What now, my dear?” He challenges with a colluding voice, making Yenna narrow her violet eyes with distaste. Yenna scowls as she stands there, but then she opens her hand and a glowing orange whip extends from her magical powers. Still the clouds rage above their heads in the battle, wind howling endlessly.

“What is it you want? You must want something otherwise you wouldn’t go through all the trouble.” Yenna questions, as she paces back and forth. Umbra chuckles as he walks around as well, mirroring her as Ozpin weakly tries to get back up, his hand pressed to his side. His teeth press together as he smiles, his eyes still glowing red as he walks, the energy from his eyes trails behind like smoke.

“What makes you assume I want anything?” He asks her.

“Because all of this? The deaths of those you chose? You said it was punishment for messing your plan up – what is your plan?” Yenna questions, glaring at him with her burning eyes.

The Soothsayer slowly forms an impressed smile at her inquisitiveness.

“So you were listening.” He chuckles.

“I have lived for a long time, you can pick up on the smallest things.” Yenna states.

“Isn’t that the truth? With age does come wisdom after all.” He states, but Yenna does not change her stance. So he scratches the back of his neck with a laugh as he paces back and forth. “Okay – you know I am after the Four Relics: Knowledge, Creation, Choice and Destruction. I nearly had three of them, only needed the one in Atlas to complete my task.” He explains as he walks around.

“So you could destroy the world?” Yenna asks.

“Close – but think bigger.” He says as he holds out his hands.

Then she catches on. “The Universe?” She asks with fearful eyes, then he snaps his fingers and points at her with a smirk.

“There it is!” He laughs, clapping his hands together, unaware that Ruby’s silver eye has lifted now to stare at him with her anger building up. And Ruby is not the only one, all the able fit Huntsmen and Huntresses are preparing to fight.

“Why? For Power? Because you can?” She questions.

Then...

She cannot help but notice a change in Vir Nominis Umbra’s expression, his eyebrows furrow and his eyes dart around as he backs up and he stops smirking. His face looks almost saddened as he looks away from her, down at the ground, then back at her. The expression is nothing like they have ever seen on his face.

As if it is...

Pain?

Then he speaks. “We all...have a purpose...” He states with a saddened voice, which also begs the question.

What does he mean?

And what is _his_ purpose in all this?

“Then so do we.” Yenna defiantly states as she forms another sword in her hand, and Umbra cracks his neck and forms two more in his grasp as he stares her down.

“That you do.” He agrees, and Yenna blasts towards him, jumping and bringing her sword downwards at him with force. Umbra backs up and he deflects the impact, sparks burst out from that strike and he immediately spins round to throw one of his swords at her. Yenna moves her head aside and the smoky black blade soars off into the distance. Yenna grits her teeth as she flicks her wrist to launch her whip towards him, managing to lasso it around his arm. He snarls with anger as he feels the heated whip wrapping around his fingers, and she pulls him closer with force.

She immediately slashes across his head in the hopes that it would kill him, but as soon as he flies past her, she realises he has shimmered away. Her eyes widen when she realises he has teleported behind her, so then he can punch her right in the back of the head. She yelps in pain, collapsing to the ground from that punch.

He stands around the three powerful warriors, and Ruby watches...

_What am I doing?_

_They need my help..._

_He needs to die._

Ruby yells with rage, as she grabs Crescent Rose and she blasts towards Vir Nominis Umbra in a cyclone of red petals, and Blake follows her. Along with Oscar, Nora, Ren, Qrow and everyone follows her. Hazel with his aura regained he charges out there, even Sun tries to help but Neptune grabs him and keeps him back. The four of them know that they are in no condition to fight a Grimm Mouse let alone the Soothsayer himself. And with Yang passed out from both the horror of seeing her father die in front of her combined with Horridus Morbus eating away at her...

Things are not looking good.

And Raven is still shell shocked, staring at the love of her life’s corpse on the ground that they carried inside.

Vir Nominis Umbra’s eyes widen when he hears Ruby coming for him from behind, he turns and he smirks when she blasts towards him, erupting from the meteor of rose petals. She holds Crescent Rose all the way back as she powers her attack up, slashing it straight at the monstrous Soothsayer, and he grunts as the curved scythe blade cuts through his Spectral Form. Thick black smoke pours out from the wound but is quickly healed in the process, and she spins the rifle round to fire the sniper rifle into his chest. He hardly flinches from it and he swings his sword towards the young woman.

Until the Grappling Hook of Gambol Shroud wraps around his wrist and he yells with anger as Blake pulls him back from Ruby, swinging round to send both boots directly into his head. He staggers from the impact, straight into Magnhild swung by Nora Valkyrie. The impact throws Umbra across the battlefield, colliding against the Colonnades with a heavy bang. The remaining Colonnade that has not yet collapsed finally crumbles as he crashes against it. Nora glares at Vir Nominis Umbra with her extremely pissed off cyan eyes, as Ren sprints with her towards the monster as he tries to rise up from the rubble.

Glynda yells with rage, as she slashes her Crop with magical energy towards Vir Nominis Umbra and all the rubble that has been buried atop him, forcing it down onto him. He snarls with anger, as she tries to hold him down. Ren runs towards him, firing both Stormflower Submachine Guns constantly at his head. The green projectiles poke holes into his head and yet that still do not seem to have any form of effect on him.

Until...

His eyes begin to glow redder and redder, brighter and brighter.

He lets out a terrifying inhuman roar that reverberates through their bones, and he throws his arms up, creating a pulse of black energy that shatters the remains of the boulders. He forms them into jagged shards and he launches them with the power of telekinesis at Glynda. But the Huntress has a few tricks of her own, as she forms a barrier with her crop. The purple magical energy blocks the shards thrown at her constantly, breaking them into smaller pieces that fall to the ground.

She walks towards him with her displeased eyes, holding her crop tight and the Soothsayer’s eyes glow hot red now. He forms more and more spikes, now they do not even look like weapons anymore, just sharp objects forged from darkness itself. He launches them towards her but she simply bats them aside with sharp movements of her crop, flashes of purple energy launch them aside before they could even touch her. But then his eyes glow even brighter and he throws his arms back, unleashing two thick red crackling beams of energy from his eyes. The bellow from the beams of light is haunting, like the trumpeting horn of a thousand legionnaires and their ships about to attack Egypt.

Glynda gasps, as she blasts a purple beam into his from her crop, that collides against it and magical polyps splatter against the ground as they collide with a thunderous clap. The heat is so strong that mirages can be seen around the beams that crash against each other. Glynda fights as hard as she can against the monster that they face, but she is struggling. His power is simply too much, so she pulls both her and his beams upwards to the sky to break the connection.

Umbra snarls, red smoke and embers leaking from his eyes as he stands before her, immediately punching his fist into the ground to crack the ground. Glynda jumps back from him, avoiding his attack that he tried to trap her into. He lifts up his palm, and to their shock huge chunks of the ground rapidly break up from the surface before them, and Ren runs across them towards Vir Nominis Umbra.

He fires both of the Stormflower Submachine Guns at Umbra but the Kuroyurian’s foe forms a protective barrier to block his attacks. Umbra focuses his eyes onto the same rock that Ren stands on and he clenches his open hand into a fist, which splinterizes the chunk of rock into hundreds of pieces. But Ren jumps off it at the perfect moment, landing on one that orbits around the Soothsayer, continuously firing his weapons at him. Umbra growls and with his telekinesis he pulls the rock towards him, and he catches Ren by the neck, staring into his eyes. “Orphan.” He growls as he goes to stab him through the chest with a blade he forms, until Nora screeches and smashes Magnhild into Umbra’s face, sending him flying.

He releases Ren and he lands on one knee, staring at Umbra as he lands on both feet, sticking his dismount. “No one touches my Renny!” Nora adorably yells, amusing Vir Nominis Umbra at her sweetness.

But before he can even make a funny comment, Ruby and Blake immediately make another attack, as Ruby catches Blake and swings round, firing her like a Ballista towards the Soothsayer. Blake smashes both feet into his sternum to make him stagger, immediately proceeding to slash her swords aggressively at him at great speed, smacking her sheath across his face. She slashes the Katana across his chest about six times with anger in her heart, and Umbra begins to block her attacks with his blades he can form. They all float around him and he launches one at her.

Blake shimmers away as it impales her, and she immediately appears in front of him, jumping and kicking him up the jaw as she performs a graceful back flip attack. Umbra snarls as he forms a Javelin and he stabs it downwards at her to kill her, only for her to sidestep and cut him up the side of his face, only for it to totally regenerate. “Our attacks aren’t doing anything to him!” Blake yells, and Umbra laughs as he kicks her straight in the face with force. The impact knocks her down, but Ruby immediately makes a comeback as she shoots towards him, gyrating through the air like a buzz saw to hack away at him with Crescent Rose. He takes a few hits at first but then starts to counter them, parrying with the swords he forms and immediately scrapes one of them up her spine. She yells with anger and dashes past him, trying to cut his legs from his body. But he catches her by her long black and red hair, throwing her into the ground. Nora blasts towards him, with the hopes of smashing her huge Hammer at him.

But this time.

Umbra catches the hammer with one hand, staring into her eyes with a grin. “Uh-oh.” Nora realises, seeing his hand holding the head of her hammer with ease. He then takes the hammer and he swings her downwards into the ground with force. The cobblestone shatters from the impact of her rather small body hitting the floor like that. She groans as she lays there, pressing her hands to the ground as she slowly starts to get back up.

Oscar suddenly charges at Vir Nominis Umbra, slashing Traveller’s Atrocity across his stomach and he stabs the Soothsayer in his leg. He immediately punches him up the jaw as he looks down at him, before Oscar pulls the sword from Umbra’s knee and stabs him in the chest. Vir Nominis Umbra stares at him with a grin. “You’re not getting the hint are you?” He asks with confusion, as he punches Oscar in the face and holds Traveller’s Atrocity. He throws the weapon to him with the smirk.

Until his attention is turned to three others that catch up, as Oscar stands up.

Umbra looks around him as he sees Qrow, Hazel, Winter and Oscar beginning to encroach him.

The Soothsayer chuckles as he looks at them. “I was wondering if you would muster the courage to stop cowering.” Vir Nominis Umbra challenges with a smirk, and Qrow grits his teeth with vengeful rage, transforming his sword into its Scythe Form.

“We’re done hiding.” Qrow snarls.

“Hmph, prove it.” Vir Nominis Umbra replies.

Raven stands there with everyone still inside with widened eyes, as she stares at the lifeless body of Taiyang there on the floor. The corpse of Oobleck, the bodies of Roy and Nolan, all executed by the monster out there. She slowly clenches her hand into a fist, scrunching her face with hatred as she pictures the Soothsayer’s face, she looks at Penny and the Architect who are standing there, about to leave. “Protect them.” She orders.

They both look at her with confused eyes.

“What?” The Architect questions.

“But we can help!” Penny argues with her hands held out.

Raven stands in the doorway, an exhausted Weiss Schnee looks at her with bleary eyes. She looks over her shoulder slightly as a red portal forms and a tear leaks from her eye as she draws her sword. “We won’t need help.” She assures, as she walks into the portal.

Vir Nominis Umbra kicks Winter in her lower abdomen which pushes her back, but she remains on her feet. He turns and catches the fist of Hazel, twisting it round as he stares at him with a smirk. The huge man strains as he feels the much smaller hand of Vir Nominis Umbra somehow crushing his huge one. The Soothsayer throws Hazel up in the air and he jumps up with him, pressing his foot down against his chest as they both fall. He smashes him down against the ground at full force, breaking the cobblestone. He quickly turns to stop the Scythe that belongs to Qrow.

Umbra stares into the Huntsman’s eyes. “To be honest, I expected more.” He scoffs, all his trash talk just seems to further the rage in the Branwen’s Heart. Qrow lets out a heartbreaking yell of anguish as he scrapes the blade of his scythe across the hand of Umbra. He cuts straight through but the hand regenerates again, and he viciously spirals the huge scythe at incredible speeds. It becomes a blur as he cuts and hacks away at the Soothsayer, causing him to stagger back which would leave anyone else as a bloody mess to be forgotten. But Umbra manages to withstand it with a chuckle, and he stares at him.

Seeing the tears in Qrow’s eyes. “Why?” Qrow yells with anguish, and Umbra walks back and forth as he forms more blades in his hands. Completely different to one another, just random blades formed to fight with.

“What? Why did I kill you your buddy earlier? The same reason I do anything.” He says as he holds out his arms with a grin. “Why not?” He asks, and Qrow roars with fury, as he leaps at him, smashing the Scythe downwards at Vir Nominis Umbra. He holds the Scythe with one hand and he swings it all the way round to try and behead him, but Umbra jumps over the huge scythe and kicks Qrow in the mouth to knock him over. Winter zooms towards him on her glyph but he grabs her by the neck and smashes her down into the ground next to Qrow. “Aw...the complicated couple together. Fitting to go out together.” He chuckles as he forms blades above his head to plunge them down into their bodies.

Until the red portal opens above him and Raven drops down, stabbing him straight through the back with her Odachi, and he grunts from that, looking back at her. She pulls him away from them and kicks him from the blade, sheathing the blade and drawing a fire dust coated version. Vir Nominis Umbra glares at her and he launches his conjured blades towards her, but she arcs the blade upwards twice in both directions. The motion sends a flaming arc towards the weapons and burns them to ash before they could even get close, and she stares at him, still glassy eyed.

Umbra smirks as he forms a Javelin like the one that killed her fiancé and launches it towards her. She squints her eyes and she swings the sword downwards, managing to slice the javelin clean in half in one skilful motion. The halves fly right past her and everyone else, she stares into the eyes of the monster before her. She sheathes the blade and the large scabbard of multiple different blades shifts round, connecting to an ice blade.

She dashes forward and he does the same, forming two swords and he swings them at her, but she enters a portal quickly and appears behind him, slashing into his leg to keep him still and immediately changing to a regular sword, taking multiple slices into him and jumping around him. She cuts down one of the blades that he launches towards her and whacks the blade straight across his face. He turns to slice at her but she rolls aside and she cuts his forearm off, only for it to regenerate again.

He snarls with anger and rips his foot from the ice that kept him stuck there with anger, turning to grab her but she disappears into a portal, immediately stabbing him right through the back and ripping it upwards through his skull.

_That must have killed him..._

She stares at him as the smoke pours from his split open skull, and to her disbelief...the head comes back together and before too long he has returned back to normal. Vir Nominis Umbra stares at her with a smile. “Oh yeah...you two...you were together weren’t you?” He chuckles as he remembers Taiyang. “That really sucks, but you should know – his death could have been avoided. If Ruby had won the game.” He states with a smirk.

But of all the people he expected to set off with that comment...

Raven stayed calm.

Which was the most surprising part of this night so far.

That’s when he realised his mistake.

“Now!” Ruby yells, and that is when Umbra feels Gambol Shroud’s grappling hook wrap round his wrist and tighten. He stares at Blake as she holds his arm there, then Yenna does the same as she launches her conjured Whip towards him and wraps it around his other arm, holding it with both hands. Hazel runs to her side and helps, using his strength to help keep the entity secured there. Ruby jumps and she hooks Crescent Rose to his neck and pulls back, holding him there as he roars with anger.

Cinder groans with pain as she begins to summon the storms from her Fall Maiden powers, bringing down a huge rainfall of lightning down into Vir Nominis Umbra’s chest. He lets out a roar of pain as the constant lightning hits his chest and Nora blasts Magnhild’s Grenades into him as well, trying to do as much damage as they can. “Don’t stop!” Ruby yells as she strains, but then she sees everyone holding his arms beginning to slide slowly across the ground.

As Umbra fights their strength, and a singularity of dark magic begins to swirl in front of his chest as he pulls his arms closer and closer to his chest. His eyes glow brighter red and brighter, as he grits his teeth.

There is a chilling howl of dark magic that builds up from their attacks as he absorbs them.

Then he throws his arms out, letting out a deafening and terrifying roar that creates an almighty pulse of powerful magic. It knocks them all onto the ground and frees him from their hold, and the shockwave blows the rubble across the ground – shattering every single window that surrounds them. Shards of glass plummet down from where the pulse had broken them all, echoing for miles as he holds his arms out with a smirk.

Ruby groans, pressing her hand to her head with pain as she feels a throbbing pain there, her ears ringing constantly. But as she remains on her knees, Vir Nominis Umbra looks at her with a smirk as she begins to cry with anguish. “Why...” She sniffles.

He raises a brow as he looks down at her. “Why does everything beautiful in the world die?” She sadly questions, thinking of her father, and all the good people that have died whilst all the bad have survived. Vir Nominis Umbra crouches down beside her as he caresses her long black and red hair.

“If you could choose between picking the rose and the stinging nettle...which would you pick?” He asks her, using a pretty chilling analogy for why good people die. Because people will always pick the prettiest flower – but they will always die in the end.

Whilst the Nettle will survive.

As Ruby remains on her knees, feeling hopeless with Umbra beside him, it is as if everything tunnels its way into her subconscious for a moment. Seeing memories flash before her very eyes, when she saw Penny and Pyrrha die, when she lost her eye, seeing Tyrian die, now Taiyang.

All with the voice of Vir Nominis Umbra speaking in her head. “Sleep now my little flower and forget forever, struggle no more – and let me free you from your suffering.” He says.

Then it all hits her.

What he feeds off.

_Suffering..._

He created the Knights of Grimm, Death, Fear, Loss and Fury – and even Vengeance – all are forms of suffering. And he prefers to drag it out before he kills them.

He feeds off Suffering itself.

Her pained memories all come together and like a reflection she sees her face when she first ever came to Beacon, the innocence she lost...

“You think you can handle it?” Ruby mutters, not even noticing Umbra was reaching out to her head to kill her. “Then take it...feel my pain!” Ruby shrieks.

Her eyes suddenly erupt with silver light, and the explosion knocks Umbra back with a roar that sounds like he is in pain. He staggers back and the shockwave from the blast of her silver eyes pushes everyone else to the ground as well. Ozpin stares at Ruby on her knees, constantly unleashing those silver rays of light.

Then his eyes focus onto Vir Nominis Umbra who is still trying to get to her, marching through the blizzard of burning hot white light. He stares at his body, and his eyes widen from what he sees.

Umbra’s skin...

It is burning...

He is in agony from her power, he has never seen Umbra take actual physical damage before now, as he keeps reaching out for her as the rays batter against him. He falls to one knee in agony, still desperately trying to get to Ruby for some reason. Ozpin grits his teeth as he reaches out and grabs his Mace, trying to get up as well. Oscar reaches out to Ruby with horror as he sees her blasting the silver light from both eyes, even though she has lost one. “Ruby!” Oscar cries out desperately.

But then...

Clearly Ruby could not blast that light from her eyes any longer, as she collapses and the light ceases to erupt from her eyes, and she collapses. But she does not fall unconscious, but she can barely move as she lays there.

Vir Nominis Umbra groans with pain, smoke trailing from his burned body as he falls to his knees, breathing with heavy labour in his rasps. He lifts his head to stare at Ruby.

Until all of a sudden, Ozpin’s Mace smashes straight into the side of Vir Nominis Umbra’s face at full force. It is like time stopped in that moment, as he sees the right side of his head fracture like glass, taking the Soothsayer off the ground and crashing across the cobblestone. Ozpin falls to one knee, still fatigued from the battle they have had. But his eyes are focused on the Soothsayer, because he is not getting up.

He is alive...

But they have never seen him that vulnerable...and mortal...before. Whatever Ruby did just then managed to weaken Umbra enough for Ozpin to do some major damage to him, shattering part of his face and nearly killing him right then. Oscar immediately gets up and runs to Ruby. “Ruby!” He screams, but Ozpin presses his hand to Oscar’s chest to stop him.

“Wait...” He warns.

“What is it?” He asks.

Then Oscar catches on, staring at Vir Nominis Umbra.

The clouds...

They are shifting above him and red lightning crackles across the skyline over their heads, giving them all nightmares as they stare at it. There is a creepy howl of screams echoing around them, then they watch as the body of the Soothsayer erupts into a cloud of thick jet black smoke that rises up.

They all watch the cloud that rises over their heads with horrified expressions as it begins to form something. The smoke transforms into huge Dragon-Like wings that were wrapped around a terrifying body, which open up wide before them all. Inside is something utterly horrifying...

A twenty foot tall monster with huge jet black arms and body, razor sharp claws and feet with glowing red markings across its body. With a demonic Gargoyle head with razor sharp teeth and glowing red eyes, huge curved horns and a long tail with red spines across the whole thing. Its huge arms suddenly throw back and the howling screams cease, and are followed with a world-shattering roar that causes an Earthquake around them, making the trees and buildings rattle.

The massive monster suddenly flies straight towards Ruby...

And vanishes inside of her.

A twenty foot monster disappears into Ruby somehow, and her body jolts and writhes around in a horrific way, terrifying Oscar and Blake as they watch. “Ruby!” Oscar screams, but Ozpin keeps them at bay.

“She is being possessed, stay back.” Ozpin warns as he cautiously approaches Ruby as she cries and screams with agony. As if her entire body is being twisted and burned from the inside, she desperately scrapes her nails across the ground. But she cannot get away from the pain she feels, and her silver eyes turn red as Ozpin crouches down beside Ruby. She laughs horrifyingly, and the voice of Vir Nominis Umbra comes through her own.

Demonic.

And Evil.

Ruby smirks at him, exactly the same way as the Soothsayer would. “Do you know now, old friend? What you are up against?” Vir Nominis Umbra sinisterly asks through Ruby as he makes her smirk. Ruby shrieks with agony again as Umbra forces terrible memories into her mind.

Seeing Tyrian and hearing him laugh as he stabbed and tortured her.

Watching Pyrrha getting disintegrated by Cinder again.

Watching Penny get ripped to shreds.

The Fall of Mistral again.

Seeing Port die right in front of her by the hands of Fennec Albain, as he collapsed. Ruby cries out, tears streaming from her eye. “Ruby...” Ozpin softly speaks, trying to get through to her so then he can save her from Umbra’s claws.

But then Ruby is thrown back into more and more terrible memories that she has suffered from over the years. Seeing Mercury getting stabbed straight through the back by Death when he and Emerald tried to save her and Oscar. The demented chuckle of Vir Nominis Umbra appears in the back of her mind. “How do you think this will end Ruby? Do you think it will end with everyone sitting round the table on Sunday Dinner in the Happily Ever After? No, it doesn’t work that way Ruby – this is no fairy tale.” Vir Nominis Umbra tells her, as she witnesses the horrific murder of Oobleck again and again.

Every strike.

Like a punch to the side of her head, the taste of blood ever present in her mouth.

“Look at yourself...did you think this was going to be like the tales foretold?” He asks her, and she can hear chilling whispers in the back of her mind all speaking indistinctly.

But she can identify one.

_I am the companion that shall never leave_

Ruby digs her fingers into the cobblestone desperately to try and crawl away from this pain, but it feels like something has its hand over her mouth, dragging her into the shadows. Blake watches with horror, her hands covering her mouth as she watches her beloved friend in so much pain. Hazel stands there, and he stares at the crows still there.

They are all watching Ruby.

“Ruby...ever since I first met you I knew there was something special – and it is what Vir Nominis Umbra is afraid of.” Ozpin reminds as Ruby rolls onto her back as she presses her hands to her breast with agony, feeling like her lungs are being crushed at this very moment. As she struggles, her large silver eye covered with tears focuses on them as they look at her, all desperately wanting to help.

Blake.

Oscar.

Nora.

Ren.

Qrow.

All of them.

Then...memories begin to flood back into her mind.

The food fight they had years ago.

The Noodles that Pyrrha bought for them.

When she first met Jaune.

When Team R.W.B.Y was formed and when they were reunited.

And finally...

Her first kiss with Oscar.

Her eye widens when she feels the love in her heart and she stammers. “You will lose...” Ruby softly says, and she can feel his hold weakening. “Because you are alone – and you will always be alone. Because you don’t understand what makes us human...”

Ruby’s voice breaks from her next words. “And for that...I pity you.” She sniffles.

Suddenly she feels that painful feeling weakening and there is a pulse around her, that everyone else can see. Shattered Fragments of Memory float around her, ones where they can see both good and bad. Ozpin stares through them, to see him standing there.

His skull intact now, but he clearly has some form of weakness. Vir Nominis Umbra slowly approaches the young woman with his hands held together and a smirk ever present on his face. “I have only seen this power once before. The last user of it died trying to stop me as well, and just like her – you will lose Ruby Rose. You will lose everything you have ever loved.” Vir Nominis Umbra assures with a smirk.

Then the dome of shattered memory falls apart and fades away.

He looks at them all and he smirks, waving goodbye as he erupts into a flock of Crystal Beaked Crows, that take off with the others and they fly away.

“He’s gone...” Ozpin sighs with relief, and Oscar instantly sprints to his girlfriend’s side, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her cheek lovingly. He holds her close as he sits with her, but Blake is the one to ask the question they all fear.

“What the hell was that thing?” She asks.

And Ozpin answers.

“That...was Vir Nominis Umbra’s true form.” Ozpin answers.

 

**Jaune**

Furious from what Hyde had just done to Pyrrha, the Arc Huntsman yells with rage as he smashes the shield into the side of his head with force. Hyde grunts, staggering back from Jaune as he rushes him again, thrusting his knee upwards into his abdomen. Hyde immediately comes round to slash Lash Equinox at him with a monstrous roar. Pyrrha whimpers with pain, her hand pressed to her belly to try and hold the bleeding back as best she can. But the pain is so much, she tries so hard to keep the night from claiming her, but it is so tempting to just close her eyes and sleep.

But her love for Jaune is too strong.

Jaune smashes Crocea Mors’ blade into the blade of Lash Equinox and he immediately slices across his aura, launching Hyde backwards and he crashes against the tree with force. Jaune slams the shield he carries into his chest to hit him against the wooden base of the tree. He strikes over and over again at Kassius, the glyphs glowing faintly with every single hit. The impact of the blade against his orange aura creates a bright flash every single time.

Hyde snarls and grunts from every single hit delivered to him, Jaune is fighting faster and harder than he has ever fought before. He keeps on fighting and fight, swinging the shield up his jaw with full force.

He takes his shield and he ploughs it towards Kassius’ face.

But Hyde catches the shield with his cybernetic hand which creates a resonating bang from the impact. Hyde stares straight into Jaune’s blue eyes with a scowl, as he rips the shield from his arm and throws it across the ground. Hyde follows up with a punch into Jaune’s ribs that launches the young man across the ground with a yelp. Kassius walks towards him as Jaune reaches out for his sword but Hyde kicks him across the face. He starts punching him in the head over and over again with his fists, weakening his aura with every single delivery from the fists.

Jaune groans with pain as his punches continuously wear his aura down, until one impact from the cybernetic fist shatters the white aura that covers his body. Jaune yells out both with rage and pain as he presses his foot to Kassius’ chest to push him off. He reaches to Crocea Mors and quickly picks it back up; hardly able to stand from the concussion he has suffered. Hyde rises back up with a snarling face. “Hyde...” He attempts, but Hyde does not even let him finish, as he immediately lunges towards him.

Jaune blocks with the sword as he deflects his punch, swinging at him but Hyde keeps punching. One fist lands right into his gut, winding him and he brings his elbow round into the side of his head. Jaune staggers from that punch but still tries to protect Pyrrha.

Jaune yells with rage, thrusting the blade towards Hyde.

He catches the blade of Crocea Mors with Kassius’ metal hand and he rips it from Jaune’s hand, spinning it round as he holds the blade towards his stomach.

Jaune’s eyes widen and he gasps with shock and pain, feeling his own sword plunge through his stomach with force. He staggers back as Hyde holds him by the shoulder with the sword rammed through his body and Pyrrha cries out. “No!” She screams weakly on the floor, reaching for Jaune.

Jaune stares at the burning hatred in Hyde’s eyes...

But then...

He sees the anger fade, and they turn to horror. Hyde looks down at Jaune’s stomach and he gasps, releasing both the sword and Jaune, staggering back as if he is about to be sick from what he has done. “Wh-What? What have I?” Hyde stammers with terror, whatever took over his mind has left...but it was too late. He has already wounded both of them, one his best friend and the other the person he had been spending five years trying to locate.

Blood drips from the blade as Jaune collapses to his knees, feeling his head getting light from the shock, pain and blood loss. He falls beside Pyrrha, unconscious from what has happened, and Pyrrha sobs as she holds him. “Hyde!” Kragen’s voice calls out, and she turns to see the old Silver Eyed Warrior sliding down the hill to see what has happened.

He was not fast enough.

Hyde on the other hand...he is utterly horrified, the guilt he feels for what has happened fills his body as he stumbles away from him. He reaches out to Jaune yet pulls away with anguish. “I didn’t...I didn’t mean to...” Hyde stammers, and Pyrrha knows that but she is too scared for Jaune to even say anything. Kragen walks over as he carefully puts his staff down, holding his hand out to Hyde gently to try and calm him down.

“Hyde...its okay just come with me.” Kragen requests, but Hyde picks both Lash Equinox Swords up swiftly and points them at Kragen, his hands are shaking erratically.

“Stay away from me!” Hyde begs, terrified of his own existence now, but Kragen is not as he walks past the couple.

“I trust you – just come with us and we can sort this out. We can help them, it was Umbra not you.” Kragen assures gently as he approaches.

“No! I’m a monster! I’ll just hurt people again...” He whimpers as he presses his hands to his head with tears streaming down from Kassius’ eyes.

“Just let me help you.” Kragen begs, but he shakes his head, backing away from them.

“I – I’m so sorry...” Hyde cries as he stares at Pyrrha, seeing her looking back.

“Hyde...” She weakly speaks as she reaches out to him.

“No! I can’t! I can’t!” He screams, as he turns and he flees from them all.

“Hyde!” Kragen screams, about to chase him but he stops as he loses sight of Hyde in the thickness of the trees. He stands there...

Feeling so lost.

So he turns to Pyrrha and crouches down to her. “It’s okay...we’ll get you both patched up. You’ll be perfectly fine.” Kragen assures as he pulls his radio from his belt to call someone. “Architect – Jaune and Pyrrha have been badly injured. Tell Yenna we need her to fix them up.” Kragen requests as he helps Pyrrha up to carry her. “Come help me get Jaune back too.”

“You got it, boss.” The Architect assures.

Hiding behind a tree, far from them...

Is Hyde, sobbing uncontrollably, like a lost child that does not know what it is.

Then he continues to run.

Fleeing from the only home he has ever had...

...again...


	61. Epilogue

**Kragen**

The steady beeps of the heart monitor drones away, connected to the sleeping bodies of Pyrrha and Jaune in some beds. They have been left to get some rest in the dorms after some help recovering from their wounds. Yenna sat beside them, resting after using her magical powers to heal the damage that was inflicted upon them. But they are recovering, just need to get some rest.

Kragen is stood in the dorm as well, his arms crossed with Ren, Nora and the Architect stood inside as well. The rest of Team J.N.P.R are gently looking after their friends, whereas Kragen is too busy keeping his mind focused on what the plan going forward shall be. The battle against Vir Nominis Umbra here may be over, but the war is far from it. They merely gave him a fun night by fighting him tonight, and everyone needs to recover after the punishment that he launched at them. “How are they doing?” Kragen asks Yenna, and she looks up at him gently as she brushes her long black locks of hair from her eyes.

“They’ll recover; they just need some time to rest.” Yenna asks with concern apparent in her voice. She presses the back of her hand to Jaune’s forehead to check his temperature, but he seems stable since his body is warm, but not burning. The same goes for Pyrrha. Both of them have their weapons leant against their beds still, and Nora looks at Ren with worry in her eyes.

“How long until they wake up?” Nora asks shyly, but Yenna responds with a gentle smile. She has always seemed like she is a very harsh individual from the way she spoke to Cinder, but then again Cinder did kill the last Maiden for her powers. She had every reason to feel that way towards her.

“At least until tomorrow morning.” Yenna replies.

“At most?” Ren asks, also out of curiosity.

“If they are unlucky? A couple days, their bodies are still recovering as I said.” Yenna states as she shrugs her shoulders. Nora stands up and she looks at both of them asleep with bandages wrapped around their stomachs where Hyde stabbed them both. Nora looks at Kragen, since he was there when Hyde stabbed Jaune.

“What happened?” Nora asks him, and the Architect looks at him as well, since he was ordered to remain inside with Penny to protect the afflicted.

“Hyde cracked – I don’t know over what yet, but it did not seem under his own will.” Kragen explains, remembering how Hyde acting after he stabbed Jaune.

“What does that mean?” Ren inquires.

“After he stabbed Jaune with Crocea Mors, he immediately looked horrified and snapped out of it. It is as if he was being controlled by something the whole time and only had control after stabbing both of them.” Kragen explains, he can never forget the anguish in the eyes of Hyde, an expression he has never seen on the entity’s face before. They have wiped Jaune’s blood from Crocea Mors so then it is clean, and the glyphs seem to have stopped glowing opposed to last time.

Kragen cannot help but stare at that sword, because there is a thought in the back of his mind about it.

_There is more to that sword..._

_I just know it._

_Vyrryk Arc never did tell me about that secret project of his._

He snaps out of his train of thought when he hears the Architect speaking. “It makes sense; Hyde has worked so hard to fight his own instinct as Kassius’ dark side. He trusted Jaune like a brother, doesn’t make sense for him to just kill him out of anger.” The Architect explains, but Nora also raises a point.

“Yeah but what about when he saw Adam? He attacked all of us just to get to him.” Nora states.

“I know – but that was before he started to trust people.” The Architect adds, Yenna may not know them as well as these two do, but she trusts their instincts so she agrees with him.

“Where did he go?” Nora asks.

“I don’t know, I lost sight of him in the woods. And I couldn’t risk leaving Jaune and Pyrrha there.” He sighs, since they were both bleeding out on the ground.

“You made the right choice...hopefully Kassius and Hyde can find us when he has calmed down. Wherever he may be.” Ren sighs, then Kragen looks at Crocea Mors again, noticing it was shimmering for a couple of seconds by Jaune.

He is right to be curious.

That sword...

There is more to it than meets the eye.

 

**Kassius**

Sat on a rock somewhere not that far from Beacon...

Kassius smashes his own hand against his head with distress, screaming with horror as he hits himself constantly. “You goddamn idiot! Why did you do that? After everything? I thought we were over this!” Kassius yells with rage, but Hyde does not know either, as his eyes glow orange and he speaks in the voice of Hyde through his own vocal chords.

“I didn’t mean to! I swear it!” Hyde begs desperately, terrified of what he could be deep down. The confusion in Kassius’ mind right now is unlike anything he could ever describe.

It is literally a pair of minds that cannot find the answers to his many questions that rattle around the back of his mind at all times. Constantly searching for the answers in a forest of questions, wondering if he could have avoided what happened. How long has Hyde been a Demon? How did Vir Nominis Umbra know him so well? How did Vir Nominis Umbra take him over so easily?

But he will never find the answers just by wondering, and now he knows that as well.

“I...I tried to fight it but I couldn’t, so much anger and fear took me over...I...I’m not a demon...I can’t be...” Hyde stammers, as if it is his worst nightmare.

“What the hell are you so afraid of?” Kassius questions as he presses his hand to his head, and Hyde communicates with him subconsciously now instead of through Kassius’ body and voice.

“I! I don’t know!” Hyde replies, his voice breaking as he yells the words.

“How can you not know?” Kassius questions.

“Because I don’t! I am trying, Kas – I really am – but I do not know why I snapped the way I did. I have been working this so hard, we both have.” Hyde explains, sounding so disappointed in himself. And they both have Merlot on their minds as well.

“Merlot...he must have the answers.” Kassius states as he sits there.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Hyde asks.

“Because he said he made a deal with Umbra and we were the price paid. He must know what that price was, and why you were paired with me in the first place.” Kassius explains, and he can sense the contemplations of Mr Hyde in the back of his mind. He can tell that Hyde is thinking the same thing now, because he wants to understand something similar.

“I don’t remember anything before you...Umbra must know...but...some things are there.” Hyde admits.

“What do you mean?” Kassius asks.

“I mean I can feel some old memories I have never remembered having before.” Hyde states in Kassius’ mind, meaning perhaps he knows more about Vir Nominis Umbra than any of them even realise. If he was indeed created by the Father of Demons then perhaps he could remember a weakness in him.

Perhaps a chink in his armour opposed to Ruby’s silver eyes.

Kassius cracks his neck, goes to stand up. “We need to get back to the others.”

Until...

A cold steel barrel presses against the side of Kassius’ head. Kassius freezes in place as he feels that pistol to his head, then hearing the breath and the footsteps of many others approaching as well. “Oh deary me...” The man behind him introduces, with a gruff accent, that is sharply spoken – in fact sounds like it is from the poorer regions of Vacuo. Kassius and Hyde both realise that they have been jumped by someone, perhaps bandits since they can hear others.

He raises his amber eyes and he looks at his hat on the ground next to him that one of these Bandits picks up with a grin, putting it on his head.

Big mistake.

Then the man with the gun to Kassius’ head speaks again. “You’ve screwed up asshole.” The Bandit informs with a grin on his face as he leans down beside his head. With dark skin and ebony eyes, along with sand weathered skin on his face as well, he clearly has been living out in the Desert of Vacuo for a long time.

Which begs the question.

Why are these Vacuo Bandits in Vale? He can tell just from their getup, lots of ponchos and Khaki Coloured robes, trousers and headgear. From hoods to head-cloths wrapped around their bodies. The tunic is loose fitting, allowing air to circulate, preventing sweat from evaporating too quickly and slowing dehydration in hot, dry air. The women here are wearing similar clothes but not as much, mostly covering their breasts and round their waist, whilst the rest is on show. Some of the men don’t even wear shirts, meaning they need to wear less to stay cool as best they can.

They all have lots and lots of tattoos and scars on their bodies, including the man over his shoulder right now with a brand on his right cheek that looks like a rattlesnake or maybe even a King Taijitu. Then Kassius clocks on as he notices that same is marked on all of them in different places, on the belly of one of the dark skinned women and on the arm of one of the lighter skinned men. Seems the location is optional, and perhaps the higher up the brand is, the tougher they are.

Only one group of Bandits would have such an extreme ranking system.

The Traffickers.

The ones that captured Yenna and Neo, and also murdered Qrow and Raven’s parents.

These Bandits are very dangerous a cruel, capturing people and selling them as slaves to the highest bidder. But they mostly go for young men or woman for prostitution since they buy the most. But they have been known to capture Huntsmen and Huntresses as well as forced Bodyguards for the highest bidder. “You hear me, asshole? Yeah...you screwed up.” The Bandit Highwaymen chuckles sinisterly as he pushes the barrel against his head a little harder. Kassius grits his teeth together with anger.

Kassius is calculating his chances.

He is outnumbered twelve to one, he has had worse odds in the past and he can handle Bandits no problem. “You really don’t wanna do this, buddy-boy.” He warns as he stares at the man with his stetson. “And I’m gonna want that back, you know.”

The Highwayman guffaws and makes the others chortle as well, until he smacks the pistol against the side of Kassius’ head. “I’m afraid you are the one in the shit right now kiddo. You see this?” He asks as he shows him the magazine type in his pistol.

Now Kassius realises his odds are slimmer than before.

“That’s shadow dust, your aura cannot save you from this bullet. One move and we gun you down and sell your remains to the highest bidder.” He assures.

Kassius scoffs.

“Seriously? Who the hell would buy a corpse?” Kassius questions.

“You’d be surprised by the things people want nowadays.” The Highwayman chuckles with that gun still pressed against his head.

“He’s pretty hot, can I have some fun with him when we get him back to base?” One of the female Bandits asks.

“Don’t see why not.” The Highwayman agrees with the shrug of his shoulders.

Kassius scoffs. “Sweetheart, hate to disappoint you – but I’m taken.” Kassius informs as he stares at her, and she winks at him.

“You think I care?” She asks him with a smirk on her face, and Kassius snarls with anger as he clenches his hand into a fist.

“So? Slave or Bodyguard?” The Bandit with Kassius’ Stetson asks.

The Highwayman looks at him and he chuckles.

“Dunno...guess we’ll see when we get him back home.” He states.

Kassius sighs as he rolls his eyes.

“Well...shit.”

Darkness takes over as the gun smacks right against the side of his head and knocks him unconscious.

And now Kassius and Hyde are both at the mercy of the Traffickers.

 

**Oscar**

Completely unaware that Kassius has been captured by the Traffickers, and being taken to somewhere in Vacuo where their base is. But the Knight of Vengeance is smashed against the wall by Hazel, who presses his dagger against his throat with gritted teeth as he stares into his brown eyes. Ozpin has returned back to his Human Form opposed to the form they always referred to as _Time_. Hazel snarls like a bear as he glares at him, the razor sharp blade pressed to his throat, until Qrow and Winter both have to pull the giant of a man back from him.

Whilst Oscar steps in between them with his hands stretched out. “Everyone calm down!” Oscar yells to both Ozpin and Hazel, but clearly it was Rainart that started the altercation.

Qrow and Winter struggle to hold him back as he snarls with anger, glaring at Ozpin with almost flaming eyes. “You best have some damned good answers for how you are here!” Hazel roars at the Professor, and he steps forward. He did not even look fazed by Hazel’s blade, he just looks at him.

With guilt ever present in his eyes.

“I understand your concern, for you have every reason to carry it.” Ozpin states, clearly surrounding his true identity.

“That’s putting it _extremely_ mildly.” Cinder snarls as she glares at him, unaware of her brother’s current position.

“Yeah...for starters you lied to us. You told us that you didn’t believe the Knights of Grimm even existed.” Oscar remembers, hearing Ozpin say it inside of his head when he communed. Five years ago in fact as well, that is how long he has been able to maintain the lie.

“I could not risk revealing my identity with Vir Nominis Umbra always watching.” Ozpin states.

“What? How did you know he was watching?” Winter questions.

“The Crystal Beaked Crows, I knew they were in Mistral so I had to do the same thing I did at Beacon. I created a lie for everyone to believe, that I was a Professor that everyone knew was a strong Huntsman. And that was it – revealing I was one of Umbra’s Knights of Grimm would have given him the chance to take me down sooner. If I had the element of surprise on him, I could stand a better chance.” Ozpin explains, as they all listen to him. Blake is stood in the corner with her arms crossed, with Yang and the others all asleep with the meds that the Architect picked up helping them recover. Still not enough to save them but enough to push the plague back a little longer.

Glynda walks around in the room, even she does not look very impressed with Ozpin, because she thought he was dead for so long. And she now knows more about him than she ever expected, or wanted to. She looks at the destruction, it is repairable but it is still a lot to handle. “If this is what you call a victory then I’d hate to see a failure.”

Ozpin closes his eyes sadly as he lowers his head, looking at the four new bodies covered with sheets. “It’s not a victory...I was too late.” He mournfully says, bring Blake to ask.

“Then why did you not arrive sooner?” Blake questions.

“I tried...but my body needed time to fully recover.” Ozpin states. “I put my body into stasis to avoid Umbra’s detection after he destroyed Beacon.”

“Sorry, but I don’t remember seeing him there.” Cinder reminds, she might not be proud of it but she also knows who was involved in that battle.

“Oh he was – in disguise. He told you how he uses people, manipulating the choices they make...I have been working hard to try and escape his control but it is harder than you realise.” He explains to them all.

“Well...I wish you could have done it faster.” Qrow states coldly, as he looks at his sister who is crying by the covered body of Taiyang.

“As am I...I know you have suffered a great deal already. I’m sorry.” He sadly says, his voice sounding truly sincere. “And we will mourn them – a memorial must be made for them. It is the least they deserve after what Umbra has done.” Ozpin explains, and Oscar looks up.

“Ruby is still recovering from what Umbra did – we should wait for her. And for Yang and the others to wake up.” Oscar explains, and Qrow looks over to him.

“Then we wait for her to wake up along with her friends. At the end of the day they are still my students...and I know you have absolutely no reason to trust me...I can promise you that their welfare will always be my priority.” Ozpin explains.

“But...you’re a Knight of Grimm?” Glynda questions with fear.

He sighs.

“Yes...” He agrees, he can understand their concerns but he also hopes he can save the explanation for another time. “I’m afraid I would like to save this explanation when everyone is up...and ready to hear the truth.” He explains.

“Why?” Hazel suspiciously grills, and Ozpin looks at him.

“Because I want everyone to understand...the things that I have done.” He states.

“Understand” Glynda asks with confusion.

“Yes.” Ozpin agrees.

“What do you mean by that?” Blake asks him.

Penny enters the room with her hands behind her back as she listens to the conversation. “I have done things...mistakes I aim to make right.” He says, looking at Hazel when he says that, but Hazel still glares at him with fiery eyes. Cinder turns her eye to Hazel, feeling the hatred towards him but she cannot help but be proud of him because of how he does not act on his emotions.

“What do we do now?” Oscar asks with a fearful voice.

“Well...we need to find a cure for Horridus Morbus.” Ozpin states, and that does honestly surprise them.

“Really? Of all the people I’d assume you’d want to track down Merlot and try and find a way to kill Umbra.” Winter says with a surprised voice.

“Believe me, my goal will always be to stop him. But Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee, Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasillias are my students, and I want them back on their feet again.” Ozpin explains.

“Any ideas of where to start?” Hazel asks.

Then...

Qrow has an idea hit him, and he sees Raven lifting her head. She may be broken from the death of her fiancé.

But she thinks of the same thing.

And so would Taiyang.

“I think I have an idea.” Qrow states as he thinks back to their search.

“Are you sure we can trust them?” Raven asks.

“I don’t think they have a choice.” Qrow replies.

“Wait, who are you talking about?” Blake asks as she steps forward.

Qrow looks at them and he sighs.

“The Witches of the Restless Marshlands.” He answers.

 

**Oscar**

Near the end of the discussion...

Qrow turns to Oscar, with a certain matter in the back of his mind.

“How is she doing? Last I saw she didn’t look good.” Qrow asks, being the protective father that he is in his heart.

“I’ll check on her.” Oscar replies as he walks away from them as they continue to discuss, and Hazel walks away. All he wants is to get revenge but he also knows that they need Ozpin and he needs to fight that hunger that eats away at his heart. Ozpin needs to answer for what he did to his daughter.

Oscar walks up the steps to the room where they have left Ruby to recover.

“Ruby? You up?” He asks.

Then his eyes widen and he gasps.

“Ruby?” He calls out.

She is not in the bed, and Crescent Rose is missing too.

And there is a piece of paper with writing on it.

He stares at it and reads what has been written.

 

_I’m sorry..._

_I’m so, so sorry..._

_This is all my fault, and I never should have gotten anybody into any of this. I let my anger control me and I killed Dew, I was not fast enough to save Gray, Serena and Vos and they all died. And now I Oobleck, Roy and Nolan...even my dad..they’re all dead because I failed._

_I know you are all my strength._

_But he made a threat to me before he left..._

_He threatened to kill all of you..._

_He made good on his last threat and I will not challenge that again. I will not allow anyone else to die for me, not after this._

_Oscar if you are reading this then please do not come after me._

_I am going after that fucking Soothsayer myself._

_And I will kill him._

_But nobody else will die because of me._

_I’m no Huntress anymore._

_I am whatever I need to be to kill Vir Nominis Umbra._

_I’m sorry._

_And I love you all._

  * _Ruby Rose_



 

Oscar drops the note on the bed that he left her in and he looks horrified.

She can’t be out there on her own.

Not with her mental scarring she has suffered.

 

**Ayla**

Somewhere out there in Remnant...

The lone Summer Maiden walks through the abandoned wild lands of Remnant, with her hood pulled over her head. But as she walks she sees a crying child on the dirt path, turning to see her approaching. “Help me! My home was attacked by monsters and my parents are inside!” She cries and she crouches down and pulls her hood back, affectionately speaking in a soft tone to her.

“Whoa, whoa...it’s okay...I’m listening.” She assures as she calms the little girl down, she sighs and she shakes her head. She wipes tears from her eyes as she looks at her, admiring her short blonde hair and beautiful eyes.

“Grimm...they attacked our home and destroyed the house. My parents are hurt, stuck inside. Please help me get them out!” She begs with terror in her eyes. Ayla smiles gently as she stands up and she forms a butterfly in her hand and lets it fly to her.

“Okay, show me the way.” Ayla requests with a gentle smile as the little girl runs ahead. She can hear her sniffling as the adorable little butterfly follows her as she runs. Ayla continues to follow the little girl, jogging behind her.

Then she sees the house ahead, collapsed and with flames burning through the wood where the roof had collapsed. Ayla’s eyes widen as she stares at the remains of the building. The damage could have only been caused by a Goliath, she can even hear the distant trumpet roars of the beasts in the distance. It is not so strange to presume that the Goliaths just smashed through the house to wherever it is that they are headed right now.

“My momma and dada! They are in there!” The little girl cries out.

“Hold on!” Ayla screams as she sprints to the house, hearing their screams from within. They are in agony.

“Help us!” The parents wail from within the burning house. She stops at the face of the structure, seeing the flames that burn from within, so with her Summer Maiden gifts she blasts an ice cold beam of snow into the flames in order to extinguish them. The flames hiss as they fade away from the cold that cools the heat in the destroyed house. But the parents are still buried underneath the house.

“Just! Hold on!” Ayla begs as she uses her wind to lift the rubble up with her powers.

Huge chunks of wood of render rise off the ground before Ayla and the little girl, and she smiles with happiness as Ayla crouches down.

Then her expression changes.

The parents...

Are dead.

Charred almost to ash, they were dead long before she even got there. “Wait...what?” Ayla stammers.

“I can’t believe you fell for that.” The little girl giggles, Ayla gasps and she spins around.

Her eyes burst from their sockets as a jet black javelin made of shadows flies towards her and stabs straight through her stomach. It takes her off the ground and pins her to the destroyed pillar behind her. Blood leaks from her stomach and down the wooden beam she has been pinned too. She was not able to activate her aura in time, and she can feel her powers being affected by the javelin.

As if it is blocking it.

Staring at the spike impaled through her, she slowly looks up to see him.

Vir Nominis Umbra.

Rising from the smoke that plumes from the form of the Little Girl that he was disguised as the whole time. The agony she feels seems to spread from her stomach and all the way through her entire body. As if it is a poison that eats away at her. And stood around her are the four Knights of Grimm, standing there as Umbra approaches her.

He grins as he approaches. “I know I’m an asshole but this time it is really nothing personal sweetheart.” Vir Nominis Umbra says as he shrugs his shoulders, walking towards her. He dips downwards as he walks closer with a smirk. “But you’re merely not worth this power – but it my hands? I can use it better than you ever could.” Vir Nominis Umbra states as he stares into her eyes with a smirk.

Suddenly he grabs her by the jugular and lifts her off the ground, and she feels an utterly agonizing feeling in her body as her soul begins to deteriorate in his grasp. She lets out a deafening shrill as she cries out, begging for mercy.

As she screams in agony, her skin begins to burn away, then her muscle, slowly as well. Making her suffering even worse. The Knights of Grimm – every single one of them – look away out of horror as he eviscerates her soul like that. She continues to struggle and struggle as she burns up in his hand, as he consumes her soul inch by inch. He smirks with pure evil intent in his eyes. “I will not fall again...so I will _take_ what is _mine_.” Umbra snarls as he consumes the rest.

Her screams finally fade away as the flesh and organs burn away, leaving nothing behind but her Skeleton that he drops to the floor. The bones crunch on the ground as it falls, the skull breaking off and rolling away from the rest of her body.

But then...

Vir Nominis Umbra stands there as her soul channels into his own form.

Slowly strengthening his power, as he clenches his fists and the weather begins to change into a lightning storm around him.

Then.

He opens his eyes.

And they are surrounded with blood red flames.

And he smirks.

He now has the Summer Maiden’s power...

And he is coming for the rest.

 

**To Be Concluded**

**In Act 4: The Whispers of Arkhonex**

 


End file.
